Not so fast there, friend, aka, me.

Okay.

So today was Week 6, Day 1. I had some pretty positive thoughts about it and didn't think it would be too bad since there wasn't too much addition to the distance. Yeahhhhhh, about that....I was wrong. Since my train of thought was that it wouldn't be that bad, especially because of the walking, I wanted today to start building up my speed. The first half mile I was done in about 6 minutes, which I was pretty impressed! So I slowed down a bit for the walking in order to rest up enough to tackle the 3/4 mile section. I started off pretty strong, but it felt like it lasted FOREVER! So I get to the next walking segment (yay!) and think that it won't be that bad because it's just another 1/2 mile. It wasn't too bad, but the last 15th of a mile bout killed me haha. When I uploaded my race info, my little line chart was good until the last part and it was another big ole dip haha. But here's the stats for today's run: 3.13 miles (warm up and cool down and walking around the crosswalk until the light changed that took FOREVER), 44:39 minutes, an average of 14:15 per mile (probably because of the slower walking), and 450 calories. Not too bad, but maybe Wednesday will be a little bit easier. :)

I've put up a picture of Henry, so here's Millie. This is right after she got her summer haircut at the beginning of summer (she usually has long/shaggy hair). When I picked her up from the groomers I definitely laughed pretty loud. She looked so naked! And she wasn't entirely sure about the lessening of hair, either haha. But isn't she just so freaking cute?!

HONK!

Well, I got through Week 5 Day 3. What a killer. Not only was I grumpy the whole time, but it was TOUGH! Some of it was just me being in a bad mood, but boy, I pretty much wanted to quit. I mean, I was being a little dramatic, but a little not. Hahah. I got through it, at a not fast pace of 4.5 mph (I started at 5.0 mph but it was just not gonna happen the whole way). I burned 219 calories, ran 2.53 miles, in 36:02 minutes. I think I wanna start running longer runs outside. Inside is SO monotonous, and there is never a downhill to catch your breath and some motivation on. Since I've had a little recovery time, I can say that I'm really glad I ran, and that I'm proud of myself and want to keep going. Thank god I've got my geese!!

In other news, today's class was boring and tedious simultaneously. We are learning how to read heart monitor strips, and the class set up is just completely not logical. So there was that. Plus I asked Natasha for my schedule AGAIN. And she still doesn't have it. It is done, just not with her and not online in the computer staffing program. Sigh. So I know I work Wednesday. And pray I don't have a weekend shift. Not only is all the vocare stuff going on, which is fun and social, but it's my older brother's birthday dinner Sunday night. Grrr.

Random picture time. Here is one of me and my little brother on the first day of school. I was going to 5th grade... Patrick was going to 1st. Please notice how we are the same height. Hahah. The pic isn't great quality, as I scanned it from the original.

Ima lobster/gym issues

Okay so its not that bad but the last two days I have gotten A LOT of sun. I did my week 5 day 3 yesterday and went swimming for 4-5 hours so I got fairly red. Then today I went running during the hottest part of the day, around 3ish. Because I had run yesterday I could feel my arms baking. So from now on I'm either going to be a little more careful of when I run or get some sunscreen.

So Week 6 Day 1. It went pretty well. I was glad to have the walking break in there. My calves didn't hurt as bad today so that was good. I need to try and figure out what I can do to alleviate the burning or just make them stronger so it doesn't hurt as bad. All in all a very positive run I would say.

I'm really itching to get in the gym and lift some weights but money is a little sparse right now. But I think a gym membership might be in the works in the next cpl months. I also am trying to think of where in Valdosta has a lap pool and the only places I can think of are the YMCA and the VSU rec center. And the rec center is the only one to have an indoor pool. So right now it is the leading candidate. The downside is that they have limited hours for alumni and the general hours of operation are very sporadic due to holidays and winter break and summer break etc.

Anyway here are a cpl pics of the floor plan:

this is the 1st floor with the 3 basketball courts and 3 racquet ball courts, as well as the aerobics classroom, locker rooms, rock climbing wall and pool.

this is the 2nd floor with a walking/running track highlighted in blue (it looks down onto the courts which is cool) also this is where all the actual weight lifting machines are and treadmills and cardio equipment is. And the rock climbing wall comes up through to the 2nd floor near the cardio machines, its that open space just left of the bottom left corner of the track. It is a pretty sweet place and I've spent many a hour there back in the day when i was actually working out.

till next time

Matt

maybe I should be more specific....

Okay, so Matt has run in the rain a couple of times now, and every time I think it's going to rain when I run, it doesn't. So I was totally looking forward to running in the rain. So much so that when I went to sleep Thursday night, I was hoping that it was going to rain when I ran on Friday. When the dogs woke me up about 6:30 it was a nice rain and I was okay with that and thought it would be nice to run in. When I got up a couple of hours later, it was POURING. Well, I asked for it, so I might as well run in it, right? The minute I walk outside, it stops. For about 30 seconds. And then the heavens opened and I was soaked soon after. I rain in TORRENTIAL rain. And I kinda liked it. ;) But I was definitely hoping for a lighter rain haha. But the best part was that as I was running, I passed a house where a nice looking elderly man had come outside with his umbrella in his red flannel pj pants and a beige sweatshirt to get his paper and says to me, "A little wet today, huh?" I just answered with a smile, "Yes, sir!" Haha - that was definitely the good moment. :)

Now on to the actual run....oy vey. It was difficult, that's for sure. I was betting on about 40 minutes or so to get through both the warm up and cool down walks and the actual 2 miles. The first mile went pretty well - the second mile, now that was the hard part. I had to stop a couple of times and stretch out my calves a little bit. They were just not happy with me. So as I was going down the street and looking at my Nike+ wristband counting my mileage, I kept thinking that I was going faster than I really was and I should just circle back so that I wasn't doing a forever long cool down walk back to my house. I circled around about three times haha. My first mile was a pretty good pace, but the second mile was definitely the old man shuffle, without a doubt. I think that was the first time that I was really incredibly ready to be done.....oy vey! So I said I thought I'd get done in about 40 minutes, right? Oh it was 34:24 minutes for 2.58 miles and 371 calories burned with an average pace of 13:18 a mile. Yay! I wasn't happy about the stopping and stretching parts or the old man shuffles (I set some high expectations for myself sometimes), but overall I was happy with myself. And the rain? Oh, yeah - this is what I looked like when I was done:

The shirt grew a few sizes, for sure - I promise it's not that long! Nor is it that dark - this is a really light grey shirt and baby pink shorts, not that pretty regular pink color. (If you can't tell, I promise there was a definite color change!) I'm excited to see how much improvement I get done next week just b/c it's more running and a longer distance. My goal is to pick up my pace and to get at ease with running outside. So we'll see what happens!:)

And on a completely unrelated note, FSU's first game is against Miami on Labor Day and in honor of that I bought a new tshirt. I liked the front and never unfolded it to see the back until just now when I got home and got even more excited about it when I saw the back. So here ya go Matt! :)

Front Back

GO NOLES! :)

I about didn't make it today

Today was week 5 day 3 for me and it was really tough. This week I've run a total of 9ish miles, from last Saturday's 5k to today's 2 miler. And that is NOT including the walking segments of the training days. So I think I may have over exerted myself some. Today's run my calves (calf's?) were burning almost from the start so I really wasn't sure if I was going to make it. But I settled into a little bit faster pace than the old man shuffle and just went for it. Soon enough 8 laps became 4 laps left then 3, then 2, then 1. It was probably my slowest time in a while. Something like 38 mins to do 10 laps (1 warm up lap + 8 running laps + 1 cool down lap).

So before I left the house to run my sister called me and told me that she needed me to watch my oldest nephew, Tucker, for a few hours today. While I love my nephew, I don't so well with last minute changes and I had planned on having most of the day with no plans. So I did my run and tried to put it out of my mind and when I got home I called my sister to have Tucker bring his swimming trunks because I thought we could go swimming at the Jester's. But it turns out I didn't need to watch my nephew so I spent the afternoon at the Jester's swimming. Which was awesome because A) I love swimming and 2) it gave me a chance to stretch in the pool which is much easier than in...air...? easier than in not pool....you get my meaning.

And in closing since I forgot to take a picture of the Jester's pool here is a place where I would like to go swimming. I don't know where it is just a picture I found on the interwebs.

Pretty huh?

Matt

Slow and steady wins the race

Yeah I was forced into running slowly for the second half of my Week 5 Day 2 workout. I was going strong for the first half, at a decent pace of 5.0 mph. And then the walking segment was also going well... and then I had 4 sips of water. Bad idea. About 0.1 mile into the last running part I got some side stitches from hell. I tried to keep going at the 5.0 pace and lasted another 0.12 miles, then dropped down to 4.5 mph for the rest of the running. All in all I burned 203 calories, went 2.56 miles, in 36:58 minutes. Woot.

I am like... a fan of the couch to 5 K, on facebook. They post articles pretty much every day. What I've read so far has been good, even though I am sometimes suspicious, from a nursing standpoint, of the validity of some sports/exercise articles. But so far I like these.

I am pretty sure I had a lot more to write about but forgot it. So. Here is a picture of my mom's dog, back when she was a puppy. You cannot tell from this picture what an awesome dog she is. Her name is Kenzie, and her ears move independently from each other, like little satellite dishes on top of her head. Also, she has an almost constant sarcastic smirk on her face (developed after puppy-hood, during which she usually just looked terrified). She also goes by Foxy Woxy and Mrs. Boodle. Both characters from somewhat obscure books. The second picture is when I made her stand between two reindeer around Christmas time. She was thoroughly unamused; I was thoroughly amused.

Big ol' fat rain

So today should have been my Week 5 Day 3 but like a dummy I did Week 5 Day 1 twice. So today I did Week 5 Day 2 and it was awesome! I say that not because I kicked the run's ass or anything, the run was actually pretty tough. It was awesome because I got to run in the rain! It was coming down HARD too. See this picture:
Yeah that shirt was a blueish grey and the shorts just regular grey. I was raining water out of my shirt as I ran. Here is another crazy pic.


That pile is everything I had on while I was running. I know shoes weigh a lot anyway but all that weighed 6.5 lbs!

So as you guys know I've been having a rough week. But I think I turned a corner today as I was running in the rain. I told Liz W that the run was very cathartic for me mentally and emotionally. I felt very cleansed after. All in all I did 2 3/4 miles (including a 1/4 mile warm up and a 1/4 mile cool down) in approx 36 mins. A pretty good days work.

Matt
-- Post From My iPhone

I'm a walking ad for Nike.....

True story - I'm such a Nike nerd now, and I don't even mean to be haha. I started with the shoes, then bought some shorts and sports bras, and now the Nike+ system hah. They should pay me for endorsements haha. I went to the gym today for my Day 2 and I used the new Nike+ thingy. Sidenote on that btw - I had the receiver plugged into my computer to charge and my computer was on my bed. I got home and the dogs came downstairs, and as Henry jumped on the bed, my computer fell off. With the receiver still in it. It didn't break in the USB port, but it did crack and the display is only about 3/4 visible. But it still works so that's positive. Needless to say, I was not happy at the dogs for a bit last night hah.

Okay so back to the story:

I had to change treadmills a couple of times before I got really started, but I went by the mileage on my Nike+ bracelet instead of the treadmill b/c then it'd be off a little bit. But yeah, the first couple of treadmills didn't like me and I slipped a couple of times. So DUMB. But unfortunately the one I ended up on is the same one I've had before but forgot that it rocked a little bit when I ran. So the music got a bit louder in my ears to drown out my heavy steps and the rocking noise. Okay, totally went on a tangent again, so yeahhhhhhhh......

I measured by distance today, which like everyone else has said took a little bit longer. The cool part is that it didn't take a ton longer, so that was happy. :) I was going pretty strong the first 3/4 mile and was very happy when the walking started haha. Once the second 3/4 started I was starting to feel the nice annoying-ness of my knee, soon followed by my hip of the same leg. Boo. But it wasn't crazy painful, just really annoying. Today in total, with the 5 minute warm up walk and 5 minute cool down walk, I went a total of 2.44 miles, 350 calories burned(!!), and it took me 38 min and 38 seconds. Yay!

So I'm looking forward to Friday and the nonstop running of two miles, if only for the reason to see how I'm doing. I'm going to run outside so that if I do start to die, it will be where (presumably) not many people will be able to see me die, versus at the gym, there are people in very close proximity that can see my demise. Plus it's just smarter to run outside for this one.

This is Henry, one of my dogs and the one that jumped too close to the computer and made the "receiver incident" happen.

Okay, this was crazy long. My b, yo. ;) HONK! :)

off the beaten path....well not entirely

This week has been kind of crazy for me and very stressful. So thanks for bearing with me. Tonight I was feeling stressed out. So i decided on an impromptu run. I ran from my house to my in laws house mainly to see if I could but also to watch some of the Braves game on their TV. I have the route I took outlined in black in the pic below. Amanda came and picked me up after and we measured the distance to be right at a mile and a half. I ran the whole time over some pretty up and down terrain that inclined two fields with pretty high grass and two pretty steep ditches. All in all it felt great to just have an unplanned pound it out run.

Sadly as I was recounting this run to Baykur on IM earlier tonight I realized that I have done say 1 twice this week. So tomorrow I'm going to actually do day 2 the right way. Now I know i could probably get away with skipping day two since i ran tonight and did day 1 twice but that just seems wrong to me. Anyway, thanks again for all the HONK's and support this week so far, you guys have kept me going and my spirits up as much as they can be. love y'all.

Matt

witty title.

Phew. Well I got through Week 5 Day 1. I ran by distance not time. And I will be honest it was a little tough. I burned 207 calories, had a total distance of 2.59 miles, and went for 36:21 minutes. I did all the running segments at 5 mph. I can't decide how I want to increase my speed with these next weeks. My right hip and left knee were kinda pissy by the end of my run haha. Afterwards I drove around in search of Rita's near my house. It took me a while to find it, but eventually I did (it was in a not obvious location). I got the Swedish Fish ice! delish. I am reading two books right now:

Both of them are good. The first one is about the flu epidemic of 1918. The second is about a guy walking the Appalachian Trail who is completely inexperienced. It's both humorous and motivating so far. Now I am watching 18 Kids and Counting. YES.

short and sweet

I ran today. It was good. I shaved about a minute off my time. I'm not having a good week so this is going to be short and please forgive me for not commenting on y'alls posts for a few days.

here is a picture:

its a painting i like from the Smithsonian in dc

matt

Aaaannnnnnnddddd GO!

Today was the early run outside. It took me a few minutes longer to get out of bed, not because of lack of motivation, but because I was freaking TIRED. But I was looking forward to the new running schedule of the day. I measured today by time versus distance since I haven't bought the Nike+ system yet, so I'm not sure how far I went. I was pretty proud of myself today, though. Why, you may ask? Well I'll tell you! So my route has gotten longer with each week, so I'm happy about that. But that's not the really cool part. :) So I was finishing my last 5 minutes and decided to keep up my walking pace for the next three minutes and then do a cool down. I was feeling so proud of myself that I made it through the run that I decided to run the last little bit back to the crosswalk and THEN do the cool down. So not only did I run for another minute and 40 seconds, I went FAST! :) Sooooo yeah......I was pretty proud haha. The second 5 minute round was the hardest part for me because of the stinkin' incline of the dern road, so I had to revert to the old man shuffle for that part. And then back to the younger version for the rest. Tomorrow I'll be at the gym so I'll be measuring by distance versus time. Should be pretty interesting, to say the least! OH! And my knee was okay today - not incredibly painful but just more annoying than anything else.

I found this really awesome yogurt by Yoplait that's called Yoplait Delights and it's SOOOOO FREAKING GOOD! The flavor I like is the Chocolate Raspberry, but I might try the Triple Berry one.....or the Lemon one......It's been my dessert lately, and only 1oo calories! So here is the Chocolate Raspberry:

going the distance

Today I made the change for running based on time to running based on distance. Needless to say it took a lot longer. With the warm up and cool down (each of which were a lap as opposed to 5 mins) it took a little over 36 mins. I felt like it went pretty well considering each running interval was anywhere from a minute to 2 minutes longer than what I had been running. But in turn the walking was longer time wise as well. I managed the last 1/2 mile in a little over 6 minutes.

My goal in the next 5 weeks is to drop my time and be able to run faster (and not die in the process). All in all Week 5 Day 1 is in the books and it went well.

Here is a random picture from about 2 years ago when Amanda, Lauren and I were visiting Mary and Derek and Lauren gave me a mohawk. Granted not the best angle for a view of a mohawk but its there I promise:
peace

Matt

And now for your daily wildlife report...

Today, I saw a dead:

Poor little guy, all run over and such. Anyway. I did my Week 4 Day 3 run and it went pretty well. Once again, I was going up a pretty steep hill for my last 5 minutes, so that was a little rough. But I made it through and I don't have work tomorrow, so I'll be able to run then too, pretty much getting me back on track. Today we had our IV training day at work, which was, for the most part, exceptionally boring. And some of it I had already had already heard because I'm one of the few people from Hillandale and it was part of our hospital wide orientation. Then it didn't run as long as it said. Idk the day was just weird.

On a positive note, rafting yesterday was awesome. I was really grumpy and didn't want to go because I was tired and didn't want to drive, etc. Also I didn't want to be tossed out of the raft, and got nervous, no surprise. But once we went through the first rapid or two, I loved it. Even though I feigned otherwise and complained and acted scared haha. I even "rode the bull" (sat on the front of the raft) for the last rapid. Ok, for the first 10% of the last rapid, until I was quickly knocked back into the boat by one wave, then accosted by about 17 more, all of which managed to clean out my sinus cavity. Afterwards we stopped at some... "Greek/Italian" place. Right, something like that. Anyway, I had the best Sprite of my life and some mediocre pizza, then we hopped in our cars to head home, making a stop at the Sonic at one point, during which most of us got out of the car and ran around the parking lot like idiots. I blame exhaustion for that delirium. Either way a grand time was had by all I think. I stumbled in around 10:30, and got to sleep around 12ish. Which made my 6:30 wakeup call pretty terrible, I'll be honest haha. But I got through the day thanks to some midmorning hot chocolate.

Look at us!! :)

Dude! I'm so proud of our Week 4! I got up extra early, Liz Baykur ran after a crazy long day, and Matt ran a 5K! Say whhhaaatttt??? I think we're all on the right track here. :)

So I ran yesterday but didn't get a chance to update b/c I was kinda all over the place a bit. Thursday night I was in Milledgeville for Bobby's going away party at the Linney's, so needless to say I didn't get to bed until about 4 in the morning with my belly full of my friend Captain and a few dashes of good ole Coca Cola. So yeah......I slept in a little bit but had to get back to Atlanta around lunch-ish, plus getting up when others left to say bye to them. So not a lot of sleep, slightly dehydrated, and my tummy not really liking being awake yet. Not a positive situation to go running haha. I decided that I had a couple of choices - it looked like it was going to rain (which was fine with me b/c I totally wanted to go run in the rain) and if my tummy decided that running was going to make me get slightly sick, then the rain would wash it away outside (don't judge me! ;) ); if it didn't rain I'd go to the gym and be on the treadmills closest to the bathrooms hah. I thought about running today, but I didn't think there would be time. It didn't rain, so off to the gym I went.

Speaking of the Linneys, here we are in a Linney sandwich! :)

Once I got through the warm up walk and the first 3 minutes, my tummy was fine. :) I almost got through 2 miles in 34 minutes, so that was positive for me. The legs were definitely glad to be done by the last 5 minutes of running, but I was still pretty proud that I got through it. The bad part about the run was that my knee started to act up a bit more. It's been a little annoying but now that the running segments are longer, it's slightly painful at the beginning of the run and then a bit more by the end. So yeah, not happy. I'm going to have to start taping it up and probably doing some exercises to strengthen the muscles that are letting my knee not be happy. So hopefully my trainer friend will call me back soon and I can get that situated before Monday.

Okay so moving on to Friday night. After running I was definitely a bit sore and then went to the OAR concert with my friend Renee and our good friend Charles Amuzie. Add Week 4 Day 3 exercise with 3 hours of standing and that equals a sore Liz today haha. But I am excited for Week 5 - I'm really looking forward to going to the gym and measuring by distance rather than time. That way I'll sorta have a gauge on where I am.

Lastly, a shout out to Sarah Tax, aka President of the LizMattLizTrainForA5k Fan Club of PA. ;)

I'm so proud of us! HONK!

My first 5K :)

I'll get the details out of the way first, then on to the fun stuff. I ran the entire time, yup you read that right, the entire time. I use the term "run" very loosely. Especially considering at one point and old lady speed walking passed me. But still the whole time and I had enough left to sprint the last tenth of a mile. It felt pretty good. I completed it in 41 min, 42 secs. Which was under my goal of 42 mins. So now onto the fun stuff.

And the long awaited debut of The Shirt:

Yeah it says "HONK" on the front :)

Left sleeve: Liz Baykur

Right sleeve: Liz W.

Not many people read this since everyone was in front of me for the most part, but I had to show y'all (and myself) a little love.

This is actually the home stretch just before the finish line. That lady behind me, yeah she was in front of me up until that point. Booyah!

And this is before that previous picture, chronologically. There was a portion of the race that took us down into campus. Here is a link to the registration flier so you can see the route we took:

http://www.valdosta.edu/finadmin/wellness/documents/Fun_Run_FlyerForm_09.pdf

And now to be serious/mushy for a moment. I feel like I say this at least once a week on here but you guys are the reason I keep going. You guys are the reason I ran the entire race today. Putting your names on my shirt was my way of having you guys there with me. I know we all have struggled but know from my part I can't say enough how you guys have helped me stick with this and know that I am here for you both, not just in running but in life. I love you both very much.

Can't wait to hear how the rest of y'alls weeks are going. Week 5 Day 1 for me tomorrow!

Matt

5:20 am, rise and shine.

So. Week 4 of work- done. Week 4, day 2 of training- also done. Lemme just give a run down of my day:

5:20 wakeup

6:15 leave my house- coffee and a granola bar for breakfast on the way to work.

8 am- morning assessments

9 am- morning meds, during which I looked like an idiot for the first of many times today trying to work the IV pumps.

10 am- I am left to fend for myself for close to an hour while my nurse had to go to this seminar thing for close to an hour

11:30 am- my nurse is back and we have to cover another nurses patient load while she goes to the seminar.

2 PM- still no lunch. the other nurse gets back, but also hasn't eaten, and won't take our patients.

2:30- I almost start crying in the hallway because I'm tired and haven't had a real meal all day and have been working for 8 hours with no break at this point.

Finally we got lunch and I perked up plenty to finish the shift.

4pm- I transfused blood for the first time, that was tedious.

5pm- I did NOT have to attempt to start an IV because the patient's veins were no where to be found.

7:22PM- Clock out. Praise Jesus.

And then you know what I did? WENT TO THE GYM. That's right. I'm that hardcore. Hahah. Yeah something like that. The soles of my feet were pretty sore from the day, but the run wasn't too bad. I had to go a little slower than I would have liked due to some side stitches, but I got through it even after my draining shift.

Now I just finished my dinner of a lean pocket and cheddar bunnies, and bunny graham friends hahaha. It's like a dinner fit for a 7 year old. On a different note. I think I wanna buy this pricey-ish coffee maker. As part of my first official paycheck. Because I hate making coffee, but I'm trying to wean myself from Diet Coke, and I just like the idea of a coffee routine on my way to work.

I was running...

Week 4, Day 3 is in the books and it went well. I actually ended up running 15 seconds longer on my first 5 min running segment. I just kind of zoned out and wasn't paying attention to the stopwatch. Towards the end of my second 5 min segment my leg started hurting. It was kind of the back of my knee/upper calf. It wasn't too bad though.

So Saturday is my first actual 5k and it hurts my heart that you guys won't be there. But I'll be thinking of you the whole way I promise. I have a sweet idea for a shirt that I'm going to "make". You guys are going to like it I promise.

Picture time:





I took this last night in the draz's front yard with my iPhone.

Matt


-- Post From My iPhone

Glad I've got geese.

Today was a hard day for me, motivation and running wise. This morning it was crazy hard for me to get up and go for Day 2. No joke, if I were going to skip a day, it would've been today. But knowing me, it would've been even harder to start back up again. So thanks to you two for keeping me going, no joke. I just knew that if I didn't go today, I'd let ya'll down. So thanks. :) But the running was pretty crappy today, too. The first 5 minute segment I got incredibly winded and it was so hard for me to keep going. And that just put a damper on the rest of my run. But I made it, even though it just wasn't a good one. Boo. It didn't help that I really wanted to run in the rain and it wasn't raining.....so double boo hah.

The rest of the day was pretty blah. Friday for my Day 3 I'll be in the gym and a good friend of mine is going with me before we go to the OAR concert. :) So I'm pretty positive about Friday. It really comes down to the accountability we have for each other that really kept me going today. I just hope that Friday isn't as bad as it was today! Then I'll definitely be needing the concert to cheer me up! ;)

So all in all, ya'll were the reason I got up today and hit the road. Thanks for being pretty awesome geese. :) And here's a picture I took when I was down in SWFL for Vocare Int'l Conference earlier this year. It's just pretty, I think at least. :)

suckiest run ever

So I say that but honestly the run went fine. No problems, i slowed my pace some since I'm going to run a real live 5k Saturday. But it is the circumstances surrounding the run that sucked. Amanda went with me and since she walks she is kind of in charge of keys and stuff. Well she locked BOTH our keys and BOTH our phones in the car and had to walk to the middle school (who the track belongs to) and called her dad. I didn't do a very good job of hiding my displeasure which only made things worse. So there is an apology coming Amanda's way very soon. I continued to run and just before i got done running her dad showed up and just as i was about to finish Amanda and her dad drove away. So I decided to walk home. So that's where I am now, at home with no way to get in touch with my wife. So as you would imagine, I'm not in a very playful mood so I'll end with this:
that's me on the last day of our honeymoon at Disney and that look is kind of how i feel.

Later

Matt

Say whhhhhaaaaattt?

Today wasn't too bad.  Like everyone else, I kinda enjoyed it.....say whhhhaaaatttt?  Oh, that's right - I said it.  I ENJOYED my run today! :)  I had to be in Carrollton by 9 so I decided that I would get up even earlier to do my run.  I really like starting the day with a run versus running in the middle or at night.  That way I'm not taking two showers a day.  Plus the run has been done and I'm not worrying about making sure I get it done.  So at 6:00 am my alarm went off and I was out the door by 6:12 ready to go.  I had to look up the timing last night and put it in my phone so I could look at it as a reminder if need be.  Of which I did before I started.  I ran with my phone today b/c I couldn't find my earphones so I just had my music playing for all the world to hear.  From my sports bra.  I didn't feel like carrying it and I wanted to be able to hear the music, so that was the most logical place to put it.  

It was dark when I left the house this morning.....and still slightly dark when I got back about 31 minutes later.  The sun was trying at least!  The whole time I was chanting in my head (and sometimes out loud) "3, 90, 5, 2.5, 3, 90,5" a few times hah.  I didn't want to forget or pull my phone out of my bra to look at it haha.  But no joke, I was the ONLY PERSON OUT this morning on the sidewalk.  It took me a few minutes to finally see one older couple walking the opposite direction as me.  And most of the houses didn't even have any lights on yet.  So it could've been creepy but I tried to stay away from that type of thinking.  

I almost lost track of time the first go round.  I usually estimate when to check my watch according to the songs I'm listening to.  I figure an average song is between 3 and 4 minutes, so I try to gauge my time on that instead of focusing so much on my watch.  Which, for me anyway, is better.  Time is the last thing I want to think about.  So I decide to look at my watch and I almost went over my first 3 minutes.  It just seemed so easy and went by pretty quickly.  The first set wasn't too bad - the last set was a little harder.  The second 3 minutes turned back into the old man run (my pace has gotten better outside), but the second 5 minutes was better and more of a younger pace. :)

Alright that's a lot of detail for one run, but it's all good. :)  I don't have a picture of my run this morning, but this is where I was in Antigua - and I really wanna go back!

The picture doesn't do it justice, but it's still pretty. :)

This afternoon I met up with my supervisors for my internship, which went well so I'm pretty excited.  And then I came home and was just a bit lazy until I made the rice for dinner and marinated the porkchops that went on the grill.  It was yummy. :)

I'm so proud of us and our Week 4!! :)  Honk!

Week 4!

Phew. I got through Week 4, Day 1. I did the sections a little backwards, doing the 5 min sections before the 3, but total timewise, it all worked out to be the same. So, the running itself, not bad, I kinda like it... and then something like today happens.... I got to the huge fun hill to run down, during a walking segment. And when I turned around and started the second 5 min section... there was that hill again. Only this time, it was uphill, and I had to run it. SO PAINFUL. haha. I got through it though, even though I got like a stitch in my shoulder and was totally doing the old man shuffly run the whole time haha. This was my motivation:

I get the little 80 calorie bottles. I know it's mostly sugar, but after a run, SO GOOD. haha. Then I proceeded to make dinner: a delicious walnut and feta orzo. Mmmmm.

The rest of my day was quietly busy and consisted of me tying up loose ends. I called my insurance company about the debit card that hadn't come in (it arrived later today), the neurologist about some prescriptions, Gwinnett county about jury duty, did some dishes, went to the grocery store, etc. AND I deposited my first paycheck! I'm still so excited about it haha. Ok, that's all for now. I think tomorrow I'm going to let my body rest, or I'll end up running 4 days, off 3, and I'd rather have it more evenly spaced than that.

This is a test, this is only a test

So I decided after having a lot on my mind all day that I needed to blow off a little steam with a run. Since today wasn't a scheduled running day and I have the 5k coming up I decided to do the "run until I can't run anymore run.". Thinking my usual 29 minutes was really high I set that on my watch and set off. I started off with the standard 5 minute warm up and when that was done started into my run. I really tried to slow up my pace so I could go as long as possible. Also I was running around the inlaws neighborhood so I didn't feel a need to measure my distance which would have caused me to run faster and maybe have to walk at some point. All that being said here is a pic showing how much I ran without stopping;





I ran for 24 minutes! I could have kept going! I decided to stop cuz I didn't want to push myself too much but I can't tell you how awesome this feels. I am very very encouraged. There were a lot of hills in the neighborhood so that also makes me feel good. I was going at a snails pace but still. Yay!

Matt


-- Post From My iPhone

sauna jogging

So today was my Week 3, Day 3. I realize my schedule is a touch off. Please bear with me; scheduling running is just more complicated with my weird and completely exhausting new work routine. I am really, really thankful that you guys are doing this program with me; I don't know if I would have the motivation right now to keep going with it otherwise, if we are being honest. I know that I tend to feel better after I run, and that I really need a form of stress relief, but right now all I want to do is like, clean, cook, and sleep. It seems silly, even to me, that I have such a hard time, even on days that the actual run is only about 15 minutes long. I guess I'm still not to the point where it feels quick to just jog out the door, and come back and pick right back up with whatever I was doing before. I have end up kinda sitting around for a little while, then a little longer while I figure out if I'm going to shower immediately or say, clean the bathroom first. Or I get all annoyed because I can't seem to find a good time/order to schedule running, showering, and meals. Anyway, I'm just glad to have you guys helping me stay motivated, either directly, or just because I don't want to be left out/behind :)

And on to more positive things: so it was REALLY steamy during my run, but it wasn't really bothersome until I was walking home haha. Also, I got outside and completely forgot what the appropriate walking to running ratio was. I ran 3 minutes, walked 1.5, called Matt, who told me that the running and walking for each set was equal. But at that point, I'd already cut down my walking time with little difficulty, so for once, I overachieved! My times were as follows: 3 min run, 1.5 walk, 2 min run, 1.5 walk, 3 min run, 1.5 walk, 3 run, 1.5 walk, 3 min run. So a total of 14 minutes of running, 6 walking (plus 5 warm up). Not bad, if I do say so myself. :) Then I continued with my stretching and trying to do splits.

Yesterday I went rock climbing, which is why I didn't run my last day of week 3 then. It was really good! I only climbed one route, twice, but just being outside and climbing again was nice. Today I went to church, then to lunch with my brother and a friend, read for a bit, then took two naps. Like, I got up for maybe 30 minutes between them. It was really out of character. Anyway, so I dreamed I had this pet:

that kept following me around. Like a puppy. And he'd take his beak and pull on my sweatshirt, and I kept trying to get him to back off a little bit, because it was one of those dreams where I was having trouble seeing and moving (dunno if yall know what I'm talking about, but they are REALLY annoying dreams). Anyway, if you've seen UP! he was kinda like this guy:

in personality, but little like a normal peacock physically.

For the rest of my evening, I am going to eat dinner, work on my nursing journal, and plan my day off tomorrow :) First thing on the list: deposit my first paycheck!!!

And the beat goes on (and on and on apparently, judging by the length of this post and title of the post, geez stop typing already....)

Week 4, Day 1: Today's run went really well. My legs below my knees burned a good bit but it wasn't anything unbearable. I decided to do my run today not just away from the track but out of my neighborhood as well. So I ran down Tara Dr. taking a right onto Connell Rd. I ran down to our OB/GYN and ran through their parking lot, through an empty lot and to the sidewalk along Northside Dr. I ran down that sidewalk for a bit then cut behind some stores and back across Connell and back into my neighborhood, back to my house. The whole thing timed out pretty well as I ended up back in front of my house just as the last 5 minute run was ending. I did walk a little ways then turn around and came back for my cool down. All in all right at 29 minutes total.

I told Baykur that I wanted to start switching gears from running based on time to running based on distance. As I told her, it's a 5K not a 45 minute K. So week 5 seems like it lends itself to that transition as the walking/running increments are broken down based on distances easily measured on a track. So I'm gone do that (yes i meant to say "gone").

A cpl of side notes. Depending on when my boss wants me to come in next Saturday to show our new Saturday store opener how to do the money stuff at work, I may or may not be doing the "VSU community 5K Fun Run/Walk." As I've told you guys before I feel bad that my first official 5K won't be with y'all but I know you guys are cool with it. I told Amanda the other day I feel like I created a running monster because my brother in law is all into it and he is running the race Saturday and my sister is wanting to run now also. All of which I'm glad for but it has been a little overwhelming.

In much more exciting news. I weighed myself after my run today and I weighed 298. yeah that's right, go read that again. 298!!! That's not barely squeaking under 300 lbs with a 299.5. Oh no! that's a whole 2 pounds less! Now I know weight loss isn't the goal of this and i really am keeping that in mind, I promise. But damn it felt good to see that on the scale today! I do feel better overall. My clothes fit better or rather I'm fitting into shirts I'd never thought I'd wear again. I had 3-4 diff people at church this morning asking me if I had lost weight, one of which asked me if I was shrinking. I can't give you guys enough credit for keeping me motivated. I mean that with all my heart, thank you.

OK so, just to give you a sense of how far I've come, here is a pic of me at my heaviest, 355 lbs:

While I do look rather dashing and sexy as hell, I'm also a BIG BOY in this picture. So again, thank you. I love you both very much.

Matt

I hurt.....lots....but it hurts so good! ;)

So before you start reading, you must press play to this song and THEN continue reading. :)

Alright so now that you're listening to that, you'll know how my workout started today.  I usually just put my iPod on shuffle when I'm at the gym and that was the first song. I was excited about it. :) I have this problem that when I listen to my iPod while running, it's hard for me to not sing out loud.  

So I usually just bang out the rhythms with my fingers in what I think is a nondescript way but could very well look slightly weird. But I digress. :)  Today was Week 3 Day 3 and I thought I'd try to get through 3 reps instead of just 2. Oy vey, I wasn't entirely sure I was gonna make it! That was inTENSE! But I totally did it. :) I was proud of myself. But now I'm paying the price because I'm so sore right now, it's almost like I'm back at Week 1 Day 1. I'm okay with it though. :) I also was going to try to up my pace, but I found out that I normally run faster at the gym than outside.  When I run outside I slow down just a little bit, which is so odd!  So maybe I'mcloser to running like a normal person than an old man than I thought.....I'll have to be more cognizant of my pace when I'm outside and make sure I'm not cheating myself or allowing myself to go slower than I really can. We'll see. :)

I hope you like my song choice! :)

I need to get back to stretching more like I started doing. My muscles paid for that today, too. They were not happy to start running.  But they just had to get over it and deal. :)

I don't have a running related picture today, but here's a picture of me and two of my good friends I worked with at Kanuga, Deena and Ben. I heart them tons. :)

Alright, now on the Week 4!  Heck yes!  I'm excited!! Honk!

Paparazzi

So one of the benefits of having someone come to the track with you is that they can take pictures of you while you run!





Yay for my wife! I love you baby!

Week 3 Day 3 is in the books! Today's run went great! I ran for 29 minutes (including the 5 min warmup) and did 2 and 1/4 miles. I did the suggested running but I did 3 reps instead of 2. So feel pretty good about myself. Week 4 seems like it's going to be a mofo but we'll see.

First chance I get I'm stocking up on more fruit, mainly apples. Right now our food intake is in "what we can get our hands on" mode due to finances but well get back track. Also I haven't had a soda in 2 weeks! So yay for that.

On to week 4!

Matt


-- Post From My iPhone

the animal kingdom

So today was my Week 3, Day 2 run. I ran outside again instead of at the gym. I noticed a dead:

And I was thinking, they are similar in body size and shape to:
I felt pretty good for the most part. Although, the last 3 minutes of running were uphill again, so that was really rough. As usual, I didn't want to stretch, BUT I figured out a way to make it a little more bearable. You see, I needed a goal to start running (the end being a 5 or 10 K), and I realize I need a concrete set of goals for stretching! SO now I am on my way to being able to touch my toes without bending my knees (sitting or standing), and do splits (middle, and left and right sided). :) I'm pretty pleased with myself for coming up with that form of motivation, I'll be honest.

Today I had work for a few hours; more computer charting training. That part was dull, but our little "check in" time is always nice. Natasha is just great. Then was lunch and Rita's with Liz!! Delicious as always. My italian ice was cookies and cream. It's mind boggling- it's ice. but it tastes like cookies. Then I went over to Lauren's and hung out for a couple hours before coming home, playing on FB for a bit, then headed out for my run. Then I pulled together a really unexciting dinner: peach, noodles with a little olive oil and parmesan, a roll, and a cookie. Now I'm just working on being ready for my day tomorrow. Phew.

honk.

Oh what a beautiful morning, oh what a beautiful day!

Well it wasn't a gorgeous day today, but running wasn't nearly as hot as it could've been.  It was nice and overcast with a little bit of a breeze, so I didn't sweat nearly as much haha.  I went the same route as last time I ran from my house, which was by the Avondale Lake.  There's a slight incline on the way back, of which my calves were not a fan. Because of the incline, the last minute of the 3 minutes was pretty killer.  But I did do an extra 90 sec run after the normal reps were done. This was mainly because I still had a fair amount of distance to go and didn't feel like walking the rest of the way.  So today I was a slight overachiever.  And guess what Matt?  I picked up the pace a bit with that last 90 secs too!  You should be proud haha.  But here are the ducks and a baby duck that was by the lake:

For lunch I met up with Liz B at Mellow Mushroom for followed by the amazing Rita's. :)  It was a pretty fantastic combo. :)  Here's our Rita's yumminess:

And Liz looks slightly like a creeper.  But a creeper eating awesome Rita's. :) OH!  I also decided that having good running shorts is imperative.  I have three that are my most comfy, but only one out of the three are my favorites.  The only problem with the three is that they stick to me pretty good once I'm been going for a few minutes.  So I guess soon I'll be investing in some more running shorts.  Hopefully ones that won't stick to me too badly.

Okay, I'm done now.....for real. :)  Yay for Week 3 Day 2!  Almost to Week 4!  Say whhhhaattt???? :)

cheaters never prosper...

I really don't like stretching. I just think about doing it, and get annoyed! I don't know why, it's not like it hurts or anything. Anyway. All this to say, while I have sort of been stretching, most of the time, it hasn't been sufficient. And today, my knee began to rebel when I got home from my run. So now it's all achy and grumpy, and I'm grumpy at the thought of always having to stretch haha. Oh well. There are worse things in life, I know.

Today was my Week 3 Day 1 run. And yes, Matt, I too noticed the math being goofy. But, considering, after 15 minutes, we are done with the running part and then just have to walk another 3-5, I am not complaining haha. I felt all kinds of strong for the first half of my run. And then I turned around to run home... uphill. It wasn't uphill the whole way, but my 90 sec walk, then 90 sec run, then part of the next walking section were all solidly uphill, so by the time I was done, I was DONE. haha.

The rest of my day was really busy- laundry that I didn't finish until a couple minutes ago, grocery shopping and target, worked a lot on DAYA stuff, and I cooked dinner!! I am going to be an excellent cook. I can tell. haha. Well, maybe not like, Food Network awesome, but I will be able to cook myself healthy food. Which is the goal. I made chicken with balsamic vinegar and garlic. It was really delicious. For my sides I had leftover broccoli and tortellini, and a rosemary herb roll.

Tomorrow is work. Sigh. My day off was way too short. Tomorrow is "check in wednesday" at work. I think we are going to learn to chart on our patients. Oh well. I'll live. THEN! is Mellow Mushroom with Liz!! And then Rita's! After that I'm not sure what I'm doing. Probably working on DAYA stuff, calling insurance, doctors, and gwinnett county jury people to try to get out of it. I lead an exciting life, be jealous everyone.

honk. I'm out.

bad math

Okay so did anyone else notice that the amount of time they tell you to run in week 3 doesn't add up to 20 mins? 1.5+1.5=3x2=6, then 3+3=6x2=16+6=18! Not 20. Anyway, just seemed odd to me.

Now onto week 3 day 2. I almost didn't go today. I was thinking that since I ran yesterday to make up for Sunday that I could have easily justified waiting until tomorrow. I'm sure you all would have told me that was perfectly okay. But I figured I didn't want to start down the path of postponing runs for reasons other than scheduling issues. Like, I was perfectly capable of running today and I had no good excuse, so I ran (I ran so far awaaaayy....just kidding).

The run itself was a little better than yesterday's run. My entire legs below my knees are hard as a rock when i get done and burn like a mofo while I run but all in all pretty good. On a side note I ran wearing my Braves cap today and went without sunglasses. Not sure why.

Random picture time! (I'm really enjoying the random picture segment of my posts, I like that I may be letting you guys in on some pics you might not have seen and therefore more of who I am):

Thats me (sans hair) at Tallulah Gorge. Amanda and I went camping there one spring break and that's a shot from down in the gorge, which we hiked.

Matt

Feel the burn, feel the burn!

Soooooo as Matt said earlier, we ran on Saturday for my Week 2 Day 3 and his repeat of the same day.  It was really cool to run on the beach, but dude, totally hard.  Even though the sand was pretty hard packed, it still gave a little bit so my calves were ON FIRE by the end.  And Matt loved the last running segment when he got the chance to leave me in the dust. :)

Today I did Week 3 Day 1, which wasn't as bad as I thought it might be.  The worst part was the last 30 seconds of the last 3 minutes of running.  Other than that it was pretty good.  I was pretty dern proud of myself. :)  I've decided that I run like an old man haha.  If you've ever seen old men run and how they take small steps and a pretty slow pace, that's how I run.  I think it's just because it's easier for me to set my pace that slow and I don't get horribly winded by the end of the very first jogging section.  But today I did try to pick up my pace a little bit the last running part.  I also decided that I'm gonna run outside once a week until it gets a bit closer and it'll be more than that closer to race time.  So I think I might get the Nike+ system since I'll be doing the running outside part so that I can start to keep track of the same stats that I can keep track of on the treadmill at the gym.  I'll let ya'll know how it goes. :)

Sadly, as Matt said, we forgot to take a picture of the beach. :(  And I meant to take a picture this morning and I forgot that too.....So here's a couple of pretty cool pictures of the sun setting while we were driving home yesterday from FL:

    

Hope everyone's week goes well! :)

back on track!!

Phew! No need to fear, kids! I'm back to the team. I fell behind with this new work schedule and such, but I'm acclimating. So today was my Week 2, Day 3. Not bad, other than the weird side stitch sort of pains I got. I burned 146 calories and went 2.04 miles. Woohoo! Here is a goose. Thanks for remaining encouraging and not being suspicious that I was going to permanently fall off the bandwagon.

Today at work all we did was learn more about how to do computer charting. It was so so so boring. So what did I do? Sit there and eat starbursts and cookies. Oops. By the end of the day I kinda didn't feel so great. On a positive note though! By the end of the day I was craving cooked vegetables. SO WEIRD. So for dinner I made: corn, broccoli, eggplant, and tortellini. Turns out I didn't really need the pasta; the veggies were plenty. In case you need a delicious corn recipe:

1 cup frozen queen anne corn

1 tsp olive oil

1/4 tsp minced garlic

2 tsp diced red onion

salt, pepper to taste

Those measurements are estimates at best. Heat the oil and start to cook the onions and garlic. When the onions are translucent, add the corn. Salt and pepper as desired, cook til the corn is soft and delicious.

Thank you. The end. More tomorrow... week 3!!

my legs hurt

I tried to think of something clever for the title of this post. But I'm too tired to think all that clearly. Week3 Day 1 kinda kicked my but. It wasn't as bad as week 1 when i got the times swapped but it was as close as I've gotten since. The worst part was my shins and calf muscles hurt at the end of the 3 minute sections. And not like shin splints but like the muscles were just like "whoa! too much! aaaahhh!"

I may have overstated how tired I got. But it worked me pretty good. I missed running yesterday, hence the Monday run. But it was worth it cause I got to spend the weekend with Liz W. Liz, I told Lauren Woody today that hanging out with you and spending time together was the main thing that kept my work issues from dragging down the whole weekend. You're awesome and I love you!

I am running tomorrow, so yay for back to back!

And now it's time for another installment of the random picture series!

That's me as Bill Cosby and Amanda as the priest from M*A*S*H* (I can't remember his name) at the Wesley Foundation Costume Karaoke party at Fox's Pizza!

Matt