trail run - 20221229

jogging 2020-2022

I got into trail running in 2019.  I got out of it in 2020-2021.  I am back in 2022, however.

I changed jobs and no longer work by the Chattahoochee national forest, but I live 15 mins from Kennesaw mtn, and it has a great 5 mile loop.

I've done it several times in just under an hour.  No speed record, but healthy and better for my heart -- I can hover around 180bpm rather than verging on 207, which I am advised is too high.

i am become a jogger, destroyer of calves

I jogged today (Saturday) because i missed Friday but wanted to keep progressing toward Thanksgiving 5k readiness.  I wound up going jogging 7.9 miles (then walking another .4) - nobody was more surprised than me.  That is more than double my previous personal best (of around 3.5 miles).

Observations:

• running slow helped me go much further
• I averaged barely 6mph - just under 10 minute miles.
• music (wife's exercise playlist) and progress notifications (from runtastic app) help.
• They're distracting and encouraging, respectively.
• uphill is hard
• i might have been able to keep going, except that the last quarter mile or so was all uphill so i was pretty winded.
• better shoes would have helped a little
• I left my running shoes at work and wore normal new balance sneakers, which were okay but I did notice the difference
• My calves were sore later in the day
• i did walk to cool down a bit, and then even sort of stretched... for about 45 seconds :)

The route was nearly my whole neighborhood -- all the little side streets and cul-de-sacs -- I just hugged the right curb and went all through the (no outlet) neighborhood streets.

My phone died at 5.74 miles (which was 57 minutes in), so 6mph jogging.  The 7.9 mi jog + 0.4 mi walk took from 7:37am to 9:15 - 98 minutes, so about 5mph all told.

So anyway, I hate running less than i used to, mostly because i don't run now - i jog slow.

Longest biking in a while

I went biking by myself on Saturday and covered a little more than 37 miles in a little less than 3 hours.  I am very saddle-sore, but gratified that i was able to go from home to work and back.  Perhaps in the near future I'll try actually biking to work for work.

Too bad it's getting dark early (and i'd have to leave super early be there showered and ready for my 8:30 meeting).

Milestones

A couple notable achievements:

• On Feb 25, 2017, I ran the Lost Mountain 5k.   I finished in 27:20.08 -- a personal best (although i've only 2 two 5ks previously).
• On Feb 27, 2017, I squatted 225 (5 sets of 5 reps) for the first time.  This was a milestone because it's 2 45lb plates on each side.

I've been less disciplined on the diet side and my weight has ticked up to around 187, but if I can continue to improve my run and lift I'm not concerned.

Today was a good lifting day -- aside from the 225 squat, I deadlifted 265, hazarded some overheads (despite my shoulder) at 85 lbs, did 51 pull-ups (in sets of 8-11), and did planks (2m front, 1:15 each side).

Most importantly, i feel my efforts toward exercise have continued to make me more functional: I was able to mix a lot of concrete and set 17 posts for a garden enclosure on Saturday (after running the 5k).  That's not something I'd have been able to do a year ago.

Not dead yet!

I've continued exercising and eating moderately.

In the last 4 months i've lost another 10 lbs or so -- I'm down to about 185 despite getting stronger.

Strength

I can squat 215 lbs, deadlift 250, bench press 140, and barbell row 140.  I stopped doing the overhead press because i have a bad shoulder.  I lift maybe 1.8 times per week -- I shoot for two but sometimes stuff gets in the way.  I've also started doing planks trying to improve my core strength.  In classes when we do core stuff I do very, very badly.

Cardio

I wound up running that 5k at Thanksgiving, and with a younger member of the family involved it wasn't a very aggressive pace, so i did fine.  It'd been about a month since I'd done any other cardio, so on Tuesday I did a Spin class -- it was super hard.  Today I went jogging and did 2.8 miles in about 26:12.  Not blazing, but I was pleased.  I need to give this some more attention.

Weight

I'd still like to drop a little more weight -- i've still got some love handles.  I'd been targeting 185, but now that I'm pretty much there I think i'll stay the course for 180 and see how it goes.

Diet

On good, well-disciplined days, I eat:

• Breakfast: two eggs with cheese over a giant handful of spinach (wilted with butter in a pan).
• Lunch: container of jerk or blackened chicken, container broccoli, apple, yogurt with berries.
• Dinner: chicken, grain (rice, quinoa, couscous, pasta), vegetable (usually broccoli).

The meals are satisfying, but i do find myself wanting snacks between.  Being at work away from food is good for avoiding that.

I cheat a good bit -- on Wednesdays I eat lots of carbs and dessert (dinner at church) and on weekends I cheat extremely.  It's a lot of chicken, which is expensive and hard on the wife to constantly cook.  It's a lot of broccoli, but it's cheap and easy and i like it.

Trajectory

The diet feels fairly sustainable, I'm not that miserable.  The exercise takes a lot of time, but I don't hate it and want it to work out.  As work demands more time I may need to become one of those morning exercise people, but that sounds awful.

Like a Phoenix

After a good effort in 2013 to shape up, I fell off the wagon (work circumstances cut into my time available for this, and it didn't take much to persuade me to stop).  In early-mid 2016 those circumstances changed again allowing me to resume a fitness regime.

In May I began lifting.  I followed the StrongLifts 5x5 program whose primary goal is "getting stronger."

My goal was to forestall middle-aged-guy back problems, be strong enough to rough-house with my children for a few more years, and burn off some of the fat I'd put on (I'd eclipsed 200 lbs -- a wake-up call).

I lifted 3 times a week for about 13 weeks and made steady improvements -- until the last month where I plateaued.  Following that, in the last few weeks, I transitioned to lifting twice a week and go to a spin class and a "boot camp" class.

Concurrent with the lifting, I changed my diet.  I've eaten out for lunch less, asked for healthier dinners, and significantly cut back on bread, pasta, and cereal, and looked for ways to up my protein intake (I eat a lot more chicken, eggs, and beans than I did before).  I still splurge on weekends and occasional restaurants, but my weekly caloric intake is still well below what it was before.

The upshot is that now, in September, I've lost about 7lbs (down to 195!) despite gaining a lot of muscle, so i assume the fat loss was much more significant.

Finally, at a relative's suggestion, the family is considering a Thanksgiving 5k.  I've started working toward that, although jogging is easily my least-favorite exercise.  Hopefully these things will work together to make me a paragon of fitness and I can become a first-time ninja warrior competitor at 40.

I have a good way to go -- I've still got a spare tire around my midsection i'd be glad to shed, but I feel like the diet and exercise (while not pleasurable), are pretty sustainable if i had to.  Hopefully my schedule continues to permit them.

I may chronicle some things here -- i won't be so granularly detailed, but I'd like a journal of what happened for later reference.