Once again, the blog is going Pink for October in remembrance of my mother, and as an encouragement to all those dealing with the impact of breast cancer on their lives, whether it be to themselves or a loved one. Though not every battle may be won, we must fight on in the war against cancer, and there is no greater weapon than the support of loved ones!
We still love you, Mom, and our thoughts are always with you…
This morning, I ran my second 5k race in the Pittsburgh Great Race. This time it was a much more forgiving course than my first 5k as it was a predominantly downhill course running through the central parts of the city. It was also much more crowded, being one of 4000 on the course this time instead of 1200 like last time. My wife was able to come along with my son and cheer me on this time as well. They even got a picture of me running near the finish line in Point State Park (I would be the one in the neon green shorts):
However, again, it was a lot of fun, and very fulfilling. I went into the race looking to improve on the 36:31 time I had last time, with a goal of 35:00 (which, honestly, I wasn’t very optimistic about because I hadn’t trained in 10 days and had been bordering on exhaustion recently). However, things went much better than expected, as I powered across the finish line at the 34:42 mark (you can see it on the local CBS stations, KDKA’s website, where you’ll see me cross the finish line on the right side right around the 4:40 mark of the video). Knowing I was a block or so away from the starting line at the gun, I knew my time was even better than that. When the results were finally posted this evening, I ended up with a time of 32:33, which is a 10:28/mile pace.
Needless to say, I’m very happy with a near 4-minute improvement on my time, but it’s also going to wrap up the race season for me, and I’ll be doing more indoor and elliptical training come the colder season (plus, it’s been getting really dark by the time I’ve been getting to run lately). I’ll just have to start picking out what races I want to do next year, so I have new targets to be training for!
Wednesday is my Dad’s 60th birthday, so yesterday we took him out golfing in the morning, and then surprised him with a party, with family in from out of town, as well as a New England themed menu. Then to top it all off, I made him this cake:
The island green part of the cake is a yellow cake made from scratch with a maraschino cherry cream filling. I made the two different shades of green buttercream frosting to distinguish the green from the rough, piped on the wooden edging of the green, and used brown sugar for a sand trap. The water is a thin layer of blue buttercream frosting that is lightly textured to look like water.
Then, the tee boxes are over a chocolate sour cream cake with a peanut butter frosting filling. I marked the different tees with little colored cookie-decorating candies, and piped on all of that lovely rough by hand.
Both cakes turned out really well (especially the chocolate one…that was excellent!), and everybody enjoyed them (especially my son). Not too bad for working into the wee hours of the morning and bordering on exhaustion if I do say so myself!
Well, it’s been a month since my last non-race update, and I’d just like to share that I’m continuing to make progress. Twice in the last two weeks I was able to complete my 3.3 mile circuit without any breaks (once in each direction around the loop). While that might not seem too impressive, it is a very hilly route. Going one way, it’s got a mile-plus consistent gradual uphill climb, and going the other way, it’s got several shorter and steep climbs.
And then tonight was my best feeling run yet. I completed the route with the long, gradual climb, and felt like I could have gone another mile when I finished. Usually I feel like I’m on my last legs, so it was invigorating to feel so good after a run.
And now I’ve got another 16 days until Pittsburgh’s Great Race to try and improve my initial 5k time from two weeks ago. Looking forward to it!
Today I ran my first 5k Race, the Run Around the Square in the Regent Square section of Pittsburgh (near where I used to live in grad school). All in all, it was a very fun experience, and one that I am eager to do again in the near future
Even though I typically do 3.3 mile runs on my own, I still struggled some in the race. The second mile of the race was mostly uphill, and I struggled with that. In fact, I struggled with some sections enough that I did walk portions of the race. I hated to do it, as one of my goals was to run the entire race, but I just wasn’t quite at that point yet (something I’m hoping to work on for next time). Thankfully, the third mile was nearly all downhill, and I was able to pick up the pace to finish strong.
I went into the race with a goal time of 37:12 (a 12min/mile pace), and despite my walking, did still manage to get under that, finishing the race in 36:31 (a 11:47min/mile pace). And that was a time which I was very happy with, considering I really just started running in June at about a 15min/mile pace. Now it will be a matter of building my endurance (and probably better control my pace) for the next time so I can complete a race without the need to walk.
In the end, it was a great experience, and I set a benchmark for me to improve from in the future. Though I may not be a natural runner, I’m enjoying getting into it and pushing myself to do better, and get that competitiveness in me satisfied for a little while longer.
Up next? Well, I’ve got my eye either on Pittsburgh’s Great Race, or ZooZilla at the Pittsburgh Zoo. I’ll probably be deciding shortly which one I’ll do.
Ok, do you remember all that positive stuff I wrote almost two weeks ago?
Throw it out the window!
So, now I have two confessions to make:
Oh, and in the same time, I haven’t been watching what I’ve eaten very well. And what does that lead to? Yep. Weight Gain. It’s only a pound, but it is still going in the wrong direction…So, nothing really good to report. I really did feel I was in a good place a few weeks ago, but maybe it was simply overconfidence. Regardless, the last few weeks have reminded me how much hard work and dedication this process is going to require.
So, it’s been two weeks since I updated the log, but I am still making progress. Over the past 7 weeks, I have managed to drop more than 7 pounds. Granted, it’s not a ton of weight, but it’s been consistent and I don’t feel like I’m in danger of suddenly regressing and putting that all back on in a week. I really do feel like I could keep doing this at this rate for a number of months and drop the 30-40 pounds I was hoping to.
I’ve definitely made some changes that are for the better in addition to the exercise. I’ve been committed to packing myself a relatively healthy lunch each day (Peanut Butter and Jelly [well, orange marmalade for now], chips/pretzels, and a yogurt [preferably cherry, and not the Light crap that only saves you like 30 calories]) and drinking more water. We’re also eating out less, and I’m eating more appropriate portions for dinner.
I’ve also made the occasional exception for my exercise, as there has been a lot of yard work to do in the last few weeks as we dug trenches to lay new drainage pipe in our yard. I did notice that the last two times I was out running (Saturday morning in Williamsport at my mother-in-laws, which was at least flat and the first time I’ve run a route besides my normal loop, and back at home tonight) that I didn’t have the same stamina as I did when I was keeping up with running three times a week. I’ll have to get back to that, especially if I’d like to do some 5k races, but I am continuing to lose the weight nonetheless, thankfully.
Of course there’s still a long way to go, but that’s a challenge I look forward to now, and don’t dread the way I once did.
Yes, the weight loss efforts do continue, even though it’s been almost two weeks since I updated the blog. I had a few weekends of trench digging and yard work, so I really haven’t done too much running in the last two weeks (only last Friday and tonight since the last update). Part of that has been the effort I put into that (I spent around 16 hours digging a trench for a drainage pipe in 85+ degree heat, so I figure that counts for something), and I’ve also been trying to give my knee a break since it was getting sore on me back on the first of July.
I have been taking a glucosamine supplement the last few weeks to try and make my joints a little more flexible. Hard to tell how much of a difference it’s making, but coupled with the rest, it’s helped a lot. Tonight, I managed to pound out my 3.3 mile loop in 39 minutes with no more than a half-mile of that in a single stretch at a brisk walk. At the end, my body really wanted to just let up and stroll into the finish, but I pushed through it and managed to make it to my end point (at the bottom of our hill…walking up that is my cool down). Considering the amount of running I’ve been doing lately, I was very happy to see a sub-40:00 time for my run.
As for the weight loss, as of Saturday I had lost almost another two pounds since the end of June. And I’m almost amazed at that because last week was a pretty bad one for me in terms of eating. Work has been really stressful lately (currently at 4 guys running a 5-man team, and two of them have only been on the job for two months, so I’ve been doing the work of at least two people), and when I get stressed out I want quick comfort food. So, last week included Wendy’s, Taco Bell, pizza and Quaker Steak & Lube. Sure, it tasted good, and each of those on occasion is fine, but throwing all that into one week is a bad idea. I really need to watch myself and put the extra effort into making my lunches for work so that I’m lest tempted to run out and grab something bad for me. It truly is a discipline issue that I need to work on, both in terms of managing my stress and how I deal with it.
In the end, I’m still making progress, though my meal choices have been limiting the potential of that progress. It’s time to focus on better controlling my diet, as difficult as that may be.
There’s been a lot of talk on sports radio today about JaMarcus Russell, the #1 pick of the 2007 NFL Draft by the Oakland Raiders who got released this off-season, getting busted for codeine syrup possession in his home over the weekend, and how all that talent is going to waste. Going to waste? Clearly the NFL “Experts” have not been doing their job the last three years, kinda like Russell.
I’m not sure how it slipped through the cracks, but Russell had only one truly positive attribute as a quarterback: he could throw the ball a country mile. I argued back in 2007 that he probably shouldn’t even be a first rounder, let alone the top pick, because he couldn’t read defenses (no “throw over it is not a read”) and made his living at LSU by throwing the ball deep to WRs who had already run five yards past the nearest defender. In a league that is defined by precision passing, that kind of approach just wasn’t going to cut it. For every burner at WR, there’s one at DB who can keep up with him.
And let’s not forget the lackadaisical attitude that he played with. There was never any fire displayed in his time as a bayou Tiger, nor any semblance of leadership. Instead, he was satisfied with his ability to throw over defenses and expected that to work in the pros.
So Al Davis, who couldn’t pick out talent if you lined up the two Pro Bowl rosters in front of him, went ahead and took him anyway. So, now on a young team with limited talent and no leadership in the locker room or on the sidelines, JaMarcus was able to “unleash the beast” by holding out and begin his strict workout regimen of gaining 50 lbs a season. Once he finally signed for ridiculous money a week into the season, he was given the opportunity to plague the team over the next 2+ seasons.
And the bottom line? You get a guy with a career QB rating of 65.2, completed just 52.1% of his passes, and managed to throw for less than 100 yards in 11 of the 30 games in which he played.
And now he’s drunk away any second chance he may have gotten by guzzling a homemade feel-good potion, which some suspect he’s been doing his entire career. And sportscasters are talking about a “waste of talent”? I’ve always thought the writing was on the wall with Russell sincehis college days, and as bad as he’s been, a “waste of time” is probably more appropriate.