Wednesday, October 25, 2006

Not dead

I'm still here, still working out twice a day and eating well. It is begining to work, thank goodness. I am also sending out resumes and job hunting which is never fun. Just today I sent a resume to a job that would be ideal, but is not necessarily in my ideal location. However, it is the logical next step job and I am all about the logical next step, and I don't hate the location (especially since it is in the mainland U.S.). My knee is twinging again today, never a good sign. I know that right now I am pushing a lot of cardio on my poor body but I feel the need to get back into good shape and this is the best way that I know of to manage that result. I figure I am running for a hour and twenty minutes every day (not all at once) which works out to around 6 miles because as we previously established, I do not run fast. My plan is to be able to run for an hour continuously (I am at 50 minutes right now) and then work on increasing my speed. Possibly a silly plan but it is a plan nonetheless.

Thursday, October 19, 2006

Is it Saturday yet?

I am still manage two workouts a day right now, but don't ask me how that is possible. My body is exhausted and tired and sore, and I am seeing no progress. Then again I have only been doing this for a week so I am not going to be impatient. Actually, for the most part, my afternoon workouts have been brilliant, and fairly enjoyable. Morning always seems difficult. I think it is the part where I drag myself out to the treadmill knowing full well that I am going to have to run for forty-five long minutes. Alternatively, it could be due to the fact that my cat (who I lock in my room at night) tends to start howling at 3-4 am in the morning and continues until she gets let out of the room and is free to chase my parent's cat. Good times.

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Er...I think I might have found the zone

I think I may be vaguely creeping back into that mythical land we like to call "the zone" in weight bloggerland. You know, the mythical place where eating right and working out is not a hassle and is relatively easily. Yesterday, I managed two hours and forty five minutes of cardio over the course of the day. One hour and forty five minutes in the morning and another hour in the afternoon. This included an hour and fifteen minutes of running and also interval work. I'm thinking that this afternoon I will do another hour or so of cardio (already ran for 45 minutes this morning and walked for 45 minutes) with about 30 minutes of running total. I had forgotten that the benefit of working out in the afternoon after working out in the morning was that I don't feel pushed to accomplish anything (the way I do in the morning). The afternoon is pretty much a bonus workout time and I can do whatever I want to do in that time. I am using it for interval training right now, run five minutes on a steep incline, walk five minutes on a moderate incline and repeat. Also food has been really good this week. See, this is what I mean about "the zone", when you are in it, anything seems possible but getting into it and staying there is really hard. Right this moment, I have the time so I am going to use it to my full advantage, it is much harder when you are working to manage this level of working out. It is possible though and I am going to try to keep at it for as long as I can manage it. Ah, I do love "the zone", hopefully it will last for the next few months.

Monday, October 16, 2006

So, I'm crazy

Yup, crazy, and not crazy like a fox either. I am thinking, pondering really, running either a 10k or a 5k on Thanksgiving Day (you can pick either). So, either running 3.1 miles (give or take) or running 6.2 miles (give or take). I can run approximately 5 miles in 1 hour, and probably run 6 miles in around an hour and 15 minutes (being very generous with my time). Still, being really prepared to do either within the next 41 days is probably insane. I'm still probably going to do it anyways, unless I am somewhere else at Thanksgiving this year. Still, this means I need to run more, start running outside and definately start running faster. I've moved myself up to jogging 45 minutes everyday this week, I started yesterday and then jogged this morning as well but I need to work on the whole running outside thing. Still, craziness, I am just saying that right now. On the good side, my knee doesn't hurt anymore and my ankle feels much better.

Friday, October 13, 2006

So it's friday

Eh, so it is Friday and I really have nothing exciting to report today. Exercise happened, as it always does and then I got to work job hunting. This has taken up my day along with doing laundry (I need clean exercise clothes). My knee is much better, still a little stiff but a huge improvement from Monday and Tuesday. Food is fine, although I am slowly eating my own weight in fruit. Really nothing terribly exciting is happening on the exercise front. This I think in the end is the problem for most of us, exercising is anything but fun and exciting. I find it gets really hard even now to drag myself out onto the treadmill and work out. It was equally hard dragging myself off to the gym. This is why I wear exercise clothes when I get up in the morning it really is the only way to make sure that I go out and exercise (even though it is terribly boring at times). Anyway, I'm off to finish the laundry (which is almost entirely filled with workout clothing at this point).

Thursday, October 12, 2006

Much better, thanks

So, the knee is much better today (I know the internet cares deeply about all my aches and pains) and so is the ankle. I think this is a good sign. My current theory is that I just jumped back into running too fast without any adjustment for the fact I had not been doing it for a long time. I managed yet another 40 minute run today with no problems and 1 hr 20 minutes of walking after I was done with the running. Hopefully, this change in cardio will make a difference soon and the scale will start to make some real movement again. Then again, maybe not, who knows at this point. Right now, my goal is to get up to an hour of running each day in the next few weeks (that should work out to about 5 miles a day running) and then I am going to work on increasing my speed. I don't expect to ever be fast because frankly speed is not something anybody in my family manages terribly well, but I am going to give it a shot anyway. Other than that, nothing exciting to report today.

Wednesday, October 11, 2006

I'm getting old or something

Hmm, having an interesting issue in the last few days. I have been running like a little maniac (not quickly mind you, but still running), and my body is definately paying for it. My knee is sore and so is my previously injured ankle. However, it pretty much goes away once I am warmed up and running. I don't really want to stop running, it has always worked for me and I feel better when I am getting in at least a 30 minute run everyday (right now I am running for 40 minutes). However, I don't want to mess up my knee either and cause real damage. So, this is my thought, which may be silly in the extreme. I am going to run tomorrow and Friday and take Saturday off and reassess where I am with everything. It is possible that this is just my body protesting two hours of cardio a day and 40 minutes of running (especially since I stopped running back in January). Therefore, a day off would make a real valid difference and I can see what is up with the aches and pains. Alternatively, nothing will change and I will have to reevaluate. I would like to get back to running at about 6 mph (rather than 5 mph) and running for an hour at a time, but I am not going to chance it until my knee really begins to feel better. I am hoping this is all muscle soreness and it will go away. Oh, and food is excellent (see what happens when I am not under stress).

Sunday, October 08, 2006

New time zone, new plan

And we're back. Admittedly in an entirely different time zone, location, and continent. I am back in the mainland U.S. (somewhere, never have been big on revealing my exact location), and am begining the job search for a new position now that I am no longer on my tiny little island. The one benefit of unemployment is the ability to work out a lot and revamp my diet. I am already eating less because I am not stressed in the same way and working out for two hours is not nearly as much of a problem. I also started running again today, and I really need to work on my speed because it is just embarassingly slow now. Speed and endurance are my two big goals in terms of fitness right now and both are rather lacking. This morning was all about my 35 minute run (half at 5 mph and half at 5.5 mph) plus an hour and five minutes of walking at an incline. In a minute I am going to take a break from job hunting and get in 15 minutes of sit ups and some extra cardio in between the situps. Tomorrow I am going to dig out the weights I own which are hiding somewhere in the house and get my weight training routinue back up to par as well. I have a lot of work to do in the next few months to get down to a weight that I personally am happy with and to make some additional progress. I am going to hopefully be interviewing soon for jobs and looking good is always a helpful selling point in addition to job skills. Anyway, I'm off to get somethings accomplished now.