Thursday 3/7/2013 and Saturday 3/9/2013

Oh. My. Gawd. It’s starting to feel like Spring time! As such, I hit the road with a vengeance the later half of this week and it was fabulous. I was hitting 8 miles on my long runs right before winter, then all winter I couldn’t break 4 miles on my outdoor runs. It was worrisome, but I’ve heard form other runners that it’s common to see the distance drop a bit in the winter months. Thursday and today though, I started feeling like my old self! Things were falling into rhythm, my legs didn’t feel like lead and it’s all coming back. I’m not quite to 5 miles yet, but by god, it’s coming. All this does is make want to get outside more and build my base mileage! That said, I’m planning on running my first 10k at the end of this month. Kick ass.

On the front, work has been absolutely horrid this past week. Nothing but stress and frustration. For an example, I had the day off Friday to make up for the past two weekends I’ve had to work. I worked 15.5 hrs on my day off. I don’t get overtime either! But, last night, this brought force both some new mental battles, and some mental wins all the same time. I was so tired, befuddled and frustrated by the time I signed off, my first thought was ‘make it better with food’. And while I did eat a bit, I didn’t pig on and it wasn’t on horrible stuff either cause I knew all I’d do was be mad at myself for it. On top of that, for the first time in 2 and a half years, I thought I wanted a cigarette to curb the anxiety and stress. I knew for certain I’d hate myself for that for all the damage it’d do to the running and fitness. By the end of the night, I chewed a giant wad of gum furiously, played some video games and was straight by the end of the night. Plus, when I woke up this morning? All I wanted to do was go outside and run for an hour and just not think about anything. It was pretty sweet.

Then to cap off this shitty three weeks worth of work woes? I weighed in this morning.

I weighed in at freaking 247.4 lbs. Down 104 lbs.

My god damn plateau that I’ve been fighting since christmas is over. Kick ass!

Gooch2k2 Tracked a Workout for 507 pts Today
Running:
- 0:47:06 || 4.6 mi || 10:10.1 min/mi || track
- http://runkeeper.com/user/CinemaFromage/activity/155667771
- Comment Share
fito2sa

Gooch2k2 Tracked a Workout for 498 pts Mar 7, 2013
Running:
- 0:49:59.8 || 4.7 mi || 10:32.5 min/mi
- http://runkeeper.com/user/CinemaFromage/activity/155202242
fito2sa

Monday 3/4/2013 and Wednesday 3/6/2013

So, I’ve been good and listening to the Dr. and haven’t lifted since last Friday! It kinda…makes me sad, but at the same time, the back’s getting better. We’re down to a dull ache and the occasional twinge. I was planning on ellipitcaling for a week straight, but by Tuesday I was feeling pretty strung out from working two weeks straight so took a day off. Today though, I felt a bit more energized, but still pretty fried. Running made it feel better though!

I plan on hitting the elliptical for the next two days, then getting outside for the warm up this weekend, then hopefully easing back in to some lifting on Monday!

On the weight front, I’ve been frustrated. I got down to 250 and last Saturday, I had some popcorn at the movies. (No butter mind you!) I made sure to have the calories free but without fail, the salt hit me where it counts and the water weight has ballooned me up to a good 254. We’re working back down to normal though. It’s funny now that I can tell exactly what’s going to happen when I eat something like that. As much as I Loooooove popcorn, I think I need to lay off of the movie theater variety At least until this pesky plateau is over. Heck, sneaking in a Cliff Bar is probably cheaper and healthier at any rate!

Gooch2k2 Tracked a Workout for 216 pts Today
Elliptical Trainer:
- 0:54:00 || Easy
- http://runkeeper.com/user/CinemaFromage/activity/154807988
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Gooch2k2 Tracked a Workout for 240 pts Mar 4, 2013
Elliptical Trainer:
- 1:00:00
- http://runkeeper.com/user/CinemaFromage/activity/154161887
- Comment Share
- propped this.
fito2sa

I felt the need for another playlist, so here we are once more with “Oh God It’s After Me!” Or, OGIAM! as it’s known in certain circles, (Read: My Brain) is my scientifically formulated playlist made specifically for running!

“Wha…” you ask?

That’s right! Every song on this play list I tried to match up with somewhat similar sounds. More importantly however, OGIAM!’s tracks are all at or around 150bpm (or halved at 75bpm). What’s that mean to you? That means that if you pace yourself to the beats of the enclosed playlist while running, you’ll be clocking in at a 10 minute mile! I’ve tested this list today and while I didn’t clock a 10 minute mile since I was…um…taking it easy…it made for good listening and helped me keep consistent all the same!

This time around, I’ve left the beards and flannel behind for some indie rock/stoner rock/just plain old rock for a better pace. There’s even a classic or two in there in the form of The Police and Elvis Costello. Something for everybody! For myself, a former musician and professional marching band nerd, moving my bulk to the beat of a song is second nature, so this is a great way to push yourself out on the trail!

It made for a good playlist sonic-ally too, so there! Mix that with an excuse to take pictures while I’m outside and my upcoming race; this seemed like a Good Thing to Do. (TM)

Enjoy! Got some playlists of your own? Share em’!

We’re finally here, the final days counting down to my next race, which is the Wheeler Mission Drumstick Dash on Thanksgiving morning! This race is a 4.6 mile jaunt, one I’ve been looking forward to hitting up for quite awhile. I’ve found running races to be an absolute blast and let’s be frank; I’m still kind of blown away by the fact that I’m actually ‘running races’, so it’s good news all around. In addition to this, it gives me a tangible event to train towards and keeps me on track diet and exercise wise. So not only do these races boost up my ego; they also keep said ego on target for the long run.

The down side to this upcoming race however, is that it throws my normal gym routine into a bit of chaos as I try to cut back on certain workouts to preserve my legs for the big day. I’ve been dealing with a high amount of soreness in my quads the last week, more soreness than usual anyways, so I figure squats and deadlifts are a bad idea. While I don’t think I’ve hurt myself, I do fear maybe I pushed a bit too far a bit too soon when I deadlifted 245 last week, so for this week a rest. At the same time, ‘a rest’ in my mind doesn’t mean to lay off the exercise all together, so it means I’m stuck trying to tweak my normal routine on the fly. Generally, this isn’t too bad, but it also leaves my worry prone mind wondering if I’m not doing quite enough!

The typical routine consists of two Plans, A and B, done in a three day split. Plan A consists of Squats, Dead Lifts, Bench Press and Dips, with Hyperextensions and Weighted Sit Ups tacked on. Plan B repeats the Squats, then moves to Standing Military Press, Bent Over Rows and Pull Ups, then repeat the hyper extensions and sit ups. For this week, my split was on a B, A, B rotation. On Monday, I did everything but the Squats and it worked pretty well. Still, there’s the concern that maybe I didn’t do quite enough, yet I was still pooped by the end of the night and good and sore, so probably over thinking it! Today I’m going to do an easy 3 to 4 mile run at lunch to make sure I’m loosened up for the race on Thursday, then Wed. evening I’ll be looking at Bench Press, Dips, Hyperextensions and Sit Ups. I don’t really have anything good in mind to supplement the missing squats and deadlifts for this day, so I’ll go ahead and add in some Incline Bench Press as well and call it good.

While it seems like I’m worry a lot over little things, I find it pretty important to keep up on my exercise routine, especially this week of all weeks. It is Thanksgiving week after all, and Thanksgiving means EATING! As long as I’ve kept up the routine most of the week, I can safely consider Turkey Day a cheat meal and just not worry about it! That sounds like a pretty good way to deal with a food-centric holiday when you’re trying to drop pounds, don’t you think?

In the end, I hope the soreness in my quads goes away by Thursday morning. It’s not pain; it’s soreness, so there’s a big difference. Part of my mind is second guessing myself here, as the running has never felt quite the same after I took the week off after tanking last month. I think it’s safe to say that that issue is all mental however. Half of this trek is a mental game, so it’s important to stay positive and reminding myself that I can run 8.5 miles, so 5 miles is a piece of cake! Granted, that’s easier said than done, but we’re staying positive here!

Stay tuned for a full trip report after Thursday’s Drumstick Dash!

As a former musician, long time music geek and all around good listener…I’ve long been a fan of the mix tape. Since I started running this year, I find myself with long stretches of time with nothing but spotify and a pair of earbuds to occupy my brain space, so I started making play lists once again. Those playlists were random and wandering however, lacking focus and theme! Until a week or two back until my friend Mark sparked my imagination with his Sad Bastard Music themed mix, which in turn inspired my own Sad Bastard Music 2: A Bloo Hoo Hoo.

Turns out, I missed the art of making a good mix tape!

Turns out too, said mix tapes make for great listening when I’m out running! Not to mention…they make me want to run even more to hear the whole thing.

So below, you can check out my latest mix tape, “Songs of Love, Loss and Flannel”. It’s a mix of folky, alt-country type mellow tunes as that’s what I’ve been into here as of late. If you’re familar with that style of music, you’ll recognize a few names such as Glen Campbell and The Head and the Heart as well as a bunch of lesser known bands that I’ve been discovering and falling in love with like Dr. Dog, The Lumineers and Josh Ritter. All in all, it’s a pretty mellow mix and makes for good back ground noise when you’re cruising down the side of a country road in this blustery fall weather!

Enjoy! I’m having a lot of fun with this, so stay tuned for some more here in the near future! For that matter, if this gets your own gears turning, make sure you share you own lists with me on Spotify!

It’s been a bit since I’ve posted on ‘Ye Olde Weight Loss Programe’ or hell, even posted here at Cinema Fromage in awhile. Real life gets busy though and sometimes it’s just plain not easy to check in for awhile. Things have been moving right along…I’ve still been dropping weight, lifting other weights and running like a fool, so that’s good. At the same time, the weight hasn’t dropped quite as I had hoped it would continue here as of late; in fact the past three weeks have seen me in another plateau. These things suck of course, but they’re par for the course. So no real need to panic.

The plateau has had an unforeseen side effect unfortunately, which is more of a surprise to me. I’m sure it’s a full expected side effect to those in the know. All the same, I’ve found myself a bit discouraged and in general, ‘pouty’ about the whole process. I’m closing in on 100 lbs lost here in the next 8 lbs or so, so there’s a heightened sense of frustration involved. As much as hate to admit it, I’ve had a moment or two of ‘why bother’ when stopping myself from eating that piece of candy out of the Halloween bucket and even getting out to run in the early morning cold is just plain old hard to do. There was even a brief moment or two where I tried to half heartedly convince myself I need to take a week or two off from the whole diet thing. (Even in my bummed out state, I knew this was stupid.) But again; it happens. What’s important is that I’ve pressed on and continued doing what I do, despite not being happy about it at times. As of this weekend, I finally started to break the 260 lb barrier and weighed in at a svelte 259, so that plateau is starting to change. With that change, I’m sure my motivation will change as well and things will be back to normal.

Despite my moments of mental self doubt and feeling sorry for myself in general, things in the physical space still continue to improve so I can’t really feel too sorry for myself. The picture above was taken this past Monday, the start of Week 10 of the Starting Strength weight lifting program I’ve been doing. When looking at the weights that I’ve been hitting, compared to where I started, serves as a great motivator for myself and gives me a sense of improvement that the frozen scaled does not. In Squats, I’ve got from 115 lbs that I started at to a whopping 245 lbs. In Deadlift, I’ve gone from 105 lbs to 225 lbs. In Bench-press, I’ve seen the numbers go from 105 to 175, and all the numbers from the other lifts have grow just as proportionately. At 10 weeks, I’m now getting to the point where I can start to see muscle where there wasn’t any before and when shirtless, I can see definitely changes taking shape in my chest and my torso. Nobody wants to see a shirtless picture though, as I look like a balding Sasquatch with my shirt off, so you’ll just have to take my word for it!

On the running front, things stalled a wee bit due to injury. Nothing bad mind you, but I was suffering a bit from a pulled hip flexor. The pain was never excruciating, but it was a nuisance and I figured it was best not to aggrivate things and set myself back. So…I took a week off. This is big for me! The week off was well, but when I returned from that week off, I pushed too hard, too fast, and hit a wall early on. On what was a routine 5 mile run, I ran out of gas at about 1.6 miles in and felt miserable afterwards. So, I took the rest of last week off and restarted again yesterday. This time, I’m easing back in and it’s going well, so problem averted. All the same, I closed out October with a total of 55.6 miles which was fantastic. This puts me at 213 miles run for the year, and 242 miles walked! I didn’t think about this until just now as I typed it; I’ve now hit 455 miles traveled by foot this year. That’s a little staggering to me! Back in February, if you had told me I would close out 2012 with nearly 500 miles, I’d have laughed at you between fistfuls of Cheetos!

Here we are in early November. Things are going slow, but I’m feeling more resolved and set in my ways again. I attribute a lot of last month’s ‘weakness’ to a lot of work stress, lots of family stuff going on, Halloween and just a whole lot of being busy. But, we’re back to being strong and the weight’s starting to move again. I just can’t expect to be dropping the 4 to 5 pounds a week I was early on. It’s easy to get hung up on that number on the scale and it’s easy to forget that that number is not always what’s important. Looking back, it’s pretty laughable that I can beat myself up mentally over not dropping any weight for three weeks as I running an ‘easy’ 5 mile run, forgetting the fact that I’m running an ‘easy’ 5 mile run. Coming up, I’ll be running the Drumstick Dash in Broad Ripple on Thanksgiving morning, so the whole ‘what am I going to be able to eat on Thanksgiving’ thing is not even a worry for me! I think it’s fair for me to think that if I’m running a 5 mile race that morning, I’ll eat whatever the heck I want!

So there you are, caught up with my state of wellness and well being. Now that things are back in more of a rhythm with the exercise, weight loss, work, etc. etc. I’m going to try and get back to blogging about everything a little more regularly. If you’re interested, feel free to check back in regularly. Heck, feel free to leave your questions, your comments, your encouragements or if you’re my mother…tell me I look like a refugee. All are welcome!

As some of you know, this past labor day I set forth on completing one of my first major goals in this long journey of wellness; I ran my first foot race. That race was a 5k and it was an absolute blast! The problem was; it was addicting. I think I was looking for another race shortly after getting back home that fateful day. After a bit of googling, I came across the Twilight Trail Run at Koteewi Park in Strawtown, IN. It was close to home at a mere 20 minutes away and it raised money for one of my favorite things; state and local parks!

Having never set foot in Koteewi park, I was a bit excited to see what they had to offer. My family enjoys hiking and partaking in the various state parks, so this was a good opportunity for some scouting of the area. Plus, the race was labeled as a ‘trail run’ which I’ve been dying to try out in earnest for some time. When I arrived, I felt quite at home to see the rolling prairies that made up the park as well as many well groomed foot paths that led deep into the surrounding woods. It seemed form the start that this would be a good introduction to trail running for me as it wasn’t going to be too technical nor would it be too easy such as the foot paths back in my subdivision.

The race offered two categories; a 5 mile competitive run and a 2.25 mile fun run. This was a decision that I agonized over for a full week before registering. I’ve run up to 5.5 miles several times before, so I wasn’t too worried about the 5 mile distance in and of itself. Here recently, I’ve started strength training three times a week which includes squats. At the same time, my running speeds have increased DRASTICALLY! All of sudden, I”m clocking 3.7 mile runs at 11:54 min/mile! This new found speed was untested at the 5 mile mark out however. The problem was that the race info stated specifically that this race was a competitive race with a minimum pace of 13 min/mile. My best 5 mile time was about 13:34. So, not knowing ahead of time how technical or hilly this trail was going to be, nor the consequences of dipping below the 13 minute pace, I opted to try out my new found speed and went with the sure bet of the 2.25 mile race.

At my first race on labor day, I was nothing but nerves, worrying if I was going to be able to run the whole course, would I set out too fast, would I look like an idiot. For this race, those first run jitters were gone and I was pretty calm and confident. I run a good 3 miles a day so 2.25 miles was nothing really. Plus, the course didn’t look too daunting, so I was ready to go. The weather was cool and the sky was clear, so it was a perfect evening for a run. The pacemaker gathered the group and walked us into the woods a fair clip to the starting line and from there, gave us a simple ‘ready, set, go’ and we were on our way.

The trails were flat and relatively dry which was surprising after the pop up thunderstorms the night before, so the run started off well. I always drift to the back of the pack to avoid being in the way of any of the faster runners, so I started out with the walkers. I didn’t remain there for long though. I found my pace and as we rounded the trail into the first stretch through the prairies, I was churning away and feeling good. The course was actually quite lovely, understated in the race literature. We wove in and out of the woods, through tall prairie grasses, back into the shade of overhanging trees and ran along the White River as well.

For the first mile, I round myself running with an older gentleman who shared in a few laughs with me as the younger kids would sprint past us and we would eventually pass them by panting on the edge of the course. The crowds were spread out well so there wasn’t too much congestion to worry about, so we made good time. As we entered the woods at the half mile mark, he opted to walk to let his heart rate settled and I pressed on on my own. Soon, the water station at the 1 mile mark was upon us and the 5 mile runners set left and I was guided straight ahead, to where I ran the remainder of the race by myself.

The final 1.25 mile was a long looping course that spent the entirety of its time in the tall grasses. Towards the end, the 5 mile course converged again for a short while, and then veered off for their final leg up a long grassy hill. Myself, I proceeded on for a good quarter mile around one last stand woods to enter from the back side of the race. Up until this point, my experience at the Inaugural Twilight Trail Run was pretty stellar, but as I came to the end it became apparent that the race organizers didn’t really give a crap about the out come of the fun run as we were pointed around one last bend and told ‘run that way, watch out for truck’. We came out of the woods, up a small hill to face the back side of the finish line where nobody was there to tell us if we were done, where to go, good job or even ‘get out of the way’. It was okay though, I crossed the finish line on my own accord and that was that.

The redeeming factor of this forgotten finish? When I looked at the finish time as I crossed, I had to do a double take. During my run I had felt like I was fighting for breath quite a few times and felt a bit more fatigued as usual. I figured it was because I was unaccustomed to evening runs and maybe the course was a bit hillier than I had originally thought. But now, I had finished my 2.25 fun run in 22 minutes which according to Runkeeper was a 9:47 pace. I’ve been struggling hitting a 12 minute pace for some time! A 9:47 pace was enough to make me not care at all about the sloppy finish line! To top it off, when I finished none of the 5 milers were back yet and I spotted one other person with a big on waiting for the race to end. Though not official by any means, judging from the sole runner at the finish and my time of 22 minutes? I think I may have actually finished second in that fun run!

In the end, I loved my time at the Koteewi Park Trail Run! It was a great evening for a run and once again, it was a blast getting out there with a lot of other people and getting caught up in the excitement of it all. Soon thereafter, I left to go out to dinner with the family as it was my scheduled cheat night on my diet and I just ran a race, so bring on the food! I’ll be back for the 2nd annual Twilight Trail Run for sure and I’ll just hope for a tighter run ship at the finish line. Then again, next time I’ll be running the 5 mile race for sure, so it won’t be quite the same problem by then.

In case you’re wondering, I do indeed have the running bug. My next race is going to be the 4.5 mile Drumstick Dash in Broadripple, IN on Thanksgiving morning, should our family schedule allow it.

To be clear, I am not a photographer and have no desire to be one! I’m enjoying the heck out of snapping pics of sunrises and ‘outside’ while out running however. I honestly find something new to marvel at every time I go out. It’s a big part of why I’m pretty sure running on a treadmill will never work out well for me.

The running is going great here in Cinema Fromage land and I absolutely love it, currently piling up around 16 miles per week. So glad to have finally made myself take that first step! My first 5k happens on September 3rd and I can’t wait. I’m sure there will be some pictures of that.

Total Mileage:
Running Year to Date: 90.13 mi
August to Date: 47.1 mi

As you can see, the bug start to sink in at the beginning of this month!

I’m still walking too, I’m up to 237.22 miles for the year!

Until next time…

This pas weekend found me back home in the northern climbs of Plymouth, IN for a wedding. I was faced with some time to myself in the morning ours and some nice mid 70 degree temps, so it seemed like it was the perfect time for a run. I had setout to see how far I could go, perhaps I’d push on for a full hour long run. Turns out, thanks to the rest day on Friday, the nice temps and the stellar scenic trails added by the Plymouth Parks Department, I managed a whopping 4.2 mile run!

Up until this point, my running has been contained solely to my subdivision. We do have some trails to run on there, but they’re all in open fields and there simply isn’t much as far as wooded areas go. Being able to hit these trails in the Plymouth Park was a nice change of pace. They were well wooded, which meant cool and shady. It was just comfortable to run in! It was rather scenic as well, being able to see things like the passing Yellow River, the high banks on the far side (including the spot where my best friend Rick used to take his dates to see his ‘deck’!)(Really, it was a deck overlooking the river!) which was a drastic change to flat soccer fields and over grown ‘nature areas’ at home.

Though I didn’t get to hit very much in the way of actual dirt packed single track type trails, there were some and I made sure to give them a visit. I’ve been a (lax) hiker for many years and really love to do some long day hikes here and there. I’ve never tried actual trail running though. Being able to hit the few dirt trails at the park awakened me to the idea and it’s take hold like a tick! There’s just something zen like about coursing through a tight back trail, trees encroaching close to either side, the smell of dirt and nature as you inhale fresh air deep into your lungs! This is something I definitely plan on doing more of; I’m feeling a strong pull to go off road. I definitely have to start planning some trail exercursions for this fall when the temperatures start to get comfortable. It also makes a great excuse to do a bit of camping this fall, which will thrill my wife for sure. (Not sarcastic! She’s been itching to go camping!)

So, the visit back home was a good. It was great seeing family I haven’t seen in some time and it was great hearing ‘holy crap, you HAVE lost a ton of weight!’ repeatedly throughout the weekend. Being able to 4.2 miles for the first time was definitley a highlight however. I was able to follow up this long haul with a short 1.5 mile run on Sunday afternoon and then backup to my standard 3.11 miles this morning, so it didn’t even break me. How about that?

This looks pretty great! Up until now…there’s no way I’d be capable of doing something like this. Now? I may be able to pull it off for next year. Check out Runforyourlives.com. Seems like a good intro to something like Toughmudder.