Steve's Blog

Once again, it's been a while

spwalker75 — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 16:35:02 GMT

I've been staying busy with end of year stuff at work and getting back into boot camp, the Healthy Charleston Challenge and training for the half marathon. Boot camp is going well and I'm trying not to injure myself. I'm trying to get a good work out but I am not pushing it to hard on the running exercises. During runs I try to find folks on the HCC team and encourage and push them. So the HCC. Last year I was on Team Boot Camp and we won the overall competition and I lost 30lbs. This year I long with some of the other TBC members are mentors to this year's TBC. OF course we have a mentor challenge where the winner gets some prizes (prizes TBD). I've lost 8lbs so far. My training for the half is progressing. I do a long run over the weekend, a 3 mile recovery run Monday, 5 miles at a good pace on Wednesday, and 3-4 miles or interval training on Thursday before the HCC meeting. This is on top of boot camp. I ran 10 miles last week, the last 4 with my sister Katie who is also training for the half. Today my long run was the Isle of Palms Connector 10K. My goal was to break 1 hour and run at a 9:30 pace which I did for the first 3 miles (9:09, 9:29, 9:34). The last 3 miles were a little tougher (10:11, 10:28, 10:45) and then tack on a couple of minutes for the last .2 miles. Final, unofficial time, 1:01 and change. Not bad, but I could have broken the hour mark but I made a tactical error. At the 5 mile mark I picked up my pace coming up to the bridge (hill) over the intercoastal waterway. My thought was "I'll power up the hill and break the hour". Half way up the hill my thoughts changed to "just don't walk, keep moving". Oh well, lesson learned. So here's what I've been up to:

http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/player/6907075

http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/player/6907176

http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/player/6856847

It's been a long time...

spwalker75 — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 00:55:59 GMT

It's been a while since I blogged. Here's what I've been up to.

Two weeks ago I was on a business trip to RI and CT. I did my normal Wed run on Tue on the treadmill at my hotel. Here's the map of my run- . Get it? Thursday I did my long run for the week at a local state park. http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/player/6585637. This past week I did my Wed run in Charleston with my peeps. http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/player/6631790. The next day we did a easy run. http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/player/6631789. This past weekend I went up to VA. Did my long run Sat morning with my long haired hippie bud Medley. http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/player/6664965. If you'd like more detailed info let me know and I'll send that along to you.

8/16 - week in review

spwalker75 — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 13:58:43 GMT

This was the last week of the last summer session of boot camp. Only two of the Marines weren't on leave so we had to do mostly group things. Monday and Tuesday were good workouts even though we had a PT form challenge on Tuesday. We all lined up in formation and the SSgt Seiben would lead and exercise. If you did it incorrectly you had to go to the back of the gym with Sgt H and watch the competition while doing exercises. I was out early. My arms were tired and I couldn't hold my form so I took my self out of the competition. It's all about integrity. I missed Thursday because my wife was at an overnight conference so I had to get the kids up and ready for school.

Running - I ran 2 miles Monday, 1 during boot camp and 1 right after boot camp, I ran 5 miles on Wednesday, no running on Thursday (see above) but the girls and I did get in a mile and a half walk/jog, nothing on Friday. Today I ran 6.3 miles with Greg, Tammy and Cathy. We started out near the Old Village of Mt Pleasant and ran all over Mt P. We kept it at about a 13 minute pace. When we were done with the 6 miles Greg, Cathy and Tammy went for another 5 miles (they are training for a half at the end of December).

Summary Data
Total Time (h:m:s)	1:23:07	13:07 pace
Moving Time (h:m:s)	1:22:55	13:06 pace
Distance (mi )	6.33
Moving Speed (mph)	4.6 avg.	6.9 max.
Elevation Gain (ft)	+1,348 / -1,355

Avg. Heart Rate	148 bpm	Zone 4.0

Temperature (°F)	73.1°F avg.	73.4°F high
Wind Speed ( mph)	NNE 3.8 avg.	NNE 8.1 max.

http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/player/6522251

Sat 8/9

spwalker75 — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 02:27:27 GMT

My wife and I have been talking about how we can get our kids into fitness. So this evening Mary took our youngest on a bike ride with the dog and I took our oldest daughter for a jog. We made it a game where they went one way and we went the other way around the block. The goal was to get my oldest to start thinking about running as a fun way to exercise. Thursday night as I waited to start the 5K she was talking about wanting to run in a race. I told her she would have to train before she could run a race. So today I talked with her as we ran about an incentive program. She runs 1 mile three times a week and she gets to go to the dollar store to pick something out. We do that for a August. In September we do 1 mile 3 times a week and add one day where we run 2 miles. October we do 2 miles 3 times a week. November we do the 2 miles three times a week and then add one day with a 3 mile run. The goal being to get her ready for a 5K. Obviously I will do some research on kids and running and we will modify as needed but I'm hoping the incentive program gives her some motivation to get out and exercise. Anyway, we started tonight. We jogged a mile at a 16:00 pace. Once I hooked my oldest back up with my wife I went for my long run.

I ran through my neighborhood and out on to one of the trails in our town. I ran down the trail for about 2.1 miles and then turned around and headed home. Greg wanted me to stay at about 12:51 for the long runs and he told me it would feel like I was going really slow. Well he was right. I didn't pay much attention to my forerunner, just ran at a pace that I thought was slower than my 5K pace. I never felt like I needed to stop or catch my breath. Weather was nice so I just kept going. Turns out I ran 4.56 miles at an 11:33 pace. Sounds strange, but I'm going to have to work on going slower. The plan is to run lots of slow miles so I get used to distance without getting hurt. We'll work on speed later. The goal is to finish a half marathon, not finish in a specific time. So after the 5.5 total miles I was feeling sore. My right knee was a little stiff and my back was sore. I popped a couple of Alleve and drank a few bottles of water. Tomorrow is an off day and then back to boot camp and a leisurely 2 miles on Monday.

Thursday 5K and Friday

spwalker75 — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 01:54:37 GMT

I signed up for a series of 5K races on Daniel Island. The first one I missed due to car trouble. The second I missed because I was out on travel. So I actually made the third race. Barely. The past few days there have been heat advisories. Heat indices 105 - 115. Yesterday started off hot. I was pretty sure I wasn't going to run the race which started at 6:30 PM. Too hot. I did boot camp that morning and was still thinking about running. I made a point to hydrate during the day just in case. In emails back and forth with Greg he convinced me that as long as I was hydrated I'd be fine. I signed up for these races intentionally to force myself to run in the heat. Challenge myself, that sort of thing. So I picked up the girls and went to Daniel Island to pick up my race packet. My wife came to watch the girls and me while I ran. Greg also came from work to support me. As people were starting to show up a thunderstorm blew in. Lots of thunderbolts and lightening. Very, very frightening. I was thinking that it would be stupid to run in those conditions. But as start time near the storm passed leaving cloudy skies, a little drizzle, and thankfully cooler temperatures. In short, ideal race conditions.

http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/player/6456968

I started out a little fast but backed off and found my pace. The group of runners all looked fast and Greg warned me that these were hardcore runners and that I might finish last. I was determined to beat somebody. A few people passed me that looked like they might be going a little fast. I maintained my pace and felt pretty good. The last few races the first mile was painful. Aches and pains. Not this race. I felt good the entire run. I had a nice moral victory. I beat the fast guys to the mile mark. By that I mean I crossed the mile mark before they crossed it on their way back to the finish line. I kept an eye on my pace and tried to keep it steady. I did pass a few folks and finished ahead of about 10. As I got close to the finish I realized I might break 30 minutes. I tried to pick it up but I was pretty much maxed out (see heart rate on chart below). I ended up finishing 1 minute and 15 seconds better than my previous best, a new PR of 30:37. All in all, a good race. The girls were there cheering me on and Greg came prepared and handed me a gatorade and some ice towels to cool down. Very nice. I was very happy with my time. I'm getting closer to my goal of breaking 30 minutes even though it is not my focus right now. I'm focused on preparing for the half marathon in February.

Friday morning I met with Greg and about 8 others on the roof of the wellness center. Greg led us in pacing drills. We gave him our desired times (either 1 mile or 5K depending on what we were preparing for) and he told us our half lab and full lap split times. We started with a mile warm up and then started drills. Half lap, walk half, half lap, walk half, 1 lap, walk a lap, 1 lap, walk a lap, 2 laps, walk a lap, 1 lap, walk a lap, 1 lap, walk a lap, half lap, walk half, half lap, walk half and then 3 or 4 laps jogging to cool down. All in all we went about 3 and two thirds miles. I could definitely tell I ran a hard 3 miles yesterday. I'm getting better on judging my pace. Something that comes in very handy on race day. I felt like I did a better job than I had ever done before on keeping my pace in the race. Here's my chart showing pace and heart rate.

tuesday

spwalker75 — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 20:55:55 GMT

Tuesday - boot camp - the LAG workout (named for Lt Anthony Giardino). We warmed up but today, of all days, three people came in late. So before we were even done with warm-ups we had already done 30 Marine Corps push-ups. For those of you who don't know, for Marines two push-ups equal 1. So after warm ups we started the LAG workout. This consists of a group of exercises, 5-7 (I can't really remember) done in rapid succession and then repeated, and repeated, and repeated, and repeated. Every now and then the Marines would throw in a new exercise to take advantage of a muscle group they knew would be sore and weak. That's just the nice guys that they are. And after 40 or so minutes of this we finish it all off with several ab exercises. I, of course, was swimming in a pool of my own sweat by the end. At one point I could do the mountain climber exercises because I had no dry floor under me. Every time I put weight on my hands they slipped. Whereever I put my feet they slipped. I tried and Sgt McKee even gave me a pass asking me "Who sweats that much?" The LAG workout is always a great workout. It is designed to build muscle and the soreness I feel today indicated something is going on. Today I didn't make it to the 6:00AM run. Rested.

Mon 8/4

spwalker75 — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 23:32:11 GMT

Boot Camp: Warm up and usual PT. Sgt McKee then gave us our assignment. Hit the track. 1 lap jogging, 1 lap sprint, 1 lap jog, 2 laps sprint, 1 lap jog, 3 laps sprint and then go grab a body bar and get back to the gym for a workout we wouldn't like. Run was good. I was a little winded on the second lap of the final 3 lap sprint but by the third I was feeling it and when Sgt McKee told me to catch a tall skinny guy who was "about to quit" I took off, caught him and passed him. Body bar workout was different than normal. This time we all got a body bar and brought them back to the gym. Then Sgt McKee would call out an exercise like overhead press and we would go as hard, as fast, and as long as we could. The idea was to get the to point of wanting to quit and then overcoming your brain and finishing with heart. This went on for about 15 minutes with various exercies. By the end my arms were shaking. A good day.

Fri Run w/Grady

spwalker75 — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 23:23:32 GMT

I haven't heard from any body in a while (except my mom, thanks mom!) so let me know if you can see the chart or if you are having trouble with the player that shows my run. Any and all comments are appreciated. And let me know how your exercise and diet activities are going! Back to the regularly scheduled blog entry...

Summary Data
Total Time (h:m:s)	1:09:39	14:27 pace
Moving Time (h:m:s)	1:09:25	14:25 pace
Distance (mi )	4.81
Moving Speed (mph)	4.2 avg.	7.9 max.
Elevation Gain (ft)	+1,739 / -1,547

Avg. Heart Rate	145 bpm	Zone 3.8

Grady and I met at 5:30 a stretched and started running at 5:45. We were purposely taking it slow. At this point in my training for the half I am more concerned about putting miles on my legs and not so much with speed. My goal for the half marathon in February is to finish. After that I will concern myself with a pace fast enough to "beat the bridge" at the Marine Corps marathon that I hope to do next October. To make it to the bridge before they re-open it to traffic and don't allow any more runners you have to average a 14 minute mile. Seems doable but that bridge is at mile 17 or something crazy like that. But I digress. Today we started off well. Grady started getting a stitch so we walked through the park along the battery. We picked it back up and headed up Meeting. We cut over to Church and made it past market and we walked again for a block. Picked it back up down George all the way past the Cistern at CoC. From there we walked. Here's a link the player that shows the run: http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/player/6406819 And here's the chart of my pace and heart rate:

This week's boot camp

spwalker75 — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 01:05:47 GMT

I haven't been posting about boot camp for some reason. So for those of you who are curious what goes on in boot camp here are some details:

Today: On the roof - warm-ups- butt kicks, heel-toe rocks, shoulder stretch, triceps stretch, left-over-right (bend down and touch toes), modified hurdler stretch (right and left), butterfly, quads, ITB, 90 degree squat and then the running begins. First we jog in place, then we do high knees, then more jogging in place. This is to get our blood flowing. I'm usually sweating by this point. Like LT G. told us, I try to keep my abs tight throughout the warm up part of the morning. Then we start PT. Push-ups, steam engines, toe touchers, cherry pickers, mountain climbers, etc. all with jogging in place in-between. I may have missed a few but you get the idea.

Then the Marines broke us into groups based on our mile times (7:30 and faster, 7:30 - 8:30, 8:30 - 9:30 and 9:30 and above). I'm in the 8:30 - 9:30 group. Our group got to go do to the indoor track. We started doing a group run. Problem was our group was the largest and since it takes a while to get that many people down the stairs when I stepped out on the track my group was rounding the corn a quarter of a lap ahead of me. Myself and the rest of the group had to catch them and Sgt H made sure they didn't slow down and wait for us. I took me almost a lap to catch them. Once we all got back together we ran as a group for 2 or 3 laps then the indian runs began. For those of you who have never heard of an indian run, let me explain. Our group was about 30 people. We are all running together in a long single file line which covers about a quarter lap of the track. When we start the indian run the person in the back of the line sprints all out to the front of the line as the rest of the group continues to run. The real challenge is to get folks to realize that the purpose of the indian run is two-fold. First the group must run as a group, it is not about individual effort it is about supporting the group, cheering on folks as they spring and making sure the line is as compact as possible so the sprint is as short as possible (especially when you have 30+ people in your group). There are always a few folks that join a group below what they should be running in. They like to get to the front of the line a pick up the pace causing the line to extend and making it harder for slower folks in the group to sprint. These people don't make friends. Anyway, this is the activity that just about killed me in my first boot camp. That first boot camp I dreaded indian runs. I pulled out of the run a few times to catch my breath and it was also the only activity that almost made me barf (or "Grady"). Now that I am in better shape I actually like the indian runs.

After we ran for a mile or two we headed back up to the roof. We jumped in for sprint across the four tennis courts, up and back. Then we ran in a circle for a few minutes and then the entire class got in a large circle and did more PT, focusing mainly on abs. Did this for about 15 minutes. A good work out. My body if finally starting to recover from the long break I had when I was traveling for work and on vacation. I've been in town about 7 days (work days that is) over the last 7 weeks. During that time I did run on my own but it is very hard to get a workout in at the same intensity as boot camp. I'm glad to be back into the routine.

Wed AM run

spwalker75 — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 23:35:16 GMT

http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/player/6393259

So this is a player that shows an animated version of my run this morning. We started at the Wellness Center. There was a group of about 7 of us. Grady didn't show for some reason. I'll ask him at boot camp tomorrow. We all stuck together as we ran our first mile as a warm up. Once we picked up the pace we started to split up. Allan and I ran together and neither of us was up for a 10 minute mile. Allan had forgotten his inhaler and was wheezing a bit. I was still sore from the fartlek we did at boot camp yesterday morning. As we neared the Battery the others went ahead and Allan, Cathy, Emily and I started running together. Emily was a little stiff, saying she hadn't run in a while. Cathy was nursing a pain in her hip. We decided to do the shorter course so we headed down Tradd, up by Colonial Lake and back to the Wellness Center. Diet was pretty good today. Breakfast - nutri-grain bar. Lunch - 2 cups of spinach w/mushrooms and carrots with 2 tbsp balsamic dressing, .5 cup of cottage cheese and .5 cup of applesauce. Dinner - 2 slices of homemade chili pizza and a tossed salad. Between 8:00 AM - 12:30 PM I had 150oz of water. At that point I decided to look up water poisoning online.

Summary Data
Total Time (h:m:s)	0:59:41	13:48 pace
Moving Time (h:m:s)	0:58:42	13:35 pace
Distance (mi )	4.32
Moving Speed (mph)	4.4 avg.	12.6 max.
Elevation Gain (ft)	+1,285 / -1,184

Avg. Heart Rate	151 bpm	Zone 4.2

DC

spwalker75 — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 12:21:27 GMT

Once again on travel, this time in Washington DC. Got up there Wednesday afternoon and set up the lab. Went to my hotel and crashed. My wife called and woke me up at 7:30 PM, thank goodness. As I struggled to regain my senses I knew I needed to go workout because I knew I wouldn't Thursday night because I was eating dinner at another NOAA employee's house along with my Korean students and I knew I couldn't Friday evening since I was flying home. So I managed to get my running gear on and headed out. I took a few minutes for my forerunner to connect to the satellites, once it did I headed down to the national mall area. Now this was the first time I've done a truely urban run. Unlike Charleston where you don't really have to wait to long for a break in traffic to cross the street, the same action in DC would get you killed. So, needless to say, there were lots of stops at intersections. You'll be able to see that in the graph. I ran past the White House, almost going into an area I was supposed to go until the nice men with guns corrected me, around the Ellipse, up the hill to the Washington Monument, down to the WWII Memorial, down the lenght of the Reflecting Pond, paid my respects to Honest Abe (was going to run up the stairs for a Rocky moment put it was too crowded), ran over to the Vietnam Memorial (walked through this out of respect), back up to the Ellipse, around the side of the White House, in front of the White House where the nuts have their permanent protests set up and then back up into the area of my hotel. All in all a really pretty run. Seeing the monuments at night, under the moonlight makes for a really nice run.

Now once I started back up 14th or 15th Ave things got a little dicey. If you've never been to DC they have lots of traffic circles. Well it was at Thompson Circle were I got a little turned around. I spent about 30-45 minutes and about 1 mile searching for my hotel. I used this time as a cool down walk and proceeded to walk around in circles. Lots of fun. Felt like a real a**. Here's a link to a web site called Motion Based that I upload my running info to. I'm not sure you all will be able to view but give it a try. This is their new "Player". It allows you to actually see the run as it progresses. You'll see the little red pointer indicate where I was and the info bar above the map will give you the corresponding info like pace and elevation. Let me know if you can or cannot see it. http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/player/6287982

And here is a link to a map of my run, http://maps.google.com/maps?q=http:%2F%2Ftrail.motionbased.com%2Ftrail%2Fkml%2Fepisode.kml%3FepisodePkValues%3D6287982&ie=UTF8&z=14

I've also attached a KML file for those of you who would like to view my run in Google Earth.

And here's a graph of my run. Red = Heart Rate; Green = Elevation; Blue = pace all set to the distance, about 7 miles. The GPS signal wasn't great in downtown DC so the pace is kind of all over the place, heart rate is a better indicator of my effort. But I think you can clearly see that I had to stop a lot at intersections (blue line - but I did not stop THAT much. I think that had more to do with poor signal strength in the urban canyons) and you can see at the end of the run that I was walking, cooling down (i.e., looking for my hotel).

Another week, another blog entry

spwalker75 — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 17:34:34 GMT

Once again, travel has gotten the better of my blogging. After my 5K on July 4th I recovered over the weekend. Monday morning I headed to Wilmington, NC to teach a class at Cape Fear Community College. The plan was to hit the lab Monday afternoon just to make sure everything was ready for class Tuesday. When I got there I realized there were a few things that needed updating and I spent the next 6 hours working. No running that evening. Co-taught the next two days. Tuesday night we ate at the managers reception at the hotel catered by Carabas. It was free and good. Had a few ravioli, a spoonful of chicken marsala, some ziti with marinara. Not too much, they only give you tea cup saucer size plates. Good portion control. And of course the red wine was free. Wednesday after class I jumped in the car and drove the 3.5 hours home. No exercise that day. Ate Chik-fil-a for dinner. Thursday slept in to rest up for the 5K on Daniel Island that evening at 6:30. Hydrated really well all day. When I left work around 5:30 thunderstorms were starting to roll in so I wasn't sure the race would actually take place. As I sat in traffic on N. Rhett waiting to get on 526 to head over to the race I noticed my car was overheating. I decided to bag the race and take the car to the shop. I left it there and got the bad news the next day, cracked radiator and a dead condenser fan. $500. I would have rather run 3 miles in the blistering heat.

Friday morning the family and I headed up to VA to visit family. Had a nice time and it was nice and cool. In the exercise realm, I woke my buddy Steve Medley up Saturday morning (his hair, which is unnecessarily long, was sticking up and out all over the place) (note to self: have Scott bring clippers on next golf trip) for a nice long run. He made it abundantly clear that he had not done any real running since the bridge run. He seemed concerned with my proposed distance. Steve is a mousy fellow who is probably in the best shape he has been in decades (he's a year older than me but was never really an athlete in high school, golf was his thing) so I wasn't really concerned. I knew he could easily keep up with me. We started out around 8:00 and just meandered around Pearisburg. For those of you not familiar with that part of VA, it is hilly. Very hilly compared to Charleston. I purposely tried to find hills to challenge myself and used my Forerunner to try to keep our pace around 12:30. It was a good run. I felt good and Steve and I carried on a conversation the whole time (except when climbing hills). We had to stop short of the 6 mile mark because Steve had to get to his weekend job. I will post some info from my Foreunner on the blog when I get home.

I leave on travel again this week so I'm hoping to run Wednesday morning with the group downtown prior to hopping on a plane.

Boot Camp starts again next week. I'll be on travel, again, teaching in FL but I'll be back the next week and I'm looking forward to getting back into the routine. I'm also looking forward to the TBC (Team Boot Camp - the group of us that did the Healthy Charleston Challenge) outing to the RiverDogs baseball game on the 27th. I won't have any more trips until late August, just a lot of work to do at the office and more miles to put on my legs. "Official" training for the half marathon starts in November.

July 4

spwalker75 — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 15:42:45 GMT

Ran a 5K this morning on Johns Island. It's amazing the difference in temperature between 6AM (when I usually work out/run) and 8AM (when the race started). It was hot. Dang hot. This was a cross country type of race, meaning we were on dirt/over grown roads and paths around a lake. I started out trying to take the curves as close as possible to keep from running any more distance than I had to. By half way through the race I had changed strategies and was finding the most direct path to the next shady patch along the race route. I started out at a pace of under 10 minute/miles. Held this for about a mile. Declined after that.

I'm not sure how often my Forerunner captures the pace reading because, as you can see from the chart above, it is very erratic. Regardless, you can see a couple of spikes up to the 20 min/mile range. No way to hide the fact I took a couple of walk breaks. Like I said, it was hot. The spike at the end is showing that I didn't stop my Forerunner until about 20 feet after I crossed the finish line and was walking. It also means the Forerunner time of 33:05 was a little off. I think I crossed the line at 32:47, about a minute slower than my time from the ALS Hope 5K on the beach at IOP a few weeks ago. All in all, any race you finish is a good race. I wasn't last and I beat some skinny people. One of the highlights was watching a guy think he crossed the finish line, pour a drink in his face and then do a belly slide on the ground for some strange reason. The look on his face when someone told him the finish was about 10 feet in front of him was priceless. Well, plenty more work to do to get ready for the half marathon in February but I'm putting miles on my legs. This week I've run about 12.5 miles. I will probably do a long run Sunday.

July 2 - blog and restaurant review

spwalker75 — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 12:24:21 GMT

So follow up on my diet from yesterday - Bfast - nutri grain bar Snack - 1oz peanuts Lunch - went out to La Nortena, a really good local mexican restaurant. This isn't your typical americanized mexican place it's very authentic. If you haven't been and you want to go just let me know when you're in town (for my out of town readers) or when you want to meet there (for my local readers). It is possible to get a healthy meal believe it or not. Fajita salad, grilled fish, etc. It is also easy to get a not so healthy meal. Rice, beans, fried stuff. It all depends on what kind of mood you're in. Yesterday I was in the mood to try something different so I went with one of their tortas (sandwich). The one I had had carnitas (roast pork which sounds pretty healthy but it is cooked in lard which makes it absolutely delicious) beans, lettuce, cheese, tomatillo sauce, two tortillas (to keep the bun from getting soggy) and a sandwich bun. Very messy. Not knowing how big it was going to be, I ordered a side of rice and beans (yeah, yeah, I know). Well the sandwich was very good and messy and big. I gave away my rice and beans. Had a few chips with salsa (which is made in house) and some guacamole (also made in house and very good). I ended up very full. Too full. This leads me to dinner. Family almost always hits Moe's on Tuesday nights for kids eat free night. I met the wife and girls over by the mall but only had an un-sweet tea and a couple of chips dipped in queso. Knowing I was running this morning I figured I might need to eat something. Later that night I had what I call a 4 year old dinner, pb&j sandwich and a few crunchy cheetos and a glass of milk.

So, no exercise on Tuesday. The Monday AM in-between boot camp and the 4.5 mile run in the afternoon killed me. I was sore all day Tuesday. I hadn't been that sore in a long time. Shows how quickly you can lose the fitness level you achieve in boot camp. I felt good this morning when I rolled out of bed. Went for a run with Greg, Mitchell, Val and Trica. Again, about 4.5 miles at a good pace of about 12 minute/mile. Saw Jen Dare and Jen Boulware out walking their dogs at a nice leisurely pace. Had to fight to get around them. Greg took it easy on me because I'm running a 5K Friday morning. And as a side note, I must say, running with Greg is a trip. I'll probably do the "boot camp" tomorrow morning but nothing this afternoon or tomorrow afternoon so I'm ready for the 5K. I'm not sure if Dave and Grady read this blog but I am going to call them today to get them to run the 5K with me.

I'm back

spwalker75 — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 21:28:19 GMT

Well, I'm back. In the past three weeks I have been in Biloxi, MS; Topsail, NC (on vacation); and Durham, NH. I didn't do too bad exercising. In Biloxi a ran three times including a 5 mile run. I didn't intend this to be a long run but I felt good so I just kept going. Being able to see the Gulf of Mexico while running helps. I find scenery a nice distraction. On this long run I got to see slabs where houses used to be and massive casinos all right along the coast. Interesting contrast. Diet wasn't great but it wasn't awful. Some fried food but some baked/grilled food as well. I even hit the buffet at the casino I was staying at and only went back once finishing my plate neither time. On vacation, I ran once with my brother and sister. I ran once with my sister on a tempo run, 10 minutes jogging, 2 miles at 5K pace, 10 minutes jogging. I ran once with my wife until she bled. Just kidding (kind of). I encouraged her to go a little further. I noticed that a blister she had on her achilles was bleeding but I didn't tell her until we got to our half-way turn around point. She did very well and now has I nice blood shoe she can brag about. I intended on doing a long run while at the beach but laziness got the best of me. Diet was your typical vacation diet. Some over eating and some poor choices while dining out. Nothing extreme. In NH I did nothing. Let's just call it a week of rest for my legs. My diet was OK. Again, no extremes. I ate breakfast everyday. Lunches were at the university cafeteria which was surprisingly nice. Had a couple bowls of chowda and a couple of lobsta rolls while I was there. Very nice.

Now I back in town for a week. When I got back I gave out the gifts I brought back from NH to my girls. After that I noticed they had gotten me a gift, a Garmin Forerunner 305! What a cool toy! This is a watch size GPS device that will let me keep track of the routes I run, my times, my pace and even comes with a heart rate monitor. I used it yesterday on a run with Greg. We ran through old Mt. Pleasant, about 4.5 miles. The Forerunner worked well. The more I use it the more I will use the advanced functionality like alarms. I can set it to tell me when I'm outside of a specified pace or heart rate. It should really help me training for the half marathon. I also went to the "in-between" boot camp yesterday morning. We used body bars and dumb bells to make the workout a little harder. I am really sore today. Going from 3 runs a week to two workouts in one day is a little harder than I thought it would be. More motivation to workout while I'm on travel.

Diet - yesterday - Bfast - nutri grain bar Lunch - leftover spaghetti, 100 cal pudding Dinner - Pork with hoisin sauce/rice, 3 slices of garlic bread.