First 5K run!

It's finally official! I have registered myself for the Jet to Jetty 5K run. This August 22 will be my initiation into the road racing world and I am very nervous! I don't really know why I am so nervous. There were a few times when I thought about not registering and just running a 5K distance around my neighborhood. Mostly to save money on the gas to get there and the registration fee. But the experience of running this with other athletes and getting myself out there is priceless. I will always remember this 5K and 8.22.09 will always be a milestone date for me.

My goal will be to run it within 30 minutes which I feel very confident that I can. I'd like to get it done in 25 minutes but I'm still working with the C25K program. The main goal of that program is just to get out there and get moving. I feel that I have accomplished the main point of this program and I feel that I can move forward with my running abilities. Still cautious however but very ambitious.

As an update on my own well being I have lost 35 pounds since the beginning of this year. I am around 238 pounds and was around 275 when 2009 began. Truly this is an amazing feeling and one I enjoy boasting about. I know I know it's rude to boast but c'mon. 35 pounds! Hopefully I don't come off as a jerk, I simply want to point out that it IS possible and that a fat lazy couch slob can get his wide load out there and get it done. While talking with my sister she told me it was hard to find the motivation and time to get out there. This is true until you find your true motivation. Once that is found it's easy to get back to fitness. It is a long and arduous road but one that is completely worthwhile. I am also dealing with a nasty ingrown toenail on my right foot. The doctor said I can postpone the surgery until after the 5K run. Did I make a blog about this last time? I can't remember. There is also a 10K run that'll be in December which I hope to run but I'm not sure how the training schedule will be with my toe thing. It's going to put me on the bench for 3 to 4 weeks, according to the doctor. This of course means I'll take a week and a half off and then get back out there. Cross training will be apart of this downtime to keep my cardiovascular up to par. Do any of you have programs that prepares for a 10K run? I'm also hoping to run another 5K before the 10K run and making that apart of my training. We'll see what happens.

I'll keep you posted and if there's any advice out there or suggestions please let me know. I love hearing from everyone here and let me know what you're doing. Take care of yourselves and I'll talk to you later. Stay strong and run hard!

Running Out of Time

Howdy everyone. It has been quite sometime since my last blog and I have a great excu....er...I mean reason of course. I'd never give you an excuse, only reasons around here.

What is the number one 'reason' why people don't run or exercise?


"I have no time" "I'm too busy"

Personally I think everyone can find time or make time to go out and run a little bit or do some form of physical activity. There are the occasional exceptions though and I think the last two weeks I expierienced that exception.

I'm busy. Very busy. Too busy. I work a full time job driving a bobtail truck Monday to Friday and get off at 4. Then I mozy on over to the golden arches to jockey the registers there while flippin the fries until midnight or sometimes 1 in the morning. Repeat. Oh yea, I then attempt to wake up at 5 to run around my neighborhood half asleep, which is how I go through most of my days. My lunch hour is not taken up by eating, it's a nap time for me. Sound busy? I'm not done yet. I'm also currently pursuing my bachelor's degree in marketing. So I can start a marketing company to market fitness and running, this blog is really just an attempt to plant the seed in you to eventually buy products that I'll be selling sometime. Just kidding. Pretty busy huh? Oh wait, how could I forget, I'm also raising a mini human being commonly known as a toddler. Yes sir! That kid has so much freakin energy that we should really figure out a way to harness childrens' energy to solve our energy crisis. Imagine what we'd accomplish. Hey! There's a thought!

What if we could solve the energy crisis AND the obesity crisis at the same time? I say we connect a whole lot of treadmills and make everyone run for a certain amount of time to generate the electricity! Pounds would shed and the electric bill would be considerely lower. In the word of that thick Irish beer commercial; BRILLIANT!

Anywho, as I was saying. I literally ran out of minutes the last two weeks with both jobs and searching for another job so I can work one good paying job instead of two cruddy paying jobs. Plus to make matters more fun for me, my computer poops out on my and gets a virus. Don't trust facebook! Right now my computer is in the computer hospital and is undergoing surgery. I am using a loaner as of this moment.

Last blog I mentioned smoothies and what I like to do. Well, that's going to be postponed due to all this computer mayhem. I will get that done though as soon as my computer recovers and my kitchen is clean again.

Due to all this lacking of time I really had to adjust my couch to 5K program to fit. Basically I didn't run that week since I needed to get as much sleep as I possibly could. I figured my duties would be too difficult to do if I was constantly falling asleep and unable to focus. My job performance worsen and I couldn't keep up. I learned a very valuable lesson this week, probably an obvious one. 65 hours of work in one week with averaging only 3 to 4 hours of sleep a night is too much for me. Too much for a lot of people.

I've been able to get back into the groove of my running program and I'm still doing good. Tomorrow morning I plan on running for 27 minutes, walk for one, and then run out the last 2 minutes. My first 5K is still coming up on the 22nd and I am very excited about it. Plus I feel confident that I can do it. Two months ago I would have laughed at the idea of running 3.1 miles. I didn't even want to drive that! Now I can run it and feel good afterwards....and by good I mean completely exhausted and on the verge of passing out.

Thanks for keeping up with me and more posts shall be coming. Sorry that it took a while to get this one up and sorry if this particular post comes out rough. I will have the next post a little more thought out and organized. I'll see you all next time and keep on pushing.




A little thanks goes to my buddy Harvey for sending me a 'musical' CD to help me running. Harvey it sounds awesome and I love it. I'll put it on my iPod soon and see what it feels like to have a drill sargeant yell/sing to me as I run, I'm sure my pace will improve dramatically.

Thanks for the great conversation to my sister Stephanie. We talked for probably 2 and a half hours about everything and anything. It was truly a highlight in my day. My prayers still go out to Penny and her family and I hope you find your motivation for getting out there.