weight lifting

Sorry I haven't updated in a while. As far as fitness this is what I've been up to...

I've stopped working on distance running.

Now I run a mile or two as fast as I can. My best mile time is 7:14 and best two mile is 17:06

After my warm up run I do some weight lifting.

For weight lifting i have been using strong lifts 5x5, which is a great program, followed by bodybuilding.com's ab workout.

That's about it nothing too exciting.

Victory

I am officially declaring myself the winner. "1010 in 2010" I have beaten you. I didn't mean to discourage you in your goals. But sadly my competition is forfeiting in light of my awesomeness. The following is posted on his blog.

Miles Traveled: 710

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The Journey to 1,010 miles is officially over. I didn't reach this goal b/c my goals have changed, adapted, and have been modified throughout the year. Official goal ends at 710 miles. Thanks for cheering me on in this journey.

That sounds like a forfeit to me.

Never give up

To win the weight loss challenge I have stuck to a strict diet, and spent a lot of time running. This week being the last week of the competition I have been going to the gym every day. Monday I ran a 5k in 30 min with the treadmill set on the Hills setting followed by 30 minutes on the exercise bike set on hills setting. Tuesday was pretty much the same routine but I ran a little faster and longer. Today I was on pace to run another 30min 5k but my legs were a little tired so after ten minutes I stopped running on the tread and did ten minutes on the rowing machine (great cardio that isn't hard on the legs.) Then I went back to the treadmill and did another mile, this time in 7:35. After that I did the exercise bike for 45minutes.

To show for all of my work I've lost exactly 1 pound since Monday. I think I need a new playlist to run to.

I am still optimistic and hope to win the challenge. I'm not even sure what I win, but winning is always fun. Secondly even if I don't win I've still lost almost all of the weight I put on while in the states. Thirdly, even more than winning and losing a bunch of weight... I look forward to eating pizza again :)

Growing up, was our mailman black?

I'm back. I would like to apologize to all of my fans that have been waiting for me to update. I will give you all a brief summary of this past summer.

Hurt my back. Stopped exercising. Slowly started gaining weight. Went back to the states. Spent 3 and a half months visiting churches, my friends, family, and favorite restaurant. Gained 30 pounds while in the states. Swam a little.

That pretty much sums it up. But I'm writing to let you all know that I've gotten back on the horse. I've joined a weight loss challenge. I've lost around 15 pounds since being back in Germany. I've been running (usually on the elliptical machine cause the treadmill hurts my back) I've been trying to get back into running. I've run a 5k a couple of times, and today I decided (I have know idea why) that I should run a 10k. The first 5 were the worst. Somehow even though it was a tough 5k I made it in exactly 30 minutes. The Second 5 were explain-ably easy. I actually ran the second 5 faster than the first and with more resistance on the machine. I have two theories as to why this is.

Theory 1. We consistently tell ourselves that we can't and getting over that wall makes all the difference. Maybe if we allowed ourselves to dream and stopped saying we can't we would realize our possibilities our endless

Theory 2. For the first 5k I listened to Feist. The second 5 I listened to dirty gangsta rap. This theory opens up a whole can of worms that I don't know if I'm prepared to deal with. It brings about questions like "What is it about black people music that inspires me?" and "Growing up, was our mailman black?"

Anyways I ran my first 10k today and it was less than an hour. 55 minutes and 42 seconds

So I thinks it's been over a month now since I last went for a jog. Fortunately my back is finally feeling better. It is not back to 100%, but it is a lot better. Maybe the end of this week or beginning of next week, I can start doing a little bit at the gym again. At the very least I want my back to be completely better before I have to sit on a plane for 8 hours. Our flight is two weeks away. I'm pretty sure that Seth can now out run me.

To the doctor

I've finally realized that my back isn't going to heal on it's own. It is no longer a sharp pain (unless I start becoming too active). I've made a doctor's appointment for next week (it was the earliest they could fit me in). It is now just an uncomfortable dull pain in my lower back. Going for walks feels good and riding my bike doesn't hurt it, other than that everything is slightly uncomfortable. sitting, sleeping, working out, running, picking something up, etc... all are uncomfortable. A little depressing knowing that all of the work I've done for fitness is now going the wrong direction.

On the other hand I have been doing a lot of walking lately. I probably walked about 5 miles Friday. And I've gone on long walks just about everyday. On Sunday I don't have a ride to church, and I am in charge of leading the service. I am planning on riding my bike the 23-25 miles there and if my back is alright I will ride my bike back the 23-25 miles. If not I'll just take the train back home.

My back felt better this morning, so I went to the gym to work out and do some running. It didn't take long for all of the back pains to come back. Everything I did seemed to hurt too. So I walked on the treadmill for 1km (18 minutes) and it seemed to help my back a little. I think I am just going to have to stop working-out and running for a while until my back is completely better. If it's not better by monday I will probably have to go to the doctor.

I Jogged .5 km to the gym

Walked 1 km at on the treadmill

Walked .5km home. And I'm counting every bit of it.

2KM for today.

Even though I haven't been able to do any kind of strenuous physical training I take comfort 1 Timothy 4:8

train yourself to be godly. ⁸For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.

The important things to train for aren't done at the gym.

Breaking through the wall

Every runner talks about hitting "the Wall." It is simply your mind being a pansy and telling your body that you are done. If you keep going you realize you can do a lot more than you thought possible.

Yesterday may back started hurting again, and I decided I just need to get out of the house and get some exercise. So I went to the gym and did several back exercises. It seemed to be helping. So I got on the treadmill and started running. I think with every step my back got worse and worse. As an experienced runner I knew that I was just hitting a "wall" and if I kept going it would be alright.

Apparently "the Wall" does serve a purpose. By the time I hit my first mile I was barely able to move any more. I was barely able to change out of my gym close. I'm glad I didn't cry in the locker room, it would have been embarrassing.

The day didn't get any better either. I went grocery shopping and dropped a glass bottle of BBQ sauce and a bottle of 7-up. Made a huge mess on my clothes and the magazine rack at the grocery store. So I came home to wash my clothes and found out the the washing machine wasn't working. I had to climb under the sink with my bad back to try to hook up the washer again.

My back is feeling a little better today. I think that has something to do with the Advil. I hope it gets completely better so that I can get back to working out. I had the goal to be bench-pressing my body weight as part of my work-out, before we go back to the states this summer. But with my back problems I think I'll be lucky if my body weight is my max. That and the fact that I've gained 10 kilograms since I started working towards this goal. A little discouraging all in all. Right now I am benching 80 kilos 5x5. I hope to make it to 90 before we leave in about 6 weeks.

Ran: 1.6 Km

A NEW CONTENDER

A new competitor has stepped up to the plate. http://under200in2010.blogspot.com/ I want you to know that I'm not afraid of you.

Yesterday at the gym I was really motivated to run and decided that I was going to get as close to jogging a 10k as I could. The mind was willing, but the body was weak. I slowed down my running speed so that I could jog for a longer period, but I ended up just throwing off my pace. I barely made it 5k and I added about ten minutes onto my regular time. Maybe tomorrow I will try again at my regular pace and see how far I can get.

I've decided to start counting how many Kilometers I travel on my bicycle. I won't add this number to the total but will make a separate counter for it on the side. I have an odometer for my bicycle which I started using a couple of weeks ago.

Bicycling over the past couple weeks 67.6

Running from yesterday 5.27

I know you are probably wondering "is this guy using physical enhancers?" and the answer is YES if you consider awesomeness a physical enhancer.

Weird Workout Habits

I went on a 14k bicycle ride today and my mouth started hurting. I then realized that when I am jogging or exercising I tend to use my tongue to play with a filling in the top right half of my mouth. The filling feels weird, but I don't know why I do this when exercising.

Also I noticed yesterday that I sometimes curl my toes when I am jogging. I don't know when I started this or why. It leads me to wonder what other strange things do I do sub-consciously when I am working-out.

Do you have any strange exercise habits? If you don't exercise, do you have any strange couch-potato habits?

I ran 2k on the cross-training machine, and it took me about 8 minutes. Sadly i wasn't paying that close attention to the time. But it was around the 8 minute mark.

Running is no longer a four letter word

So I went running yesterday, and I realized that when I "hit the wall" it is no longer being out of breath and gasping for air, but fatigue in the legs. It is nice to know that my legs are giving out before my respiratory system. I only made it 3k yesterday because my lower back and ankles started hurting. I walked the last 2k. I need to find stretches for my lower back.

I would like to thank the little old lady that rode past me on her bicycle yesterday. Her perfume was strong enough cover up the smell of the farmer that was fertilizing his field. And for a short time I wasn't running so much as flying. If she had ridden past me later on the trip I might have made it the whole 5k, but wouldn't have remembered any of it.

Yesterday I ran 5 km.

http://www.runningmap.com/?id=176575

I used runningmap.com to chart and measure my course.

Note to self: do not use that route on trash day, and watch for dog crap.

The Hills Are Alive

So I am at camp and have been doing a lot of running. In the afternoons we play a game in the woods where we run around, and after that we play capture the flag. It really wears you out but it is a lot of fun. After our church services on Sunday some of us went running. We estimate it was at the least 5km. However, by Illinois standards we were running in the mountains. They call them hills here, but I think of the sound of music when she sings "the hills are alive" and she is running through the mountains. I have parts of my legs that are sore that have never been sore from running. Maybe if you slip and do the splits, but never from just running. I am used to simply running on a treadmill so this was a huge difference. I think I will be sore for a while and with all of the games it will just get worse. I still plan on running again tomorrow though. (only if my shoes are dry though).

Sunday: 5km

Theories

So I hurt my back this weekend and I'm not sure how I did it. It was feeling better on Monday so I decided to run and just do some upper body workouts. I was very worried that my competition (http://1010intwentyten.blogspot.com/) would get ahead of me. Plus I'm going to be gone all of next week so I knew I would have a hard time competing against him then.

But a strange thing happened... my competition was also injured. Coincidence? I have a few theories.

1. He wanted to try out the new health care reform. Is it just a coincidence that he was injured about the same time the bill was passed?

2. He is simply having sympathy pains. Because I was hurt he too was feeling it. Or maybe it is vice versa. We have a pretty close bond.

3. Maybe somebody was feeling threatened by all of the miles he was running and put a hit on him. As of yet I have no suspects to go along with this theory.

4. He was hoping to be put on crutches, knowing that the extra bumping around would cause the pedometer to count each step double.

5. The fifth and last theory is that he was hurt playing basketball. I find this highly unlikely though and not at all as exciting as the other theories.

If I were a betting man I would guess theory number 1 to be correct. As a matter of fact I don't think I need to exercise anymore because now the government will fix everything. We don't have to be healthy because our good old uncle Sam will pay for everything with his never ending supply of money. And if he does have money problems he can just print more.

Yesterday: I ran 6.29 km

Today: I wish I hadn't

Today I tried to focus on endurance running. Instead of running my normal half an hour I decided to increase it to 45 min. I slowed down the speed to a little bit slower than what I normally run at and kept it there until 30 min. After the first 30 minutes I kept increasing the speed. I ended up with a total of 7.8 km. Plus however much walking I did today while I was downtown. I estimate at least a total of 10 km on foot, and another 10 on my bicycle. I am pretty tired now. I think I should go to bed.

BEST WORKOUT EVER!!!

So today I had the best workout ever. I reached several small goals.

First, I easily completed a goal on bench press.

Secondly, I decided to run a mile as fast as I could. So I turned up the tread mill and took off. I almost gave up in the middle. I started to slow the thing down and give up. Then I realized I was already over halfway there so I sped it back up. I made a mile in 6:22. I have never wanted to die so badly before.

Thirdly, It was awesome workout today because after I ran the mile and caught my breath again, I felt like I had even more energy than before and added extra to my workout.

Fourth, after I was finished running I and started working out again, someone I know came up and started talking to me. And then I had someone to workout with. Which always makes it more fun, and I haven't had anybody to workout with since I was in the states.

I almost got on the cross training machine at the end of my second workout but decided to take it easy and not over do it, and then maybe I can get some running in tomorrow as well.

Total for today: 2 km

Don't forget to check out Seth's Blog too. He is currently having a give-a-way. http://1010intwentyten.blogspot.com/

Jell-o Legs

So today when I was running at the gym when my legs starting getting tired and I wanted to quit after only 10 minutes of running. With all of the extra running I've been doing lately I don't know if my legs can take it. I've always got that rubbery, jell-oey feeling. However it is nice to know that the reason I want to quit is because of sore legs and not because I'm gasping for air.
Even though I wanted to give up I kept pushing on, because a man that was about 30 years older than me kept looking over at my screen like he was competing with me. And I was not about to be embarrassed. I WON!!!. He quit after about 4o minutes of running. I had started about 10 minutes ahead of him, but I couldn't quit at the same time he did. I knew it would look suspicious. So to make a long story short I ran 55 minutes (5 of those were running backwards, and another five was the cool down).
8.58 Km.

p.s. I have gained 3 kilograms since I started all of this running (actually just in the last week). Isn't my weight supposed to be going in the other direction. Either that or the scale at the gym is messed up.

Pedometer

I really want to get a pedometer before I leave for church camp in two weeks, since I will probably be doing a lot of running while I'm there. Does anybody have any suggestions for a good pedometer (that doesn't cost much).


Today 5.46 Km.
plus (doesn't count towards total) 2.5 km walk to pick up my bicycle from the train station
plus (" " ) 2.5 bicycle ride back

So I thought after running all last week it would eventually get easier. I also thought that since I had 2 days to rest since my last run it would be an easy day of running. I think I gave up around 4 km. today but actually stopped at 4.3
Tips for all of you runners out there:
1. Wear underwear
2. Stretch
3. Listen to music to get your mind off of wanting to puke
4. Don't cry in Public

Total today 4.3 Km

I only made it 1 kilometer today and to all that have doubted my previous blog. That is my foot.


1 km.

Dang it. I've got a blister on my little toe from all of this running. In fact all of my toes are hurting. I hate running. At least it is getting easier.

March 5th

Before

After

5.43 on the treadmill today
7.00 on the exercise bike (too bad it doesn't count towards the total)

March 3rd

I ran 5.14 Kilometers today. I'd like to give a shout-out to my boy L.L. Cool J for inspiring me to get through the last five minutes of my run today.
"I'm gonna knock you out (HUUUH!!!)
Mama said knock you out (HUUUH!!!)
Don't u call this a regular jam
I'm gonna rock this land..."

YOU'RE GOING DOWN SETH

You don't stand a chance against me and my European measurement system.

The beginning

Seth has inspired me to run more. So even though he has had a two month head start I am still determined to run more Kilometers in 2010 than he will run miles.

Feb 27. I ran 5 kilometers
March 2. I ran 5 kilometers