You are here: Home / Archives for Exercise / Running

My Healthy Xmas Wish List

November 28, 2011 By 3 Comments

christmas tree 02 watercolorMy wife and I are spending our first Xmas together and she’s asked me what to get me as a present.  I do have an Amazon wishlist but it’s a pretty boring one consisting mostly of books.  She wants to get me something more meaningful (women!) and so I’m spending some time thinking about what I could possibly want this holiday season.  I’ve come up with a list of items, some of which are related to health.  I’ll post the healthy items here and for the rest… well, I’ll publish those just to my wife :) [Read more...]

Filed Under: Alternative Workouts, Healthy Meal Ideas, Product Recommendation, Review, Running Tagged With: , , , ,

Week 5 – Speed Bumps Encountered

October 17, 2011 By Leave a Comment
This entry is part 3 of 6 in the series The Long Path To Health

Speed Bump AheadThis is week five of my project to get back to a healthier lifestyle.  If you recall from a couple of weeks ago, my goals at this point were:

Plan:

  • No drinks other than water
  • No sweets other than fruit (no dried fruit either)
  • No beef
  • No bread
  • Three runs per week
  • Three weights workouts per week

And The Goals Were:

  • 1 hour run at 5.5mph
  • 1 set of bench press at 255
  • weight 225lbs (this has changed)

How am I doing? [Read more...]

Filed Under: Eating Healthy, Fitness, Gyms, Healthy Habits, Monthly Update, Motivation, Running, Stress, Time Management, Weight Loss, Work Tagged With: , , ,

Week 1 – And so it begins…

September 19, 2011 By 1 Comment
This entry is part 1 of 6 in the series The Long Path To Health

Julie and I arrived home three nights ago after an amazing two weeks in Croatia (which I highly recommend for anyone looking for a beautiful place to go).  I’m tired, I’ve had a miserable weekend because I caught a cold on the flight home but I’m also incredibly happy. The honeymoon showed me just how much I love her and how wonderful our life together will be.  However, since this is a health and fitness blog and not a marriage blog, let me focus on a couple of thoughts that occurred to me while I was gone.

First of all, my choices are no longer mine alone.  In the past, if I wanted to eat poorly and not exercise that was my choice and the consequences were mine and mine alone.  That’s no longer true.  My health is now Julie’s concern as well, especially when we’re talking about kids and a future together.  The consequences of my choices are hers as well as mine.  This is difficult for some people to accept and I can see why.  It’s not easy to take responsibility for another person, to be accountable for what they do and to allow your own actions to be dictated in part by them.  In effect, it means I’ve abdicated some control of my body, my decisions and my choices to her, just as she’s done for me.  That’s a lot to accept but I accept it willingly because it’s part of our commitment. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Announcement, Diets, Eating Healthy, Editorial, Exercise, Gyms, Running, Weight Loss Tagged With: , , , ,

Marathon Training Update

August 17, 2011 By Leave a Comment

marathon training scheduleJust a quick update about the marathon training.  I’ve split my weekly runs into four different days:

  • Monday and Thursday I run for about 6 to 7 miles at a normal pace, which is about 6mph for me.  I’ve been increasing both the pace and the distance but very slowly.  I do these runs at the gym, which means I can closely monitor distance, speed, incline and overall performance.  These are the sort of runs I would three times a week before I started training for the marathon.
  • Wednesday I do sprints.  This means 1 minute at 7mph followed by two or three minutes at a walking pace, typically 3mph.  I do this for about an hour to work on my speed.  I’ve been slowly increasing the sprint speed.  Again, this run is done at the gym so I can closely monitor all numbers.
  • On the weekends I try to do one long run.  I’m currently up to about 12 miles.  These runs are done outdoors, typically on a trail or city streets.  I don’t monitor my performance too much on these runs.  In fact, other than total distance, I don’t really look at any numbers.  I just want to get out there, feel good and enjoy a nice, long run.  I figure the other three runs a week will improve my performance, this one is just for getting used to running long distances.
  • On Tuesdays and Fridays I do my normal weight work outs with a little bit of elliptical afterwards to get my heart rate up.

Overall, I can feel my performance getting better and better.  My pace is going up as is my endurance.  When I started this a few months ago, I doubt I could have run 6 miles in a row and my pace was barely above 5mph.  I’m feeling good about finishing that marathon in under 5 hours and I’m really hoping to get close to the 4 hour mark.

The Benefit Of A Goal

I definitely feel that having this public goal of training for a marathon is enhancing my resolve and motivation.  It’s nice to have something to work towards and to have a bit of social status hanging in the balance.  Motivation is key in everything we do, so having an upcoming marathon to think about it definitely motivating me to get healthier.

Filed Under: Exercise, Motivation, Running Tagged With: , , , ,

All Clear! Life Is Good :)

July 11, 2011 By 1 Comment

This update is going to be a little short due to a life that has become increasingly busy over the past two weeks but normal posts should resume next week.

The Finger Update

First, that numb finger I told you about?  Turns out it’s most likely a pinched nerve.  Which brings me to a funny story. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Announcement, Diets, Eating Healthy, Illness and Injury, Running, Weight Loss Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , ,

I Had A Great Run

June 17, 2011 By Leave a Comment

I’ve been training for a marathon for the last few weeks and, while I was a bit intimidated at first, it’s been going much better than I expected.  I’ve been alternating long slow runs with shorter, faster ones, plus tossing in a few sprint days here and there.  My performance is way above what I expected it to be right now, especially considering the fact that I stopped running for a few months earlier this year.

To be honest, I forgot how much fun it is to run.  You get to a certain point where your body is performing like a machine and your brain is high on endorphin (runner’s high, oh yah!) and the miles just melt away.  Plus I feel incredible after the run.  I’m soaked with sweat, my body is still coming off the high and my brain is screaming “BRING IT ON!”

Anyway, just wanted to share that with you all.  I highly recommend finding a challenge of your own and training for it.  It can be a marathon, a three day hike, a mountain to climb or that backflip you’ve always wanted to do.  Whatever it is, I think we human beings thrive on challenge.  Without it, we’re just plodding along waiting for death.

Filed Under: Motivation, Running Tagged With: , , , , ,

Marathon Challenge

May 6, 2011 By Leave a Comment

MILANO - City Marathon 2011 Edition 82Over at my other blog, equally happy, I wrote that I had a little revelation the other day.  I realized that I had compromised my own goals and allowed myself to retreat from the dreams I had once set myself.  Rather than focusing on reaching the dream, I compromised and said “well, this is good enough”.  In that post I talked about my career goals and aspirations but the same is true of fitness as well. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Announcement, Running, Self Improvement Tagged With: , , , ,
« Older Posts