Squeeee!

As in preteen-girl kind of squee.

Exciting things from today:

1.)  I dropped into the 240s today.  30 lbs lost now.  Short term goal is 240 lbs even for my CRNA school interview on Sept 19.  Long term goal?  Who knows?!  Who cares!  I'm enjoying watching the numbers on the scale go down, but I don't have a goal weight in mind.  I want to be as efficient as possible when I run, so whatever weight that turns out to be, well, I'll take it! Judging from the inches I can still pinch, my guess is that will be quite a few pounds yet.  Bring it on.

2.) I officially signed up for a 5k on Sept 14th.  Waaaaaay before I thought I'd be ready.  Previously (in 2010) I started running so that I could join family and friends in running the local Turkey Trot.  It took me months and months, and when it came time for the race I ended up walking part of it.  It went that well.  This time I think I'm ready.  I've already run the course twice by myself, so I know I can finish it without walking.  This is a very official feeling step though...

3.) A pair of my new shoes got here!  The Brooks PureCadence 2's showed up today!  Excited!!

So there.  There's your "squee" update.  And pictures:

Box lid.

Inside the lid.

 

Pure corporate drivel, but pretty cool drivel.

Inside the box.

If you had any misconceptions about how ridiculous a size 14 shoe looks...

Morning Postmeal

Morning post...morning oatmeal...morning postmeal--see what I did there?

This is a ridiculous post for sure, but I just have to share my morning "aha" moment.

I eat this Quaker Fruit & Cream oatmeal nearly every morning.  I know there's probably much better breakfast options, even much better oatmeal options, but these are 130 calories a packet and super portable for when I'm at work.  In fact I have a box sitting in my work locker, and I make it with hot water from the coffee machines.  (Sometimes I even get to eat it before lunch time...)

But that's not the point.

The package comes with strawberries & cream, blueberries & cream, bananas & cream, and peaches & cream.  Of the 4 flavors, my least favorite is the peaches & cream.  Not that I have anything against peaches, but of all of them in the box, peaches are the least sexy, most ordinary flavor.

I like to play a little game with myself in the morning, and reach into the box blindly, to see what flavor I get.  It's fun to me, because like the mystical iPod Shuffle always picking a pertinent song, it seems that I end up with a flavor that suits my day.  You know, like a gastronomical horoscope.  A breakfast fortune cookie.

I equate bananas & cream to having a crazy day--as is apt to happen on an ICU from time to time.  I associate strawberries & cream with the strawberry patches from when I was child, so these days tend to be nostalgic.  Blueberries & cream tend to point to an all around excellent day.  Peaches & cream, well, just an ordinary day. 

See what I mean?  Being told you're going to have a peaches & cream day is a little bit of a disappointment.

And it seems like I pull peaches & cream so much more often than the other flavors.  Disproportionately so.

As I thought about this, I ruminated on what implications that concept bears on my life, my goals, my aspirations.  Why did I feel like, more often than not, I was living a peaches & cream life?  I pondered the thought of how to create more blueberries & cream days; how to enjoy the strawberries & cream days, and just roll with the bananas & cream days.

And then I noticed something on the box.  Turns out in every box there's 2 bananas & cream packets, 2 strawberries & cream packets, 2 blueberries & cream packets, and 4 peaches & cream packets.

Maybe my life isn't as ordinary as I was lamenting.

And...sometimes I make my own head hurt.

Regardless, eat your oatmeal!
 
As Wilford Brimley says, "It's the right thing to do."

New Nutrition Plan

After some reading and drawing information from several sources (thanks Jackie!)  I've settled on a plan that I hope works.  And if it doesn't then I'll try something else.

I'm pretty sure that the treadmill and MFP are overestimating the calories I'm burning while running. And further, I want my workouts to help create that calorie deficit that's going to cause me to lose weight.  I'm pretty sure that replacing my calories burned during a run, calorie for calorie isn't an effective way to lose weight--especially if my workout calories are overestimated!

Currently on non-gym days I'm consuming between 1500 and 1600 calories/day.  This is what's helped me drop the 28lbs you see over there in the sidebar.  Since it's working, I'm going to continue that.  On run days however, I'm going to cap my calorie intake between 1700 and 1800.  This way I'll be getting extra calories to help fuel my runs, but won't be over eating either.

It's interesting the choices I find myself making while I'm restricting calories.  I try to eat nutritionally dense foods, and I keep an eye on the nutrients that MFP tracks.  When I only have a certain number of calories to eat per day, I make choices based on how much of my calorie budget it's going to cost me.  Almost always if a food is too "expensive" and not a good value of calories vs. nutrients, the choice to avoid it is also a nutritionally sound choice.  For example, there's no way I'm going waste 240 of my allotted calories on a soda.  I mean that's nearly a 1/6th of my daily calories! For the same 240 calories I can eat 6 oz. of greek yogurt, a plum (yum!) and a slice of my favorite cheese.

I think the key to long term weight loss and management lies in listening to your body and learning what's truly hunger, what's thirst, and what's boredom.  I thought I was doing a good job at this, but I simply wasn't hungry during the days, and calories started to dwindle more into the 1300-1400 cal/day range.  I stopped losing weight until I forced myself to eat at least 1500 cal/day. 

Overall, I hope this plan continues my weight loss and allows me to push my runs as well.  I can hardly wait to lose more weight, because I know that every pound I shed is one less pound to carry with me on my runs.  And I can hardly wait to run, because it helps me shed those pounds!

That's the new plan.

Yay for Pay Day

Pretty excited because I bought not one, but two new pairs of running shoes tonight.  I really try to support my local shops pretty much on anything I purchase, but my local running shop (LRS) has a really poor selection in my size--size 14.  When I walk in and let them know I need a stability shoe in a size 14, they bring out their single option, in the single color they carry.  Which is better, I have to say, than any other local stores--franchise, chain, or otherwise--who don't even stock 14s.  They're happy to direct me to their websites though.

So web shopping I went indeed.

My go to running shoe has been the Brooks Adrenaline, and this year's GTS 13 seems to carry on the Adrenaline name quite well if the reviews I've read are true.  So of course I ordered up a pair--in lovely gray and yellow.  I had no idea that Brooks had so many cool colors--I've always been stuck with the standard blue and white or red and white because that's all my LRS stocked.

I've been reading that rotating shoes is a good thing, and not only just different pairs, but different types and styles.  From what I understand this can help prevent over-use injuries by varying food/joint position.  This totally makes sense to me from a physiologic point of view, so I bought into the strategy.  I've read a few articles about the Brooks PureCadence 2.  It's an interesting shoe because it has minimalist aspirations, but it's also a stability shoe.  Since the high school student/shoe guru at my LRS gravely diagnosed me as a pronator, a stability shoe is in order.

I'm excited about my new shoes, I can't wait to get them!

And PS, Dick's Sporting Goods has just average pricing, but also has free shipping on footwear, and free returns.

It Was a Dark & Stormy Night...

The blizzard winds kicked up the 3-4 feet of snow when I set out on the course that was uphill both ways.  Did I mention I was barefoot?

Ok, ok.  Maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration.

Regardless of the hyperbole, today was my first run outside in nearly 3 years.  The last time I ran outside (Turkey Trot 2010)  I don't really recall it being a particularly pleasant experience.

I got up at 5am to make sure I had plenty of time to run and make it back home in time for 1st day of school festivities.  I went to try out the certified 5k course that the hospital put together for the upcoming race.

Initially when I started running, I had a bad feeling about how things were going to go.  I felt all gangly and out of sync, and the ground felt really hard.  I was having to keep an eagle eye on Runkeeper because I kept surging up to a pace that there's no way I was going to be able to sustain.  About 5 minutes in though, I settled in--I started feeling relaxed and no longer had to constantly check my phone for pace info.

I'll admit that a 12 min pace feels a lot slower in person than it does on the treadmill.  I foresee running outside seriously propelling me forward in pace and distance.

Well, somehow I managed to make a wrong turn on a closed loop course and only ended up running 2.77 miles(??) at an 11:38 pace (with each mile split getting faster), but no matter.  I felt really good.  And next week, or maybe even later this week I'll head back out there and run the full course.

I was surprised how quickly my run went.  Compared to the treadmill this run seemed to fly by.  And it was nice being able to see landmarks, and my progress towards them.

I'm going to refrain from running outside for the next couple of days to make sure that my feet and legs are going to transition without pain.  And I may hit the treadmill this afternoon to finish off a few treadmill miles.

Overall it was very nice experience.

Even if the blowing snow made it hard to see my bare feet as I ran uphill both ways...

Each in front of the other...

Today when I started my workout, I felt terrible.  My knees hurt, I couldn't get into a smooth rhythm, even my belly bouncing hurt--something that I haven't even noticed before (yes I still have a belly, unfortunately, even after 28 lbs gone).  I thought back to my moment of clarity a few weeks ago, and forced myself onward with the promise to myself that if I truly didn't feel good, I would stop before I hurt myself.  About 5 minutes in, I felt right as rain.

So I kept going.

As each mile ticked by I picked up the pace.  The loose workout I had in mind was a moderately paced 5k, but as I planned each increase in speed, I wondered if I might just push past that goal.  It was an effective strategy, because I ran 4 miles today.  Yet another half mile past my previous best last week.  The workout broke down like this:

Mile 1:  12:00 pace (5.0 mph)
Mile 2:  11:06 pace (5.4 mph)
Mile 3:  10:43 pace (5.6 mph)
Mile 4:  10:00 pace (6.0 mph)

Total time:  43:43
Avg pace:  10:56 pace

I think.

I figured that out based on what speeds I set the treadmill for...and then did the math.  Let me know if it looks wrong.

It was tough.  Not going to lie, especially pushing myself at 10 min pace for the last mile.  But my wife finished up her workout and came to check on me at just the right time, about 4 minutes left, so that was a boost for me at just the right time.

Anyway, forced day off tomorrow because of work.  Then a late evening run on Sunday after work.  Tough work schedule this week getting in the way of my workouts.  Work 2, off 1, work 2, off 1, work 2.  But then a few days off.

My work is putting on a 5k and a half marathon on Saturday, September 14th.  I'm contemplating running the 5k...

Without Fear, right?

Lonely

It seems that running can be a very solitary and lonely activity.

Sometimes that's a good thing.

Sometimes it gets a little, well...lonely.

Sometimes writing about running gets lonely too.

As I was finishing nursing school and beginning my nursing career I blogged about my progress. And apparently a male's voice was just what the nurse bloggers world needed. Maybe it was because I didn't dignify the murse stereotypes. Maybe some of my experiences were actually as significant as they felt. Maybe my writing style appealed to that particular audience. Regardless of the reason, all I did was comment on a few other nursing blogs and the silly thing exploded. When I finally took the blog offline under pressure from hospital administration, it was getting about 10k views a month--all without advertising. I was getting requests from industry magazines for articles, and asked if I'd review items.  Now that isn't huge as far as website traffic goes, but it was a cozy little corner of the internet.

I'm finding the running blogger community a little more difficult to break into. I don't necessarily want this blog to blow up--it took a lot of time and energy to keep up with. And really, it's not the reason I started writing this blog. It was mostly to document my journey, for myself. But I'd be lying if I said that I didn't hope to make a few friends, become part of a community, maybe write something that a few people enjoyed reading.

Lest I sound ungrateful, there are a few people reading, and commenting. And I appreciate it so much. Thank you! The encouragement and support has been invaluable as I try to push forward in this unfamiliar territory.

You see, the most structured I'd ever gotten with running was following a basic Couch to 5k program that didn't even work that well for me. So all of this is very new to me, and I'm a little afraid I'm going to do something stupid and hurt myself or get in my own way. I was hoping to assimilate into the running blogging community and learn the (or "a") right way to do things.

But so far I've asked one seemingly knowledgeable and popular run blogger, who specializes in supplements and similar products, for advice regarding a protein supplement. I was ignored.

Twice.

My current nutrition dilemma regarding my calories, I've tried asking a pair of popular podcasters, a sports dietician, and a sports medicine medical doctor who all blog or have groups on Facebook.

No response.

I wasn't asking for a full blown nutritional consult. I was just looking for someone with more experience and success than me to reassure me that I wasn't going to blow my weight loss by eating enough calories to run. Is it an inappropriate question? Am I crossing some unknown boundary?

It's not the end of the world. And I'm definitely not quitting running over it, or giving up on losing weight. Because ultimately those are things I'm doing for myself, and those I love.  And I'll likely not stop blogging either.

I guess it makes me kind of sad. Sad to be fumbling around like a dunce trying to figure this out on my own when there seemed to be a thriving blog community out there. I guess I would never dream of ignoring somebody that asked me for help--even if I couldn't help them.

But maybe that's the nurse in me.

What motivates you to blog? Who do you look to to help you figure new things out?