Awesome.

Okay, that wasn't as bad as I anticipated. I mean, yeah. It was bad. But not that bad. Ten minutes of running, and then another twenty minutes of a combination of running and walking. I can tell my thighs will be sore come morning, and my lungs feel like someone dumped a shovel full of hot sand in them, but that first ten minutes is the longest I've done in what is probably five years.

So, yeah. I'm back at it. It only gets better from here!

And now for a few notes about this blog's format-to-be. For the time being, I will be running on Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. My posts on those days will basically consist of information about the day's workout. Any posts I make on off days will be about various training programs or nutritional information I find interesting, as well as information about other training/running resources that I frequent.

Run on, friends. Run on.

Man, I screwed this all up.

So, yeah. Obviously I managed to fall off the wagon again. Let's look at why...

First of all, my personal life outside of running/training got a little crazy for a while. Then there was an industrial accident that killed a friend at work recently. Plus, there are the usual excuses of weather, time and everything else you could think of.

Truth is, I wasn't running because I didn't feel like running. Well, I feel like running again. In fact, I'm about to go out for the first time in over a month. The weather still won't cooperate. I don't really have enough time, either. None of that matters.

What DOES matter is having the courage to go out that front door and put one foot in front of the other, no matter how slow or silly I may look.

Bad ideas...

A large Taco Bell meal, followed by this:

Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then do two repetitions of the following:
Jog 200 yards (or 90 seconds)
Walk 200 yards (or 90 seconds)
Jog 400 yards (or 3 minutes)
Walk 400 yards (or three minutes)

All after sitting around for a few hours stressing over life and getting stiff after a long work day.

*sigh* Ah, well. It's done now. I survived, and I still haven't missed a workout.

It's not always a party.

Twelve hour work day yesterday, two extra hours of really hard work today, bike ride to work and back, followed by my workout. It wasn't so much a run as sort of a death march today, but I finished without injury or other permanent damage. My thighs are very tired and I've probably managed to sweat off about five pounds today, but I still finished and I feel good about that.

Two weeks down!

Today felt good.

Yes, it did. It felt great, actually. My form has improved, my breathing has smoothed out, and I'm running faster and stronger even than the first run this week.

It would appear that I'm right on target. I'll weigh myself before I shower here in just a minute, and that should give some insight not only to my weight loss strategy, but to my hydration strategy as well. When the humidity is around 80%, you sweat a lot apparently.

Shuffling things around

Okay. So my schedule tells me I should be running today. Unfortunately, I worked twelve hours in the factory and I'm having some... Well, I'm having some issues with chafing. So, I decided to move my entire schedule back a day, which actually works out better for me in the long run.

Of course, it is probably also important to note that this is where my past attempts at training/getting into shape/losing weight have failed. I miss one day, then for whatever reason just give up entirely. I'm not going to let that happen this time, though. I'm committed to this race training, especially since I actually laid down some cash to be able to run it.

My long-term goals at this point are to run as much as possible through the fall and winter, with my eyes on a spring half-marathon. After that, I'll re-examine my situation, but right now there's this dream of a fall marathon bouncing around my head. But only one. Marathon training takes a huge commitment, and not just from the person running it. It also takes time away from the rest of the people around you, and I'm not sure if I'm prepared to put myself or my family through it more than once. But, man... It would be really awesome to have that one, just to prove it to myself.

Getting stronger...

Today was the start of my second week training. Ninety seconds of running followed by two minutes of walking repeated for twenty minutes. I thought it would be harder than it was, but I actually felt faster and stronger today even though I was running for a longer time. Also, the thigh that was bothering me Friday (and most of the weekend) was fine today as well.

I don't know if I've managed to lose a single pound yet, but I feel healthier right now anyway. I'm sure the weight loss will start soon enough.