Sidebar: Blur

i just let out hazel and jack to go to the bathroom. i have not needed to put jack on leash. he just goes to the side yard with me. tonight however, he didn't. i let them out and they were off running across the neighbors yard. i called for jack and then realized he ran all the way around the neighbors house and was coming up the side (next to my side where i usually let them out). jack was running full speed. and then i saw a little white blur preceeding him - a bunny. both jack and hazel were off like a shot across the street and down the block. and then they disappeared. i was immediately worried about the bunny, hoping that jack and hazel didn't catch up to it. i started calling for jack - nothing. then a few houses down a nice guy called out to me. he had grabbed jack by the collar and hazel was right there too. so all was well.

Week 6

i actually went up to the gym today and started walking on the treadmill but then i saw all the coverage about the target shooting. the captioning wasn't working on the news cast for some reason so i didn't know what was going on. i was really distracted and ended up leaving, which was a bit of a cop out, but oh well.

Week 5

post 1:
my calves and feet were sore tonight so i just walked for 30 minutes.

post 2:
my calves and shins were bothering me more tonight so i stopped after 30 minutes. i could have finished, but i wasn't sure if that was the best thing to do or not. i don't know what's up or why this is happening to me again.

what i saw: i got on the treadmill next to a bigger guy that was running at about 7.0. he was panting so hard that i worried he would go into cardiac arrest. it was very disconcerting. mary - you know how hard hazel pants after we throw the ball hard for 15 min? this guy was panting just like that - maybe even harder. and he was pouring sweat. after a few minutes he slowed down to a walk and i thought he was finished. i felt much better because i was really worried about him. but no, he wasn't done. he was doing intervals, much like i do, alternating running with walking. he would go back up to between 6.0 and 7.0 but he kept panting like that. this couldn't have been good for him. i was dying to know what his heart rate was.

Total Time: 65 min
Total Kcal: 465

post 3:
my calves and shins felt better tonight - for whatever reason. maybe two days off helped. the last 10 minutes i was lifting weights i started feeling really wierd - almost light headed. i was sweaty but all of a sudden i was cold. don't know what was up with that but i scaled back a little and got a drink of water. my heart rate was back up tonight during the weight lifting part. i'm sure the low hr the other night was because i didn't get my hr up high enough during the treadmill part.

Total Time: 90 min
Total Kcal: 921

Sidebar: Back on track tomorrow

i've felt really out of sorts this week. i'm not sure why. i'm sure it's a combination of factors - things going on in my personal life that have left me feeling distracted, my shin and calves hurting again, not eating enough so i don't have enough energy, etc.

tomorrow i am going to get back on track. also, last night at the gym when i was working out i couldn't get my heart rate above about 120-130 even though i worked out at the same intensity that i have been. i don't get that.

Sidebar: Hungry

i'm not eating enough. it hit midnight and i was hungry again. so this time, i passed by the 7-11 (and the evil hot wings) and headed for wendy's. now, before you get all worked up ann, i got the chargilled chicken sandwich and nothing else. i consulted with mary beforehand and she informed me it should be about 7 points. so there.

of course i was sad because in my heart i wanted the spicy chicken sandwich but that is breaded, and therefore evil. and what i had was okay. it wasn't the best, but it was a nice little snack.

Sidebar: Project J Apparel - Collect them all!

hazel and i rested today. the day wasn't a total wash though because now . . . (dramatic pause) . . . there is project jag apparel! there are over 250 styles available for men, women, kids, and don't forget baby! get yours today!

Sidebar: Hot Wings

it's 1:54am and i'm freaking starving. i ate when i got home at the gym at 10pm but i guess it wasn't enough. with all the working out i really need to increase my food intake. what does one do when hungry in the middle of the night? 7-11 of course!! hot wings . . . love them. and just to clarify, these wings aren't some concoction that 7-11 makes, they are made by TGI fridays and are in the frozen section. perfectly viable.

Sidebar: My Dumb Feet

i went to the podiatrist today because ever since i started running/walking, my shins and calves have bothered me. i already know that i am an "over pronater" and i suspect that my feet are on the flat side. due to these two things, and more importantly, because my health insurance runs out at the end of april i called and made an appointment. the whole experience was very enlightening:

he put my foot up on his knee and drew a line down my foot, which annoyed me until . . . he said: "see how the line is straight (pic 1)? now stand up and put your weight on it like normal. see how the line veers off to the left (pic 2)? that's not good". something about this demonstration really clicked for me and it totally made sense for me. he said the following:

- i have shin splints. he pressed on the shin muscles (or whatever you call them) to demonstrate, evoking a grimace from me.
- this is hereditary.
- this was not caused by wearing thongs (as i had suspected) nor by my weight. i would still have this problem no matter what i weighed.
- the fix is custom orthotics, which i had also suspected. wearing them will correct my feet so that they look like pic 1, even when i'm standing on them.

they put a half cast on each foot (pic 3) and after about 10 minutes i was all done. i'll get them in two weeks. i'm VERY excited. if this can make my shins and calves stop hurting and being sore i think i can progress faster. YAY! of course the bloodsucking insurance company didn't cover them. only if i'm diabetic they said.



then to celebrate, i went and got my car washed and stopped by chick-fil-a. i was starving and though i know its not the best, it's also not the worst. i even refrained from getting fries and a coke, which i always do. okay fine, i should have gotten the char-grilled chicken breast. i ordered the original out of habit. i must say though, the chicken sandwich i had was an utter delight! a perfectly toasted bun, hosting an ample, juicy and well appointed chicken breast. once devoured, i instantly desired another.

Week 4

post 1:

• i guess the girl machines have some value . . . my inner thighs are sore today. i'm going to continue to use them. that way, the next time i wrestle with me whoever-ends-up-being-my-next-girlfriend, i can crush her torso in a scissor hold.
• i took the polar to the Y to calibrate it today. unfortunately, i screwed it up at the very end by not pushing the right button to end it, thereby cancelling it out. i didn't have enough time to do another calibration attempt. this was annoying. also annoying was the fact that it was accruing distance in km - and i couldn't figure out how to change it to miles. however, despite the fact that i didn't get to calibrate it, it was fairly accurate on the hazelwalk today. i drove the distance and it was right about 1.5 miles. the polar clocked it at 1.3 miles, however; i had to restart the stopwatch a tenth of a mile into the walk because i was using the wrong exercise setting. so it was about a tenth of a mile off. not bad for no calibration.
• i was suprised to look up on the treadmill and see the heartrate display tracking me, however, there was great fluxuation. because i was calibrating i wasn't able to see my hr on the polar. it started at 220, then went to 180. at this point i started to dispair because 181 is my max and i obviously can't be at the very max of my heart rate the entire time - it wouldn't be good for me. then it went to 128, 140, 160 and then back down. i don't understand why the treadmill display would be so all over the place. it stayed in the 130 - 140 range for most of the time and i was happy about that.
• i'm very impressed with the polar. after the hazelwalk i simply plugged in the IR usb thing, chose file 1 (it saves 99 files of exercise data) and pushed connect. unfortunately it seems you have to send over each file separately. not a huge deal if you do it after every workout. i wish that it was capable of a true sync - where you push the button and it syncs based on the timestamp of the files. i love the polar. i want to marry it.
• i took a screen capture (click on the picture to enlarge) of the report generated from today. i'm pretty impressed. i will probably post week aggregated results vs. daily results. you have three options for how often it takes a snapshot while recording data - 5, 15, and 60 seconds. i choose 15 seconds. the amount of data the watch holds depends on how many elements you are recording (alititude, speed/distance, ect) as well as the snap shot frequency. it changed from 14hr to 45hr when i changed the snap shot freq from 5 to 15 seconds.

post 2:
was able to calibrate the polar today. at times the distance was dead on. at other times it was a 1/100th of a mile off. i think i can live with that. i'm sure the deviation is due to the fact that i calibrated on a treadmill. the instructions are very specific are stepping off with the foot wearing the pod and then stopping immediately when you exactly cross the calibration distance that you entered. obviously, this isn't really possible as the treadmill doesn't stop or start immediately.i decided to scale back the walking/running. i should be on week 4 of the program i'm doing, which would mean 2 min running followed by 3 min walking. i'm a little concerned about my heart rate during the run times. as you'll notice below it spiked up to 190 and above a number of times. i think i need to stick with the 1 min run / 4 min walk for another week or two. at this point i'm not sure what to do with my training program. the run/walk 10k program i'm doing has me going 45 - 55 minutes each time. i'm wondering if it is better to go down to like 35 or 40 minutes and just stay there, gradually increasing the amount of time i spend running. however, i'm not sure this would be the best thing either. i have to believe there is value in going for 45-50 minutes, even if i don't end up running as much as i want to.i am in love with the polar. i found out how to program my training session using intervals. mary thought i should be able to do this and she was right. there are 5 exercise sets that you can program. for each one, you can choose interval or not. when you choose interval you have three timers - warmup, interval with a recovery period and cooldown. i set it for a 5 minute warmup, 1 minute interval with a 4 minute recovery, then set it to repeat that 8 times. after that i set a 2 minute cool down. i have to say, it is really nice to see the count down timers for each phase and interval. i really wanted to be able to do this with my sports instruments watch but couldn't.the good thing about setting up an exercise set is that the results graph includes all the intervals. if you look at the graphic you can see all of my phases. was also surprised that the distance was accurate even though my pace varied. i calibrated at 3.5 but my workout was 3.0 (warmup), 4.7 (run), 3.3 and 3.5 (walk), and 2.5 (recovery).i felt really good during the workout although i was very tired afterwards. surprisingly, my calf and shins didn't bother me even going 3.5 like they did yesterday. i only felt a very slight pull on my right lower shin and heel for a small portion of the time and even then it didn't bother me. also, going 3.3 felt too slow and i was able to do 3.5. i ended up going back to 3.3 during the walk for the last third of the workout because i was concerned about my heart rate being so high.[Photo]

post 3:
well - i did it again. seems i might need mary to print up the hours for the Y after all. got up there about 8:52pm and wondered why the parking lot was almost empty. it closes at 9pm on fridays so i turned back around and went home. thankfully, i have the rower, which i did for 30 minutes. it's really difficult. the idea is to get the watts higher more than the strokes per minute. it is actually really difficult to only row 22 spm while having high watts. and it also uses completely different muscles. i think it uses all or most of the muscles but i really felt it in my upper arms and quads.Total Time: 63.45 Total Kcal: 590

Sidebar: Poor

I took the fitness test again today and happily, i scored a 25, which puts me in the"poor" category. o happy day.

Week 3

post 1:
i'm a loser, so shoot me . . .was working earlier tonight on a marketing piece for a former associate of mine. there is a deadline so i was feeling the push to get alot done on it tonight. i held off on going to the gym as long as possible because i was in "the zone" working. i get there at 8:30pm, certain that it closes at 10pm like every other week night. i was wrong - it closed at 9pm. so i only got a 20 min workout tonight. i know, i suck. feel free to flame me.i decided to scale back today because of how the earlier part of the week went. i went back to the run 1 min / walk 4 min from last week. my shins and calves were bothering me. i did half of the walking on 3.3 and half of it on 3.0. must walk more. according to mary, i still have about a week to "fuck around" until the 6 month mark before the 1/2 marathon.

post 2:
i decided to add two machines today - the adductor and abductor. up until now i was very resistance to these machines because they seem so pussy. usually only women are using them. i take offense to this. but today i decided that they couldn't hurt so i might as well add them.

Sidebar: Family Fun at Easter

- statement from my mom when i asked her if she told her friends (group that meets for dinner on friday nights) i was gay: "maybe you aren't really gay. maybe you just think you are".

- statement from my brother when my mom mentioned at the dinner table that maybe i could work for him (he owns a small company that builds patio enclosures and sun rooms): "no, she couldn't do it. it's too stressful and too involved - there's alot to it". WHAT THE FUCK EVER.

- liked the twin's new bf alot

- i think my parents invoke the "don't ask, don't tell" policy. i love my mom but she never ever asks if i'm dating anyone, or involved, or interested in anyone. every once in a while she will ask how my ex is doing. i realized this tonight when my mom was telling me that she really hopes my twin doesn't get hurt with this new guy. and i realized . . . they have no clue about my personal life. i'm sure my mom would listen if i told her i was seeing someone, but i would wonder if she would really be comfortable. i think she hopes it will just go away and one day i'll remember that i'm really not gay. they don't mean to be this way - they kinda can't help it. i don't hold it against them, it just makes me sad.

Sidebar: Unemployment Prize

i decided i needed a prize for being unemployed. feast your eyes on this motherfuckers . . .

fyi . . . i did not pay $389

Week 2

post 1:
i hate everyone. i hate running. i even hate walking.

post 2:
i was pissed off and kinda upset when i went to the gym tonight because i found out right before that the person that was supposed to take hazel this weekend (while i went home to houston) needed to back out. the few backup options i have are also going out of town. i just hope that i can find space to board her somewhere. i hate doing that - she doesn't like being there. the last time she was boarded she stayed up front in the office the whole time because she wasn't playing with the other dogs and had been sitting in the corner. so i really lacked motivation tonight but i pushed through anyway.

what i saw
i marvelled at a guy doing chin up after chin up. then he walked past me and he was wearing vans.

Week 1

post 1:
i was really tired after after the treadmill today, maybe because i went to the gym directly after the hazelwalk. at the end of my time, a guy got on the treadmill beside me in . . . i kid you not . . . jeans and a suede jacket. i hurt for him.

post 2:
today at the gym i was told that flip flops were not allowed. i protested that i was wearing tevas, not flip flops. sadly, she corrected herself - no open toed shoes. now, that's just stupid. why can't i wear tevas if i'm just using the machines? sure, on the cardio equipment - that's ridiculous. and with the machines that require plates - maybe not the best idea but still . . . if you drop a 25 lb plate on your foot will it really matter that you're wearing closed toed shoes?

today on hazelwalk i didn't have to stop halfway up the hill on 56th, even though my calves were sore and i was slightly out of breath. baby steps . . .