Wednesday, June 29, 2016

UP!

The scale moved!

Yes, the scale did indeed move this week.  It went UP!


Week Date 2011 Weekly% Overall% 2016 Weekly% Overall%
0 5/31/2011 257 3 1.15% 6.55% 285 0 0.00% 0.00%
1 6/7/2011 256 1 0.39% 6.91% 283 2 0.70% 0.70%
2 6/14/2011 259 -3 -1.17% 5.82% 283 0 0.00% 0.70%
3 6/21/2011 256 3 1.16% 6.91% 283 0 0.00% 0.70%
4 6/28/2011 259 -3 -1.17% 5.82% 286 -3 -1.06% -0.35%

The only saving grace that I really have, is that this same exact week 5 years ago, I ALSO gained 3 pounds.  

I really only have myself to blame.  Friday I went out for lunch and dinner.  Saturday and Sunday Mom and I went out for dinner.  Of course, I didn't order what I SHOULD have ordered.  



I'm not going to cry about it, so, onward!

C25K W4 D2
Day 2 didn't go as well as day 1.  It was even cooler tonight.  I did sweat a lot, just didn't have a lot of get up and go.  In the first 6 minute segment, I got a stitch in my side and started walking about a minute early.  I had it mostly worked out when the next run segment came around.



10,000 Steps Goal
I've been making my 10K steps goal so far!  My Garmin FR230 GPS watch is now setting my daily goal for over 10K, so that's a good sign.

Next step is I'm going to have to start getting up earlier and going out for a walk before work.  It's beginning to get rough to do the C25K and then try and get in the remaining steps I need to at least get past the 10K mark!  With the auto-goal advancing, it'll be harder and harder to beat that daily goal.

I've been trying to get up from behind the desk at work and get more walking in there too.  After all, if smokers can go outside and take 15 to 20 minute "break" several times a day, I should be able to go out and walk around for a while!

Vacation Plans
September is my next vacation time, counter on the left is telling me in about 73 days!  I'm still trying to finalize some of my plans for that.  I will start driving to Orlando on a Friday, at noon is my goal.  I'm looking for someplace after Atlanta to spend the night and then finish my trip down on that Saturday.  

Our check-in to the resort/timeshare/rental whatever place is on Saturday afternoon, so I'm not in a big rush to be down at any specific time.

The return trip will be me leaving on a Saturday afternoon, more than likely.  Then I'll spend the night somewhere along the way.  I'd prefer to at least be north of Atlanta.  Usually I try for Chattanooga, but It'll depend on when I want to leave (well, I won't WANT to leave) Disney World.

It's funny, I've got more of my plans ready for my Marathon Weekend trip in January ready than I do for my trip in September!

The place we'll be in has a washer and dryer, so I'll be able to wash my running gear so I don't stink the place up!  


If my running plan goes on schedule, while I'm on vacation I'll be finishing up the Bridge to 10K plan!

With Friday and Saturday being driving times, I'll have to see when I can get in that training day.  In the morning before work, or rush home and hurry to get a run in before I leave?  That sounds counter productive!  Here, lets RUN and then sit in a car for 10 hours!  LOL!


Thanks for Reading!
Regards, ~Kipp

2016 - Challenge Year: Me Vs. Me!

Check the link above to see my current and past races.

Monday, June 27, 2016

Starting C25K Week 4!

C25K Week 4 Day 1
Even though it was hot, I pretty much made it through day 1.  Knowing that the segments were longer, I tried to pace myself accordingly.  I was SLOW.  I'm talking truly Reverse-Flash going on here.  Moving so slow you don't even see me move!

Okay, not quite that slow, but definitely not anywhere near close to race pace.

There is a variation in the setup for Week 4 from the app I use to the website.  Here are the differences:

Website App
5 Minute Warm Up
Jog 3 Minutes
Walk 90 sec
Jog 5 Minutes
Walk 2 1/2 Min
Jog 3 Minutes
Walk 90 sec.
Jog 5 Min
Cool Down 5 Minutes
5 Minute Warm Up
Jog 4 Minutes
Walk 2 Minutes
Jog 6 Minutes
Walk 3 minutes
Jog 4 Minutes
Cool Down 5 Minutes


In the first 4 minute segment, I had a bit of a mis-step that made me pause for a little bit.  I got right back to it.

I kept moving all the way through the 6 minute segment!

So, I'll keep moving forward with the C25K plan as-is.  The end of week 5 is the tell-tale test.  At the end of week 5, it's a solid 20 minute run!

Totals for Last week!
My mileage for last week topped out over 20 miles!  The grand total came in at 20.67 miles for the week.  My three week total is 46.14 miles!

Steps were all over 10,000 for the week.

SunMonTueWedThurFriSat
11630113221093611043115641063910610

Coming in at a grand total of: 77,744 Steps for the week!

WDW Marathon Weekend 2017 Plans
My plans are coming together for Marathon Weekend!

Room is reserved!  Going for Pop Century again, of course.  Why stop a good thing?  I've got the routine down solid from there, so I can pretty much go on automatic when that alarm goes off at 2:30 AM!  :)

I've got a NICE surprise!  I was checking out Southwest and discovered when they released January 4th early AM flights that I had enough points to get the flight for "FREE"!  (Still had to pony up Terrible Service Administration fee, and I also decided to get  the auto-check-in feature.)  My business trip to California ended up getting me a lot of points to use!  

Southwest opens up flights for the remainder of January through March 7th on July 7th.  So, late next week I should see what I can get for my return trip.  Any way I figure it out, with the free flight down, it's cheaper than driving.

Flying down and back will also save my legs from being cooped up in the car all that way coming back!  This year was probably the worst, as my legs were VERY sore and being inactive all that way was no fun.


Weigh-in
Tomorrow is weigh-in day.  I've not snuck a peak this week, so I have no idea where I'm going to end up at in the morning!



Thanks!
For those of you that let me know that you do indeed read all of (or most of) my posts, I appreciate it.  I hope in the very least that some of it ends up being entertaining to read.




Thanks for Reading!
Regards, ~Kipp

2016 - Challenge Year: Me Vs. Me!

Check the link above to see my current and past races.

Saturday, June 25, 2016

Ew, gross!

Bye Bye

Well, as every runner has experienced toe nail loss at one point or another, I'm going to need to do some extra work the next few months.

Last January, I walked the Walt Disney World Half in shoes that weren't quite broken in.  I had only really worn them 2 or 3 times before the event.  Instead of wearing an older pair, I went ahead and wore the new ones.

I ended up with 3 toenails that were what I would consider bruised.  The 2 splotches on the left foot have been doing well, but my right big toe I've been working with since January.  Well, this morning while performing toenail maintenance (Okay, yes, trimming my nails) I heard a loud CRACK when I cut into the right big toenail.  Yep, the bruised section broke away, leaving me with quite the mess of a nail left.  I've given a non-graphic graphic of my loss this morning.

Now the fun part comes.  I'm going to have to be extra careful putting on socks, until the new nail has grown out enough.

Winding down the week
As this week winds down, I'll be finishing up Week 3 of the Couch to 5K program today.  I went to the movies after work yesterday, so I didn't get my C25K in, but I did end up getting my 10K steps finished after coming home from the movie last night!

Oh, what did I see?  Independence Day: Resurgence!  I saw it at my local IMAX and they turned up the sound!  It was fantastic!  Sure, it was just as outlandish as the first one, but I wanted more!  I was actually disappointed that wasn't longer than it was.



Bike

Well, a challenge has been issued.  I need to get the bike off the stand and actually go ride it this weekend!


Our neighborhood is having a garage sale weekend, so I'll start any of my activities after the sales a supposed to close at 4pm.  So, Couch to 5K this afternoon and a bike ride tomorrow afternoon!



Thanks for Reading!
Regards, ~Kipp
2016 - Challenge Year: Me Vs. Me!

Check the link above to see my current and past races.

Tuesday, June 21, 2016

!#@$!@$#%!@!@@!!!

Me 2011 V Me 2016
Well... SHIT!  2011 Me won this week.

Week
Date
2011

Weekly%
Overall%
2016

Weekly%
Overall%
0
5/31/2011
257
3
1.15%
6.55%
285
0
0.00%
0.00%
1
6/7/2011
256
1
0.39%
6.91%
283
2
0.70%
0.70%
2
6/14/2011
259
-3
-1.17%
5.82%
283
0
0.00%
0.70%
3
6/21/2011
256
3
1.16%
6.91%
283
0
0.00%
0.70%

283.  AGAIN.

Starting off on a plateau?  Just not a happy camper today.  

One last thing that I can think of that I did different then versus now is that I had given up all diet soda and limited my iced tea to only one at lunch time.  Other than that, I drank water.  Maybe I need to make that change again.  I'll work that into daily plan again.

Damn you Diet Dr. Pepper!!

No stopping now
I still went out for a walk after dinner so I could make it to my 10,000 steps a day goal.  Goal was met.  It was much nicer this evening.  It was warm, but not overwhelming.  

We're supposed to have storms tomorrow.  C25K W3 D2 may be on the Treadmill-o-doom...


Thanks for Reading!
Regards, ~Kipp

2016 - Challenge Year: Me Vs. Me!

Check the link above to see my current and past races.

Monday, June 20, 2016

Whew! Made it through the first day of Week 3!

C25K W3 D1
It was a warm one out there for my 1st day of Week 3!  I managed fairly well.  I wound up having to pause or slow down a couple of times in the 3 minute segments, but I started getting into the swing of things.  I'm fairly sure that week 3 will not be a repeat week.

Instead of waiting until after dinner, I did this one right after I got home from work.  Bad storms are entering the area for tonight and I wanted to make sure I got it in!

Well, I made it in plenty of time, as the storms didn't start in this area until a shore while ago (about 8:30-8:45 PM).  

10K Steps Goal Achieved!
I was also able to him my minimum 10,000 steps for today!  Maybe even over 11,000 by the time I hit the sack tonight.

Weigh-In tomorrow!

Well, we'll see if tomorrow comes through any better than last week!  Since I've been more active, I'm hoping to see a little something for the effort!

Countdowns!
Looking over to the right side of my blog, I see that I have 82 days (or less, depending on when you read this) until I'm on vacation at Disney World again!

We are also now under the 200 day count until WDW Marathon Weekend as well!

Tomorrow or Wednesday (I think) I should be hearing back about setting up room reservations for January!

Garmin Watch Development
My Garmin FR230 with my custom Mickey Mouse Watch Face
Since Apple has the Mickey Watch face, I decided to create my own Mickey Mouse watch face for my Garmin Forerunner 230.  Since Mickey is licenced with Apple, this is not official by any means.  It's just something for myself (and some friends...)

The file size is HUGE due to the Development kit having nothing to be able to rotate the images of the hands.  So, I had to create a separate image for each minute and each hour and half hour positions.

In Garmin's development message forums, it was stated that it would be in a future build.  That was stated a long time ago.  Given new information, I don't think it's coming at all.

Well, Dev build 2.10 beta just released, and I'm none to happy to hear about this.  You cannot use any of the 2.0 Dev kits for the "OLDER" watches!!!  Are you F'n KIDDING ME!!??!!
Yes, indeed.  Only the devices in YELLOW in the chart above can take advantage of the new version.

It get's even BETTER!  The current build that I use will only be supported for 6 more months!  So that means, as developers that create apps for the Garmin's will eventually quit making builds for the other watches because it'll just be a pain in the ass to support 2 ore more different versions of apps!!!

Now, in 2.0+, they still do not have the facility to be able to rotate an image.  That has become a moot point.  So, 1 maybe 2 more updates before the end of the year.

So, Garmin is basically saying that you're watch will only have a program lifespan of 2 years, after that, sucks to be you.  Sorry, you just bought your watch?  Yeah, programs for it will be obsolete next year sometime.

IT GETS EVEN BETTER!  The next round of firmware updates for watches will only allow for signed apps to run on the watch.  BUT!  Only 2.0+ apps can be signed.  So, in essence, I will not be able to use my Mickey Mouse watch face in the future at some point.

So, either I stop updating my firmware... which could make it stop working with the Garmin web dashboard at some point... or I just give up on my Mickey Mouse Watch face...  bastards just want you to buy a new watch every 2 years.

End of rant.


Thanks for Reading!
Regards, ~Kipp
2016 - Challenge Year: Me Vs. Me!

Check the link above to see my current and past races.

Sunday, June 19, 2016

Recap of this past week

Activities for Last week - Week 2 of 31

 Sunday
Monday 
 Tuesday
Wednesday 
Thursday 
 Friday
 Saturday
C25K W1 D3
1.98 Miles
C25K W2 D1
3.07 Miles


C25K W2 D2
2.32 Miles
 C25K W2 D3
3.1 Miles
 Walking
3.3 Miles

So, for the week that has put me at 14.72 Miles of activities, with a running total of 25.47 miles since starting on 6/5/16.  

I keep swearing that I'm going to get the bike out during the weekends.  I HAVE to get it out next weekend and take it for a ride!

The week ahead - Week 3 of 31
I've started this week off with getting over 11,000 steps in for today.  In the very LEAST, I want to get 10,000 steps a day.  Something to strive for each and every day.  

Monday-Wednesday-Friday are my scheduled C25K Days, and big changes come up on the routine for this week.  
Brisk five-minute warm-up walk, then do two repetitions of the following:
  • Jog 200 yards (or 90 seconds)
  • Walk 200 yards (or 90 seconds)
  • Jog 400 yards (or 3 minutes)
  • Walk 400 yards (or three minutes)
I will be using the timed method.  So, that 3 Minutes of Jogging, at this point it seems HUGE.  All I can do is tackle it tomorrow and see how it goes.  Week 2 started off rough, but by Friday things were clicking together much better.  I hope that I can minimize repeating weeks.

I just have to remember, at my best, I was up to 8 Minutes of Jogging with 2 minutes of walking.  That was also the summer that we had temps in the 90's for several weeks of my training!  In re-reading my first 1/2 Marathon story, I had totally forgotten that I had jogged at least 4 of the first 6 1/2 Miles!

I know I have it in me!  It's just 3 Minutes, twice!

Other POI's
So, the selection of other jump ropes at Wally World were less than desirable for my tastes.  No, I really don't want a pink sparkly rope or a purple one.  The other ropes were all similar to the cheap plastic one I already picked up.  I may just break down and order the one from Amazon that keeps appearing in my suggested items, now that I've bought Buddy Lee's Jump Rope book!

In the very least, I've been spending 30 seconds to a minute before running kind of mimicking jumping rope and it seems to be helping the shaky ankle.  Yes, the ankle I injured several years ago still gives me fits.   Friday's run I felt much more stable than I have on it in a LONG time.  Today, it hardly bothered me at all!

When I went to put my shoes on to walk Saturday, I noticed that those were the shoes I had been running in all week!  OOopps!  Oh, well.  At least those shoes don't really have that many miles on them, so they're okay to still run in.  I'll have to make sure that my new shoes are put in a more prominent place for me to grab them Tomorrow!


Thanks for Reading!
Regards, ~Kipp

2016 - Challenge Year: Me Vs. Me!

Check the link above to see my current and past races.

Friday, June 17, 2016

Late night Friday document dump!

Me V. Me Week 2
I did weigh in on Tuesday, and the results are as follows:

Week
Date
2011

Weekly%
Overall%
2016

Weekly%
Overall%
0
5/31/2011
257
3
1.15%
6.55%
285
0
0.00%
0.00%
1
6/7/2011
256
1
0.39%
6.91%
283
2
0.70%
0.70%
2
6/14/2011
259
-3
-1.17%
5.82%
283
0
0.00%
0.70%

Rather anti-climactic.  All I can say is I did better than 5 years ago!  No gain, but no loss either.  Text Text Text

C25K Week 2
Monday's shift to a new routine was a little rough, but Days 2 and 3 went smoothly.

In fact, I misheard the app, and actually had one stretch of running last over 2 minutes, instead of just 90 seconds.

Next week is the tell-tale sign of how things are progressing.  Week 3 is getting into "much" longer run segments, going up to 3 minute running segments.  I'm pretty sure five years ago I probably did week three a couple of times (I know I took a step back when I went from treadmill-o-doom to running outside).

Skimming through the past
I've actually been going back through and re-reading what I wrote five years ago, leading up to the half-marathon.  So many of the links are broken, blogs that I had linked to are almost all gone.  It's a shame, there was a lot of good information.  Maybe I should have been a little plageristic and copied some of that info.  Oh well.  

Be Like Paul

I don't think he reads this, but Kudo's to Paul.  He is one of my "Disney" friends that lost a lot of weight just by sticking to the basic walking at least 10K steps a day and paying attention to what he was eating.  So i'm now also trying to aim to get to that 10K a day step goal.  So, during my C25K training, I now extend the "cool down" walk to more like 25 minutes instead of 5.

Be Like Dave

Dave's writings lately have really bolstered my outlook.  With struggling so hard to even get this weight to START dropping, it's been great to look at something positive.  He writes in a way that makes me think at times that he's speaking directly to me.

Marathon Weekend Planning

Next week should be the week I start getting my room reservation started!  Unlike my first Marathon Weekend, I'm sticking with my usual Disney Travel Planner, Liz at Charmed Destinations (her own company)!  

Five years ago, I went with a very popular Disney Travel company and did NOT receive the great attention that I've come to love from Liz.  I was EXTREMELY disappointed in the level of service I had from the other company that is touted as having supurb customer satisfaction.  Come to find out, I saved exactly ONE PENNY per night over rack rate, let alone the difficult time I had with communications with them.

A couple of years ago, some of my marathon trip went boo-boo.  Liz was on top of it in a flash!  My magical express package never arrived and she made sure as I was flying out from Indy that Magical Express would handle everything by the time that I got there!  As soon as I landed at Orlando MCO, I had a message on my phone from Liz letting me know that Magical Express was expecting me and everything was all set.  They even went as far as to tell me not to get my bag.  When I checked in at Magical Express, the took a copy of my bag tag receipt and took care of it for me!

The rest of my Marathon Weekend planning, I've not made that same mistake ever again.  

Charmed Destinations


Hi!

Shout out to my running buddies at WiSH!  
Go Team Hakuna Matata!
Rick!  Next phone call, I need to make sure my phone is either 100% or have the charger next to me!  :)

Now... Lets see how many hits I get on this post, compared to other ones.  Since this one will post around Midnight!



Thanks for Reading!
Regards, ~Kipp

2016 - Challenge Year: Me Vs. Me!

Check the link above to see my current and past races.

Monday, June 13, 2016

Are you f'n kidding me??

Now into Week 2 of Couch to 5K!
Week 2 has started!  The C25K App I have didn't sound it's notifications at first.  So around 8:30-ish minutes into the routine, I still was walking!  So, I restarted the app and started over.  It worked okay the 2nd go around, so I got some extra walking time in this evening.

Brisk five-minute warm-up walk. Then alternate 90 seconds of jogging and two minutes of walking for a total of 20 minutes.

Going up from 60 Seconds to 90 seconds may not seem like much, but trust me, I felt it!

Research...Statins (Lipitor type meds)
So, I've been looking into some research on Statins.  One thing that is different from 5 years ago is that when I was training 5 years ago, I STOPPED taking all of my meds.  The weight started falling off.  

Then I injured my back at work and needed to visit the doctor, she wasn't happy that I wasn't on my meds at all.  So, back on them I went. The weight came back on... slowly, steadily and surely.  Even through I  was still doing the same things I was doing before.

So, in two studies I've read about so far, state that in less that 10% of those on Statins, there is a possible side effect of inhibited fat oxidation.

WAIT!  What?!!??  Lemme take another look at exactly what Fat Oxidation is:

"Fat Oxidation:
Fat oxidation is a process by which the stored, giant lipid molecules are broken back down into their smaller parts, triglycerides and fatty acids. Why is the process necessary? Well, we eat more lipids at a given time than we need at that time. However, we don't eat constantly all day long. So, it's a form of time release that allows us to have energy throughout the day.
Without the fat oxidation process, fat molecules would stay in their larger form. The larger molecules can't be used as energy by the body, so, they just stack up. They provide some insulation, but that's about all. So, fat oxidation is extremely important, if we want to function on a daily basis.
How does the magic happen? Well, our bodies are full of hormones and it's the job of some of those hormones to regulate the triglyceride conversion. It's a bit like controlling a valve to slowly release air into a tire or balloon. Without that slow release, we'd have far too much energy being released to use at a given time and we'd run out in times of need."
So, the very medication that is supposed to be HELPING me, is possibly contributing to me keeping this weight on!??!  Talk about a Catch-22!  Doctor tells you that you have to loose weight to get off the drug, but the drug stops you from easily loosing weight?

if you see kay!!

Onwards
Tomorrow is weigh-in.  I'm not expecting miracles on the first week, so hopefully I lost some!

Oh, I picked up 2 books over the weekend.  I got the Buddy Lee jump rope book AND Hal Higdon's Half Marathon book.  

Hal Higdon's Plan is what I've pretty much followed for all of my half marathon training (that I've actually trained for...) that I've done in the past.  Just started reading a little bit of each last night.  So, we'll see how it goes.

Oh, by the way, not the best idea I've had in purchasing a jump rope for only a couple of dollars.  The darn plastic, even when left out in the sun, is still all bendy and twisty, which makes for it to not turn in a steady manner.  I have a mark on my left ankle where I smacked it good a couple of times.  So, my next purchase may be a rope that cost more than just $2.83...

Thanks for Reading!
Regards, ~Kipp
2016 - Challenge Year: Me Vs. Me!

Check the link above to see my current and past races.

Wednesday, June 8, 2016

1st Me Vs. Me Weigh-in!

1st Weigh in - Me2011 v. Me2016!
Okay, so when I said this week was the first weigh in?  Well, I actually weighed in last week, so I could have numbers that made sense this week! 

Week Date 2011 Weekly% Overall% 2016 Weekly% Overall%
0 5/31/2011 257 3 1.15% 6.55% 285 0 0.00% 0.00%
1 6/7/2011 256 1 0.39% 6.91% 283 2 0.70% 0.70%

So, Week 1 goes to Me2016!!  Now the big test comes next week.  Now that I've actually started being active, lets see what I can do for next week!

New phone problems
A few months ago, I got a new phone.  Well, when I got the iPhone 6, I had also moved all of my music at home to a network drive (NAS).  Well, iTunes blew up.  So, I've been rebuilding it, and now realize that all of my "running" playlists are all gone!  I've got to rebuild something up, as the C25K App I use only plays music from playlists!  ACK!  

Also, my Fitletic arm band isn't big enough for the monsterous iPhone 6 (not the super mega iPhone 6 Plus).  So, I'm going to need to pick up a new armband too. 

C25K W1 D2
Tonight I put Couch to 5K Week 1 Day 2 into the book.  It was pretty rough for me this evening.  Leg muscles are really starting to wake up and give me the "WTF" attitude.  

I'm feeling it at work too.  The new job is very much a desk jockey, so I'm starting to get really fidgity when I sit too long.  Unfortunately, today my legs were really restless when I was in a meeting...  ugh.

Once the C25K routine was done, I continued walking for a while longer, just to start helping my daily step counts to go up also.

Training Plan

Week SUN 6/5 MON 6/6 TUE 6/7 WED 6/8 THUR 6/9 FRI 6/10 SAT 6/11
1
C25K W1 D1 C25K W1 D2 C25K W1 D3

The next nine weeks should look very similar to this.  MON-WED-FRI will be my C25K days.  Any other day will be open for me to do whatever I feel like.

If I need to repeat any weeks, which I'm sure I will, I do have four weeks of buffer.

With the weather improving so its not cold & raining all of the time, it's past time to clean up the bike and start getting it back out on the road!  Maybe get some biking time in during the weekends.


Shout out!

My friend Rick is out in Iowa for a Half Marathon tomorrow morning!  Yes, a Half Marathon on a THURSDAY.




Thanks for Reading!

Regards, ~Kipp

2016 - Challenge Year: Me Vs. Me!

Check the link above to see my current and past races.