General Jackassery

Okay, first of all I did just call it “Operation Svelte.” That’s what Sarah has decided to call this latest endeavor to loose weight and get in the best shape of my life. I thought it was pretty funny so I decided to adopt the name.

Now, on to better things.

Many, many thanks to Amy and Brian. Had it not been for Amy telling me that Brian was going to run in this race I would never have done it. Had it not been for Brian deciding that he wanted to run a marathon in the spring, I don’t think I would have done it. So, thanks for the inspiration and the invite! Sarah and I thoroughly enjoyed the couple of hours we got to spend with you guys.

The longest run I’ve ever done is 5.5 miles. The first time I ran that distance was about a year ago and I remember being so proud because I ran it at an 11 min/mile pace. About three weeks ago I ran that same route and was able to run it at a 9min 53sec/mile pace. I remember thinking to myself, “Man, you’re kicking but.”

This past weekend I ran my first ever 10k. For those who don’t want to do the math, that’s 6.2 miles. When I decided to run the race my two objectives where: 1) Finish, 2) Finish in under 1 hour.

Again with the math, that would mean that I need to run at an average pace of 9 min 40 secs / mile. That’s just 13 secs per mile faster than my best pace on a 5.5 mile run. So I set out training to run this 10 K. I had a lot of good training days and felt like I was ready for this thing when Saturday morning rolled around.

The race started about 15 minutes late and it was pretty dang cold, somewhere in the mid to low thirties when we started. Brian had said that he was going to stay with me atleast for the first couple of miles and then if he felt like taking off that’s what he was going to do.

“On your marks, get set…….go!”

We took off running and at the very beginning it seemed like everyone had the rush of running with a couple hundred other people, so the pace right off the start was fast. I guess that was okay since the first half-mile was down hill. I told Brian that I didn’t want to get caught up in all of that so we slowed down a little bit. Run your own pace and all.

Brian stuck with me for almost 4 miles before he picked it up a notch, but he helped me keep a really good pace and by the time he took off I was in a pretty steady rythm.

By mile 5 I was starting to slow down a little bit, but I was still hanging in there pretty good. I also picked up a little kid somehwere around mile 5 and we ran pretty close together all the way in. Somewhere around 5.8 miles you start going back up the hill to the finish, I thought it was pretty mean to have an uphill finish, but what can you do.

When we got to the 6 mile mark I picked up the pace a little, but since I was still going uphill there wasn’t much I could do. The little kid passed me and put about 50 ft into me before I could stop loosing ground. With about a hundred yards left and the top of the hill in sight I went all out towards the finish line. The kid heard me pick up the pace and he took off too, so I started cheering for him to keep pushing. For some reason I didn’t want to pass him when he’d worked that hard to get to the finish line. So I got beat by a little kid at the very end, but it was fun.

Remeber I said that I wanted to finish in under 1 hour? Look at the clock over my shoulder. I crossed the line 2 seconds later.

My official time was 57:52 so I beat my goal by 2 min 8 seconds and my average pace for 6.2 miles was 9:20 per mile. I’m happy with that.

Thanks Brian, I enjoyed it!

By the way, Brian finished in 54:50, not too shabby! Keep up the good work.

Just a quick update. I’ve been working really hard at this LA Weightloss thing and while I haven’t been the best about staying on the plain, I have had huge success so far.

This coming Friday I will have completed 6 weeks on the program. I don’t think I’ve stuck with any diet this long in my life. When I got on the scale Friday, October 20th, I weighed 280 lbs. This morning when I got on the scale I weighed 252 lbs. 28 lbs down, 32 to my current goal.

Also, I had gone on a couple of jogs that were 2 miles or less in September, but I hadn’t had any excercise other than hockey for the later half of September and into October. Since then I’ve started jogging again. Saturday afternoon I ran 4.75 very hilly miles and was able to maintain a 9 minute and 44 seconds / mile pace. Yesterday I ran 2 miles at 9 minutes and 15 seconds.

Yay for me.

There’s a lot to talk about, so I think I’ll put this in list form.

1) 3 weeks ago Friday I took a big step for the sake of my health and happiness. I got up early to play hockey on that Friday and before I left I decided to get on the scale. I’d been watching my weight steadily rise, and I wanted to see what I weighed at my lightest. The scale said 280 lbs. I had gained almost all of the 20 lbs I lost since my wedding back. Because I’ve been watching my weight rise for several months I’ve been thinking hard about doing something about it, but I’ve tried diets and exercise before and I’ve never succeeded alone. I decided that I needed help and that was a big step for me. Seeking help meant that I was going to have to truly commit to changing how and what I eat as well as how I exercise and how much. That morning when I read 280 I decided to join LA Weight Loss. No matter the cost, the time or the commitment I decided that I wanted to lose this weight. Sarah has been very supportive so far and I’ve been very successful. Just two and a half weeks in I’ve lost over 14 lbs.

2) I’ve been on the road a lot lately. This is probably some of the heaviest travel of my career to date. Most of them are not long trips, but I’m going on multiple trips per month and most of the trips will span a weekend. I don’t expect too many people read this anymore, but if you do read it then you know why I don’t post that often.

3) I ran 3.2 miles last night at a 10min/mile pace. Amazingly enough despite the weight gain, I haven’t lost my base of fitness. My brother-in-law is planning on running a Marathon in March and while I don’t think I could ever be ready to run a Marathon in five months I think I’m going to try to at least run a half-marathon by then.

Not so random thoughts,

a) I do not support the war in Iraq. That is a change from the time when we went to war with Iraq. I believed at the time that dethroning Sadam was a good thing, I believed that they had weapons of mass destruction and that they were going to give them to terrorists to blow use on American Interests. Now, I believe we should bring our boys home, lick our wounds and learn from our mistakes. I believe that our people are doing good things in small doses in Iraq, but we’re not making a big enough impact because we have not committed to making that impact. I believe that our President believes that as long as Iraq is a vacuum there will not be any more terrorist attacks here.

b) I DO support the guys on the ground over there. I work daily with veterans of the first Gulf War and I work daily with people who have served as soldiers and civilians in Iraq. Those guys are doing their best to get things done, but they lack leadership. I believe that our troops should be given the best equipment available to keep them as safe as possible as long as they’re over there.

c) I believe that people need to learn to distinguish between not supporting the war and not supporting our troops. I believe that we all want our people to come home and we all appreciate that they’re willing to volunteer to do the things they do. I appreciate them and thank God everyday that there are people out there who are willing to try to better themselves and our country by joining the military and fighting wars on our behalf. I choose to show my support for the troops by not sending them do die in a place that we have no business being. But, since they are over there I want the government to provide them with enough manpower and equipment to be successful. Our nation is already in debt so far we’ll never get out, so why do we worry about spending more money to protect the guys who volunteer to protect us.

d) I’ve written about hippocracy before, but I think I need to say it again. In the bible there are three small areas that are left up to interpretation about gays and gay marriage. However, in the bible it says many more times than three that you should turn the other cheek, that you should love and pray for your enemy and in the bible it says that HATE of any kind is not to be tolerated. So why is it okay to go blow whoever off the map, but it’s not okay for two men to marry? The book of Matthew also says something about not judging. I’m tired of people using religion whenever it’s convenient and discarding it when they feel like sleep with their neighbor’s wife.

e) Believe I written enough.