Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Ride my See Saw! Week 14 Results!

Well,  this week was a bit of a disappointment again.  Wondering if I've hit a plateau...
Week Date Kipp   Weekly% Overall% Dad   Weekly% Overall%
10 5/31/2011 257 3 1.15% 6.55% 216 1 0.46% 4.85%
11 6/7/2011 256 1 0.39% 6.91% 219 -3 -1.39% 3.52%
12 6/14/2011 259 -3 -1.17% 5.82% 218 1 0.46% 3.96%
13 6/21/2011 256 3 1.16% 6.91% 220 -2 -0.92% 3.08%
14 6/28/2011 259 -3 -1.17% 5.82% 222 -2 -0.91% 2.20%

Something new today, I've been having a strange back pain off and on today.  Basically while I'm sitting, I'll get this throbbing pain in time with my pulse in my lower back.  It also happed a few times while I was walking.  For the most part, if I stand up it goes away.  I've gotten on Advil once I got home and iced it down.  So far, it seems to be doing better.  So, in other words, I also didn't run tonight.  If I end up with the same thing tomorrow, I'll get to the doc.

So I think I jinxed myself from Saturdays run.  It was such a good day to be followed by such a bad day today...  grrrr.


Thanks for Reading!  Regards,

~Kipp

Running to 2012... and BEYOND!
Walt Disney World 1/2 Marathon - January 7, 2012

Saturday, June 25, 2011

Today... was a GOOD day. Week 2 Day 3 OUTSIDE.

  I did a lot today!

  First thing out of the gate this morning, I mowed the lawn. I made sure that I paid attention to how I was turning around so I didn't do a repeat of what I did a couple of weeks ago to tweek my knee.

  I then decided that it was well past time that my "old" car got a through  cleaning.

  I started off taking everything out of my 2000 Malibu, getting the worst of the dirt and grime cleaned out.  Then went down to the local coin-op car wash and proceeded to vacuum out the car.  I mean I got the trunk, in the seats, and the carpets.  Next up was the wash itself.  It's mostly good now, I even washed the floor mats so they even look semi-presentable now.  The drivers side mat has about had it though, as it has a hole clean through the carpet on it now.

  Came back home and proceeded to pretty much detail the inside.  Even cleaned the door jams and all.  The interior hasn't looked this good since it was turned over to me from being my company vehicle (I had it cleaned on the company dime before I bought it.)

  Next up was shower time.  I needed it.

  Then we went grocery shopping.  Then it was time for dinner and some boob tube time.

  Once I had dinner sufficiently settled down, I headed out for my run.  I decided that Week 1 Day 1 schedule is pretty brutal now for someone that's been used to running a bit more.  So I stepped it up to Week 2 Day 3.  With 90 second Run/Walk intervals it seemed like a much better plan.  It turns out, it was :) 

  Now, after a quick shower to get the sweat off and a nice cold CamelBak Insulated filled with water, I'm ready to sit down and watch tonights IndyCar race in Iowa!

Thanks for Reading!  Regards,

~Kipp

Running to 2012... and BEYOND!
Walt Disney World 1/2 Marathon - January 7, 2012

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Excuse me, while I pull out my ugly stick... AND BEAT THE CRAP OUTTA THIS PRO-JUNK TREADMILL!

Great!  I was feeling good today, so I was determined that I was going to run today.

I get ready and go to head out the door... it's raining.  Just having not been feeling well the past couple of days, I decide that running in the rain isn't such a good idea right now.

I then decided to plug in the piece of junk Pro-Form 930i treadmill.  From now on, it's to go by the name Pro-Junk.  As I've stated before, I've had problems with this machine ever since the 90 day (yes, should have been a big $Q#!!#@$'n warning right there) ran out, it's had problems.  Mostly not recognizing button pushes.  Not so bad if you're just walking along for an amount of time, but trying to do the C25K program on this Hunk-o-garbage is now next to impossible.

At least I chose Week 5 Day 1 to return to treadmill running on, which has some longer run/walk segments.  For the first 18 minutes, the Pro-Junk had me fooled.  It was working normally again.  Then after my 2nd run segment... doesn't recognize button pushes.  ARGH!  I mess around with  the controls for almost a minute before it finally slows down.  Then it was all downhill.. wait.. No!  It wasn't downhill, as the damn deck is stuck at an incline since it won't recognize the buttons.  Well, my legs got a better workout I guess.

I manage to get through my workout, albeit with a highly elevated stress level.

If anyone is in the market for a treadmill, I'd recommend that you NOT look at Pro-Form Fitness. 

Oh, and for those of you that may ask, the recommended fix is a new control console, which costs over half of what I paid for the treadmill to begin with.  Up yours, Pro-Junk Fitness.  From other message boards on the Internet, I've found that people have changed out the control console to be faced with the exact same problem, as little as a week later.


Thanks for putting up with this post!  Regards,

~Kipp

Running to 2012... and BEYOND!
Walt Disney World 1/2 Marathon - January 7, 2012

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Week 13 Report! Right back...

Well, the good news is that I wiped out my gain from last week.  Dad still appears to be struggling a bit, but he says that now we're past the half way point he's going to really get serious about this :) 

Week Date Kipp   Weekly% Overall% Dad   Weekly% Overall%
10 5/31/2011 257 3 1.15% 6.55% 216 1 0.46% 4.85%
11 6/7/2011 256 1 0.39% 6.91% 219 -3 -1.39% 3.52%
12 6/14/2011 259 -3 -1.17% 5.82% 218 1 0.46% 3.96%
13 6/21/2011 256 3 1.16% 6.91% 220 -2 -0.92% 3.08%

Progress on the room for the Marathon weekend, I've gotten my pick of Pop Century!  So from January 4th till the 9th, that's where I'll call home, or my recovery room.  I've put an invitation out to a friend of mine that has also started running that we could be roomies, but he's gotta get permission from the wife to come down and play :-)  *wink*  I'm kidding of course!

On the running front...  I didn't run last night or tonight.  Yesterday at work, at about 2:30 I just started feeling terrible.  For the rest of the evening I was running a fever and was just wiped out.  I took ibuprofen and just knocked out for the entire evening.  I got up this morning and felt fine.  Again this evening I'm feeling a little warm, but nothing like I was yesterday.  Don't know what it is, but it sucks.  Hopefully I'll be back to 100% tomorrow.

Thanks for Reading!  Regards,

~Kipp

Running to 2012... and BEYOND!
Walt Disney World 1/2 Marathon - January 7, 2012

Sunday, June 19, 2011

Week 1 Day 1... OUTSIDE!

Happy Fathers Day!

First off, I'd like to congratulate one of my friends out east for completing yet another 5K, this time with his daughter!  Nice thing to do together on Fathers Day :)  

Well, the knee held up fine for the Week 1 Day 1 routine.  I was able to keep a decent pace this time out since I was concentrating on it more than I had before.

Even with "taking it easy", my overall pace was a 16.49.  I now know what kind of pace it will take in order to not be swept in the Half Marathon in January. 

I've been Googling on line to find out about peoples experience with the Disney 1/2 Marathon and have been enjoying some of the blogs that I've come across.

One of them that I've quite enjoyed has been Eat, Sleep, Run Disney.  I especially appreciate the tips she's given about what to make sure to pack and have on hand when heading down for the 1/2 Marathon.

Speaking of going down, my arrangements have been coming along nicely.  I've now gotten a great deal on a flight down & back with Delta.  My time off of work has already been approved and I should soon receive  a confirmation on my room for the Marathon.  I've selected Pop Century with a back up of All*Star Sports.  I'm hoping to hear back on Monday about which room package I've gotten.  I've heard that Pop fills up quite quickly for this weekend.  All*Star Sports won't be a bad selection... it's just going to be further away from everything that I'd have liked.

Thanks for Reading!  Regards,

~Kipp

Running to 2012... and BEYOND!
Walt Disney World 1/2 Marathon - January 7, 2012

Saturday, June 18, 2011

Still not so good knee...

Just a quick update on the knee situation.

Right now, Saturday Evening, my knee is doing much better.  I'm thinking that I'll give a go with heading out for a run tomorrow.  I'm planning on taking it easy by starting with a Week 1 Day 1 as a primer to see how I'm doing.

Hopefully the weather will cooperate with me tomorrow and I won't have to try and give a rainy day trial run a go from coming off of this knee injury.

Thanks for Reading!  Regards,

~Kipp

Running to 2012... and BEYOND!
Walt Disney World 1/2 Marathon - January 7, 2012

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Week 12 Report! I was a bad boy over the weekend...

Well, not good this week.  Dad got a week in on me while I didn't follow the plan over the weekend.  Friday night I had my usual Subway sub dinner.  Then Saturday we had Penn Station and Sunday I had Max & Ermas for lunch.  Just WAY off the diet plan for the entire weekend and I'm paying for it in this weeks results!

Week Date Kipp   Weekly% Overall% Dad   Weekly% Overall%
10 5/31/2011 257 3 1.15% 6.55% 216 1 0.46% 4.85%
11 6/7/2011 256 1 0.39% 6.91% 219 -3 -1.39% 3.52%
12 6/14/2011 259 -3 -1.17% 5.82% 218 1 0.46% 3.96%

Saturday I mowed the lawn and I think I twisted my left knee a bit.  Sunday I was a little stiff, but didn't pay it any attention.  We went to the outlet mall again and I managed to pick up some nice "throw-away" items for the marathon weekend in January.  I've got some warm pants from the Under Armor store and zip up top from the Nike store that I won't feel guilty about tossing once I get warmed up after waiting for the start of the race. 

I then tried a run Sunday evening, which was what  I posted about before.  My 2nd time running outside with me experimenting on why it was so hard switching from treadmill to running on solid ground... or asphalt... or cement.  Whatever :)

Monday I woke up to a very sore knee.  I took some ibuprofen and went on into work.  Of course I wound up on my feet most of the day.  More ibuprofen once I got home and before bed.

Today at work, it was much better, but still rather stiff at times.  So I came home, took some ibuprofen and iced it down.  It's feeling pretty good now and hopefully it'll be better tomorrow.  I think I may hold off on the next run till Thursday, but we'll see how I feel tomrrow.

Thanks for Reading!  Regards,

~Kipp

Running to 2012... and BEYOND!
Walt Disney World 1/2 Marathon - January 7, 2012

Sunday, June 12, 2011

Week 4 Day 1! NOT!

Okay, 2nd go around with running outside.  Today was MUCH cooler than Thursday evening.

Weather: 73 Degrees F and Partly Cloudy (Feels like 73).  Humidity 46%, Pressure 30.02 with the wind from the NNW at 9 MPH.

I think I'm having troubles with several things all at once.  The GPS on the iPhone is telling me that I'm going further and my pace is much different than I was going on the treadmill.

I also noticed that I was running much differently outside.  Per the GPS, my walking pace was much quicker than what I was doing on the treadmill, so by the time I'd have my 5 minute warm up done, I'd already covered much more distance than I had been on previous warm ups.  Then once I began to run, I was going more of a true run than the "penguin pace" I had been weebling along with on the treadmill.

So I began to experiment a bit while I was out on tonights workout.  I started to slow down my "run" and I was able to stretch how far I had been going, at one point getting all the way to 90 seconds constant pace.

From now on, you are going to see my posts here in my blog reference whether or not I was on Treadmill or Outside.  I'm going to push the big reset button and start Tuesday with W1D1 and see if I can work on getting used to running outside without having the treadmill pace me.

With resetting to the beginning, I'll hopefully develop a better self pacing routine and come in with better times and distance.

Thanks for Reading!  Regards,

~Kipp

Running to 2012... and BEYOND!
Walt Disney World 1/2 Marathon - January 7, 2012

Thursday, June 9, 2011

TIMEWARP!!!! Week 3 Day 1???? WTF??

Okay, as we all know from my last post, my treadmill is acting up and is just being an all around POS right now.

So... Tonight was first try at running in a place called OUTSIDE.  I've not been very familiar with this OUTSIDE place for quite some time.  No matter!  It'll be just like I've been doing on the treadmill!  NO PROBLEM, RIGHT?

Weather: 83 Degrees F and Partly Cloudy (Feels like 86).  Humidity 61%, Pressure 29.93 with the wind from the SSW at 4 MPH.

Little #C25K lady in my ear says warm up.  Off I go.  WE'RE WALKING!

Datada!  5 Minutes later, Little #C25K lady in my ear says RUN!  Week 7 Day 2 - Supposed to be a 25 minute run.  1 minute later I'm toast.  Heart Rate monitor says I'm pushing too hard, breathing is very difficult.  WALKIES.


So, I stop the C25K app and look for something that may be a little more of a challenge than 1 minute runs.  So I pick Week 3 Day 1, after all, I became quite intimate with Week 3 having done it 3 times already on the treadmill.

I couldn't even keep up with that!  There are a few 3 minute runs interwoven and I had to run 1-walk 1-run 1 minute.  But, I kept through and completed the whole workout.

I guess this means that I've just got to run OUTSIDE more and more, because from what I hear, that is where they hold these 5K, 10K and Half Marathon things...

Thanks for Reading!  Regards,

~Kipp

Running to 2012... and BEYOND!
Walt Disney World 1/2 Marathon - January 7, 2012

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Week 11 Report!

Well, I didn't quite make it to my 2nd Give Kids the World Donation weight yet.  Dad had a really off week while he was in Orlando.


Week Date Kipp   Weekly% Overall% Dad   Weekly% Overall%
10 5/31/2011 257 3 1.15% 6.55% 216 1 0.46% 4.85%
11 6/7/2011 256 1 0.39% 6.91% 219 -3 -1.39% 3.52%

On the Couch to 5K part of things here, I've decided to try and switch up my days.  From now on Day 1 will be on Tuesday so I can shift Day 3 to Saturday.  Once I start going into the Bridge 2 10K (B210K), the longer runs are always on the last day of the weekly training schedule.  It will also get me into the swing of things once I start training for the 1/2 Marathon, as it will fall on a Saturday too.  So from now on, my long run day will be Saturday.

Here I am after todays workout:



On the Treadmill news... it's not looking so good.  I think I may have to take the console all apart, as I think one of the "buttons" is sticking, causing all the other button inputs to be ignored.  I have what is now an "old" Pro-Form 930i.  I've had problems with this very same thing for almost the entire life of the unit.  Since I started using it for C25K back in March, it had been behaving itself very well.  Now it's being a total pain.  So, my overall opinion of Pro-Form has been really unfavorable.  I mean, I spend like $1000 on this thing, and it only sporadically works!??!  Instead of real buttons, the plastic touchy thing is just garbage.  We learned that back in the 80's, why does anyone still use that garbage?  I see the new ones have actual buttons, as I'm sure they found out people complained about how much of a piece of junk the console is on this thing.

This may just mean that I need to find somewhere around here to start running outside.  I'd like to look into a trail that is a few miles away, and maybe start running on that so I can get used to running on cement and being outside.


No more Generic Coundown Timer Thing-a-ma-bob doohikey!  

If you take a looksy over on the right side of the page now, I have PROGRAMMED some countdown things into the page!  Woot!  I'll admit, I snagged the main program from a JavaScript site, but hey, it works :)  Managing to get it into the blogger and getting it to look how I wanted it to look took many tries over the weekend.  They're not spectacular, but they'll do.

Thanks for Reading!  Regards,

~Kipp

Running to 2012... and BEYOND!
Walt Disney World 1/2 Marathon - January 7, 2012