No Chart Today

Just a summary of the days events...

My 1st 5K today in Pasadena. I don't think anyone expected the cold rainstorm that blew into Southern California from Alaska. It wasn't really that cold but a bit of snow fell on the mountains. 

Was up at 4:25 AM to drive to Pasadena so I could arrive before they closed the parking lots. A nice 20 minute walk in the rain from the Cal Tech parking lot to the start line on Colorado Boulevard in front of Pasadena City College. I was there in time to watch the marathon and 1/2 marathon start in the rain. LOTS of participants! 

After those 4,312 runners went by it was time for the 5K start. There were 771 runner/walkers who finished between 17:03 and 4:00:00. That's 17 minutes for 1st and 4 hours for 771st. I came in 448th or 11th in my sex/age division, less than 5 minutes behind the 10th place guy.

Pretty good for my first race. If you know me, you know I've never been a runner. I'm anxious for the next race so I can see some improvement. I think I'll shoot for the LA Kings 5K run that goes around Staples Center in downtown LA. You get a free ticket to the hockey game that night. That's a great deal! It's on April 4th. Should be fun!

After I finished the 5K, the rain came pouring down and I found a tent to wait out the storm, but not before I grabbed lots of free samples of drinks and energy bars and other cool stuff from the vendors. 

Then it was up to Lucky Baldwin's in Sierra Madre for some fish & chips, Maredsous 6 Blonde Ale and a Nub Cameroon with my good friend Danny from Stogie Info. 

Now I'm chillaxin' and wondering what to grill for dinner. Still need to write 2 syllabi tonight for classes that start tomorrow. Cheers!

Pasadena 5K Tomorrow!

They may call it the Pasadena Marathon but I'm going there for the 5K. A great tune up as I emerge from winter. I've simplified the chart. My line is flattening out a bit but look fore steepness starting next week as I increase my running time. 

Let's hope it doesn't rain too early in the morning on Sunday. My start time is 6:50AM.

Click on the chart for a bigger version.

Milestone

Lost 20 lbs as of today. Although my chart doesn't show that, I was actually about 3 lbs heavier before I started recording my progress. Less than 10 lbs to go until my BMI is in the normal range. 

Ran 5 miles today. Too much heat. I need to schedule my runs at dusk or dawn. It's been rather cool lately. The heat snuck up on me. One more run before the race on Sunday. I think I'm ready.

Milestones

I've been busy so I haven't posted my progress for a few days. I generated a chart a few times but didn't get as far as blogging it. You'll see I changed it a bit to reflect my weight change and calories burned through fitness activities. Right now that consists of walking and running. Biking and swimming will come later.

I use the Nike+ to track my distances and notice that the device tells me I burn more calories for my weight than the LiveStrong.com website does. I need to do some additional analysis to see if I'm telling the LiveStrong.com website the right information. The Nike+ calculates automatically based up the calibration I did on the device. It knows how far I've run or walked and I simply need to enter my weight every day. Yesterday the Nike+ told me I burned 600 calories while LiveStrong.com determined it was 553. On LiveStrong.com I have to tell it how many mph I'm running or walking. Since I have my Nike+ set to kms, my conversion may be inaccurate. Next run I'll switch to miles and break my run/walk sections into different sessions so I can get an accurate read.

I've decided the Iron Creek Triathlon is too far off and I need to set some small goals along the way. Since my current training has me covering 5 - 6K each session, I figured I should try a 5K race. I signed up for a 5K in Pasadena. It's next Sunday so I have 3 more days of training runs before that happens. Since I run 5K on Sundays anyway, why not get a t-shirt to do it. Now I'm trying to decide what's the next goal to set, another 5K or should I go for a 10K. I've been looking for another run in late April. I'll let next Sunday's results decide on the 5 or 10K distance.

Net loss!

Wow! An actual net loss over the weekend. That's a first! My first goal is now less than 10 lbs away. A good run yesterday. A personal best!

Status:

Start: 209.2

Now: 193.6

Goal: 183.8

Burn!!!

Click the chart to see a full size version

Calves & thighs ached a bit today when I started the run but I forgot about it once I worked through my intervals. Can't wait til Sunday when I run again. On Tuesday I bump my run time up 3 minutes. Should be fun. Finished the first chapter of Triathlon Training for Dummies. Great book with lots of information. It's answering all my questions. There's a lot to learn.

Here's a list of the things I need to buy and do:

• Tune up bike
• Evaluate water bottle cage capacity
• Buy new helmet
• Buy goggles
• Buy triathlon suit
• Buy new bike shoes and pedals
• Buy bag to hold gear 
• Find cheapest way to ship bike to South Dakota
• Figure out way to blog with text and photos during the race

August 22 is not that far away!

Slight Ache

I'm feeling a little of the aftereffects of a few months of being a couch/desk/recliner potato. I little ache in my legs. I'm happy that I am following a plan that eases me into my training. Otherwise, I'd be running a 10K everyday and I'd surely hurt myself or have a heart attack.

Now I have to adapt to my exercise and not try to make up the calories I'm burning by eating more. Eat the same and let the exercise get me to my goal which is just 15 days away.

Status 

Lost: 14.8 lbs. 

Remaining: 10.6 lbs.

Now that I'm running, I should have no problem reaching my goal in a reasonable amount of time.

Also, I changed my chart to reflect Net Calories burned and added Extra Calories burned to show the benefit of exercise.

Now... off to lunch!

Huge Dip & Tri Training

It's been a good week. Once my body flushed itself of all the impurities of the crap I ate on the weekend, I find myself at my lowest recorded weight so far. This is the lowest I've been at least since July when I started the daily recording of my weight. 

My stomach is getting used to the smaller meals. Last night I made some stir fry veggies with light butter, no salt and no oil. Very low calories but I probably ate too much. I felt very full.

Today I started my triathlon training. I'm actually doing a Couch-to-5K and then a beginner's sprint triathlon plan. I don't want to be too aggressive and end up with foot and knee problems again. It's been too long since I've been out for a run. It was very nice and I love that I burned almost 500 calories in about an hour. I'll be running 3 days a week for the next 8 weeks. I add cycling in late April and swimming in late May. The triathlon is on August 22.

I'm discovering a lot about triathlons. Training techniques, gear for running, biking, swimming. How do I get my bike to South Dakota? Flights are cheap now at $298. Plus $80 to $175 each way to check the bike as baggage. Plus I'll need a bag or box to pack it in. Or I can use a service for around $200 round trip plus packing. That might be the route to go. I wonder how much insurance is? I'll find all that out as the weeks pass by.

My Timex Ironman Flix watch is perfect for the interval training. It has 9 intervals and I used 7 so I'll be fine. I can even hear the beeping over the sound of the iPod. I couldn't find my Nano today so I could track my stats with my Nike+. I remembered when it was once I got home. It was not charged anyway so I charged it and we're all ready for Friday!

Huge Bump

After being prompted by BBB, I realized that I haven't posted an update for a week. I was out of town last week without a scale. You can see the green line flattens out and jump a bit once I was able to weigh myself. I restrained myself fairly well and didn't eat too badly. I'm sure the bump would have been worse had I not been a good boy.

After a couple of false starts, I officially start my triathlon training on Wednesday. Very mild at first but I might add a bit more to accelerate myself. Maybe I'll even try a 5 or 10K along the way to the Iron Creek Xterra Triathlon on August 22 in South Dakota. Stay tuned.