Commit. Drive. Shin splints?

This weekend I took a big step (well, figuratively) toward some of the goals I've posted about recently. One of the top goals was to enter a 5k. On Friday I registered for the 2015 Salt Lake City Color Run.

Might as well be messy... this year's Color Run features GLITTER. My shower drain won't know what hit it.

So, to revisit my goals:

• Hit the gym on work days
• Walk a minimum 10,000 steps (15,000 if I didn't go to the gym - like today)
• Stationary bike on non-work days - 1 mile minimum in March. Increase one mile per month.

The Color Run happens on August 22, 2015. Time to get going. Not only should I be able to finish it, but with six months to get ready, I should able to jog/run the full distance.

Motivation

Motivation is a fickle monster. Getting up at 3:10 AM to go out into the cold (it wasn't that bad this morning), drive to work and get there at least an hour before I'm scheduled to work and go instead to the gym in the small building to go and do physical movements to break a sweat. All of that contributes to that little voice in the back of your head to say, "Eh. Stay in bed, get another hour of sleep. You were up late last night. You're tired."

So. I've been very bad on my goals this last week. Today was actually the first day I got into the gym since the beginning of the year. Guess I was waiting on the other resolutionaries to give up. You know, the zero other people that go in at 4 AM.

I don't know what it was that kept holding me back. I didn't stay up exceptionally late during the last week or so. I might have talked myself out of it because of my physical coming up on Friday. Which seems kind of dumb, but in any case I got out of bed this morning, and was on my way by 3:35 to hit the gym.

It's only 8:15 (as I'm typing this portion) and I've already rolled past the half-way point of my step goal for the day. Hit the elliptical machine for 33 minutes, so I've hit my 30 active min goal as well (all of this is programmed into my fitbit).

The week is off to a good start. I'm probably going to work on updating this once a week (sort of a summary instead of play-by-play) because it's getting tougher to come up with clever titles. :)

See ya next week.

No Time To Wait...

I decided that 2015 needed to come early. After hitting a major lull and packing on some pounds, it all had to start now. Not January 1. Now.

My wonderful wife gave me a Fitbit One for Christmas, and it's probably tied for my top Christmas present received along with a shirt my kids gave me with hand drawn art on it (they're 7 and 4; I'll take it out this week and put a pic up), and I did get some great gifts this year from my family. The silent alarm is great. It's just the thing I need to get up and going without disturbing my wife too much since it's set for 3:10 AM.

Rundown for today:

Bent Over Two-Dumbbell Rows 12 - 12 - 24 @ 10 lbs

Underhand Lat-Pulls (modified pull-ups) 12 - 12 - 12 @ 70 lbs

Standing Barbell Curls 12 - 8 - 7 @ 33 lbs (bar apparently weighs ~ 13 pounds)

Dumbbell Alternate Bicep Curls 10 - 10 - 10 @ 12.5 lbs

Elliptical 21 minutes

For reference (you know, if anyone else besides me cares), here are links to my goals page to view and workout tracker.

2015 Goals

Workout Tracker

I'll probably add some additional goals later on. Miscellaneous stuff.

I did have a bit of a slow time getting out the door this morning. I got out of bed fine, just not so quick to leave. My plan is to BE at the gym by 3:40 - 45, changed and out on the floor by 3:50 and done by 4:40 so I have time to get to my desk. My shift starts at 5 AM, but I try to be there by 4:55 and get stuff like this done. :) I just need to make my lunch the night before more consistently. Nothing like trying to hunt for stuff in the fridge a little after 3 AM when you're not eating it for a while, and you're not particularly hungry at that moment. Nothing seems appealing.

The Fitbit app and site are great because they layout a bunch of goals (that you can modify) such as 10,000 steps in a day, 10 flights of stairs climbed, 30 active minutes, etc. And you can modify these, plus some of them have multiple tiers, like the stairs, after you hit 10, the site offers a badge (did someone say "achievements?"), and then shows your next badge can be earned by climbing 25 floors.

Challenges can be set up and sent to Fitbit friends. One of my friends in California, who also got a new Fitbit for Christmas sent out a "Weekend Warrior" challenge to see who can get the most steps on the weekend. There's 10 people in it (all invited by my friend from Cali), and I'm currently 5th. I do get a lot of steps in on Sundays though since the parking lot here at work is far, far away. The leader already has almost 30k steps, and it's only 6 AM on Sunday...

See you tomorrow.

Ghosts of the Past...

So... even before 2015 begins, I have some goals I want to share, some may not be possible to complete by December 31, 2015, but there should be some significant progress made:

• Ultimate Goal 1: 200 lbs or lower
• Enter the 2015 Color Run for Salt Lake City (8/22/15) - Registration deadline: TBD
• Enter the 2015 Dirty Dash (6/6/15) - Registration deadline: TBD
• Hike to Timpanogos Cave
• While I'm there, tour the cave. It's been 25+ years since I've been there.
• Hike Dry Canyon again (somehow, I didn't hike anywhere in 2014 after going on a few in 2013)
• Hit the gym on work days (seriously, how hard is this... I work 4 days a week. There's a gym where I work. No brainer, anyone?)
• Stationary bike at home on weekdays off (Tuesdays / Fridays and this ties in to another goal below)
• Take Saturdays off, unless working on any hiking or 5k goal above. (because there should always be one goal that's pretty much a 100% slam dunk).
• Walk 10,000 steps per day (usually hit 7k + on work days. Walking the dog could get the job done, and would make my wife happy)
• Get a Physical (because it's been a while)

• Ultimate Goal 2: Embrace a new hobby
• Read 30 books (we don't have a TV where the stationary bike is... books/kindle app will work)
• Placeholder for list of books read in 2015
• Study coaching for soccer and football (hey, I wonder if there's a book....also because...)
• Begin process toward alternative teaching certificate (this is a long range goal, I still want to have my third sabbatical at eBay in 2018)
• Volunteer (in conjunction with my wife's plans, together we'd like to teach our kids the value of helping those who are less fortunate than we are)

So, there we go. Bring it, 2015!

That moment when...

Welcome back!

You, me, everybody... well, a few people anyway.

So next year's Spartan schedule was released about a week ago. I was checking for pre-registration options when I noticed something about Utah's race next year.

Utah is getting the Beast in 2015.

What now?

Ha.

12 miles.

Double Ha.

I'm going to run the Dirty Dash instead. Maybe the Tough Mudder.

At least in 2015. I'm guessing that the races rotate (sprint, super, beast). I hope the Ultra Beast isn't coming here, lol. (full marathon). At least, not in 2016. :)

Today's breakdown:

Weight: 295.8 - definitely going in the wrong direction. Maybe it's because I haven't been hitting the gym regularly. Gee, what a thought. Also, need some significant changes in food consumption. Working on that.

I did hit the gym today, though. I almost talked myself out of it. Was woken up multiple times through the night. Cat. Dog. Whatever. Didn't feel like getting out of bed any earlier than was necessary to go to work (even with the time shift). These words kept running through my head:

So, I got up and get my stuff together, went to work, and hit the gym.

See you tomorrow.

Monday, Monday, Monday!

Typically Monday is the second work day of my ... well, week.

I work Sunday, Monday, off on Tuesday, back at work for Wednesday and Thursday, then off on Friday and Saturday. I work 10 hour shifts. I got into the gym at about 3:50 AM today, and won't leave work until 3:30. Basically, I'm present on my work site for 12 hours a day, 4 days a week. About an hour in the gym, 10 hours working, a half hour lunch, and the other half hour (almost) is basically walking to and from my car. It takes about 7 minutes to walk from my car to my desk, 3 minutes maybe to go from the car to the gym locker room. Our parking lot is way out there.

It was a good workout today, spent my time on the elliptical machine doing the "weight loss" work out which alternates from an incline of 1 (flat) and 4 resistance, to incline of 8 and 10 resistance. Since machines all vary, this means almost nothing to everybody else. :)

Did some work on my arms and chest and called it a day (in the gym) and headed back to the car to drop off my gym clothes bag and grabbed my lunch, then headed to my desk where I am now.

Speaking of lunch (and breakfast which I bring), here's the rundown:

Coffee (w/ creamer which I'm now measuring out to make sure I don't just absorb an extra hundred calories for almost nothing in return).
Muscle Milk (1 scoop of powder)
Cottage Cheese (1/2 cup - 2%)
Grapes (about 14 oz.)
Chicken Chipotle Flautas (lunch, 2 sticks)
Fruit Snacks (1 pouch - maybe)
Granola Bar (Peanut Sweet & Salty - Nature Valley)
Ritz Crackers (on standby in my desk drawer)

All of that comes out to about 1,257 calories. Not sure about dinner yet. Was going to make tacos (we bought like 5 pounds of hamburger at Costco, I sectioned it out and froze 4/5ths of it), but wife and daughter aren't thrilled about that, so I have to figure something else out.

Overall, I should stay under 2,000 calories today. The biggest challenge, probably, is keeping myself disciplined on my three off days and not mindlessly eat little things here and there that add up super fast. It's like Fighter Diet founder Pauline Nordin says (paraphrased), "It doesn't matter the work you do during the week if you're undoing it on the weekend."

Also, it isn't much, but between 2 weeks ago when I weighed in (293.8 lbs) and today (291.4 lbs) the scale is at least headed in the right direction.

The Two-Step...

Two days in a row? Might be something going on...

Hit the gym again this morning after getting to bed at a decent time. Getting up at three isn't easy if you're going to bed (sleep) after 10. I was pretty much out around nine last night, so I only did the snooze dance one time this morning.

Decided it was time to get back to the weights as I have not been on those in quite some time. Nothing big since I'd been away for far too long. A few sets with the bench press (95 lbs), shoulder press machine (uh, not very much, I'm shocked at how weak my shoulders are), and the triceps extension machine (again, WEAK!). After all of that, I hit the elliptical machine again for my 33 minutes. I went a little harder this time, getting my heart rate up into the 150s and burning around 400 calories (according to the machine - my Lose It app says around 600).

It's about consistency right? Time to find that rhythm and keep at it.