Cough, Cough...

Please bear with me as I wipe the dust off this blog. I'm finally getting back to running after a two years and several attempts to get back on the horse. Last time I tried, I got a freaky case of plantar fasciitis, which quickly put an end to any movement beyond a hobble. I'm chalking it up to the pair of "minimalist" running shoes I was trying to break in, probably too quickly. Now I'm back to the good ol' Brooks that I wore before with no problem. Here's to hoping the evil PF doesn't come back.

I'm setting my goal low this time, 5k at a respectable time. At the moment, I have no desire to run any distance longer than that. Maybe I'll eventually want to attempt 10k, or even a half, but a marathon sounds horrible to me. I really admire anyone who can run that long (or even longer), but it just doesn't appeal to me at all. I'm more interested in speed than endurance, for a variety of reasons. In addition to not wanting to be running for hours!, I like to go fast. I also believe in the miracles of HIIT and sprinting/running shorter distances seems to lend itself better than long distance running. Finally, I would like to include a myriad of exercise activities in addition to running, like biking, swimming and strength training into my weekly routine. Not having to cram in running miles should allow me more time to do that.

Stay tuned for tomorrow, when I revisit the famous Couch25k training program.

Bagel Trap

I fell into the bagel trap this morning. What's the bagel trap, you ask? Well, let me tell you...
One of my coworkers will occasionally bring in a bag tasty bagels. I happen to love bagels. I will usually convince myself that one bagel with a little bit of cream cheese is ok to eat. Just this one, right? Well, no. I ate three! (3!) bagels today. I'm afraid of dying from a carb overdose.

One More Purchase

Happy 4th yall!

I went ahead and bought a stability ball this weekend. Between it, the resistance bands, the kettlebell, and the bike, not to mention running outside and access to a gym, I think I'm pretty set on the fitness front. Tonight I did thirty minutes on the stationary bike. I'm discovering that it takes a good 15 minutes to get the legs warmed up. After that, it goes pretty smoothly. Depending on the weather, I'm either going to run outside tomorrow, or go to the gym and do 30 min on the treadmill. I'm hoping to get into a bike/run/bike/run/bike/run pattern with Sundays off. I also sat down and watched the exercise DVD's that came with the bands and stability ball. Everything seemed fairly straight forward. I'm trying to decide how I'm going to split up everything. Thinking of alternating between full body work outs and yoga, since I recently found a few yoga workouts through Netflix's instant function.

On the diet front, I did slack off over the holiday weekend, but I didn't go too overboard. Today I discovered that the local coffeeshop's curry chicken salad is darn near paleo and might tasty. I'm going to try to find a recipe online so I can make it at home for a lot cheaper,

Update

Ok, so here is what I've been doing lately...

I bought a cheap exercise bike at a fitness resale shop a couple of weeks ago and have ridden it twice so far. It's perfect for days when it's either too rainy or just too hot to go outside and do anything. I think it was $25 and it works perfectly. It's just a little ugly.

Yesterday, I went running outside for the first time in a long time and it went horribly. My legs, lungs, and guts just weren't prepared for it. I hope it goes better Wednesday.

I also purchased some exercise bands this week. I don't have much experience with them, but I figured they would be good for when I want to get a workout in and don't have time to go to the gym. I'm still working on putting together a good training plan for them. I'll post it once I have it.

I rejoined the local rec center. It has a tiny gym and crappy hours but it was only $25 for the year. I won't be able to go a lot, but it will be nice every once in a while. There's a larger rec center up the road with longer hours but it's an extra $35 every 3 months. Still a good deal. It would bring the total cost to $165 for the year. Can't beat that!

Still trying to follow the paleo diet, though it is extremely tough to follow for someone who eats out a lot. Restaurants put cheese and sauce on everything and then serve it on bread with potatoes on the side. I've been eating a lot of salads with either chicken or beef on top.

In addition to finding exercises for the bands, I'm also trying to put together a daily stretching routine. I will post that here as well, as soon as I get it done.

I need to buys some heavier kettlebells. The 25 pounder just ain't cutting it.  

Paleo Diet

So I've been contemplating trying out the Paleo diet to see if it will help me lose weight and also ditch some of the intestinal problems I have. I've been doing some research on the diet, the benefits and possible dangers and so far, I think a modified version of the paleo a.k.a. caveman diet would work out well.

Here is what I like about the diet:
Minimal dairy - I'm lactose intolerant, so this would be no problem.
No grains - This will be the hardest to give up, but I've often wondered if I have a gluten allergy.
Meat - I love meat. The diet discourages processed meats like lunch meat, hot dogs and other sausages.
No beans - Beans are usually a problem for me as well, though not necessarily in the "musical fruit" kind of way.
No refined sugar or added salt - makes sense. We all know they are the devil.
Fluxuating consumption - three meals a day isn't natural, and neither is 5 meals a day. Eat when your hungry. Stop when you're not.


Here is what I dislike-
Too much meat - A lot of the paleo bloggers I've read seem to go way overboard on the meat consumption. Even though paleoithic man was not afraid to eat meat, I doubt they ate it in the same consumption/activity ratio that modern paleo dieters are eating today.

Really? Well, um...sure!

According to the latest issue of Men's Health Magazine, Cincinnati is one of America's thinnest cities. While I'm always happy when my city gets props, to be honest, this accolade is a bit of a head scratcher. Here's how MH said they ranked the cities:

To arrive at our rankings, we calculated the percentage of people who are overweight, the percentage with type 2 diabetes, the percentage who haven't left the couch in a month (CDC Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System); the money spent on junk food (Bureau of Labor Statistics); and finally, the number of people who ate fast food nine or more times in a month (Mediamark Research).

 Seeing that survey data makes up a big chuck of the findings, I'm wondering if Cincinnati should really get the "America's Most Lying City" award.

Another Pig Has Come And Gone

Today was the annual running of Cincinnati's Flying Pig Marathon and where was I? In bed sleeping. Hopefully this will be the last year of that as I have made it my goal to do the half-marathon next year. The fact that it is 364 days away and that I'm on week 2 of the Couch to 5k makes it seem so far away, but I know from past experience that it will be here before you know it.