Run Update

I got out for a run today and decided to try doing 2:1s (2 min jog and 1 min walk). Overall it went well, but I was getting tired near the end. Hard to believe that jogging an extra 5 mins instead of walking can have that much effect on your endurance. I did have a bit of pain in my left ankle/shin, mostly on the outer part of it, but it wasn't enough to ruin my run.

Here are my numbers.

			Difference
Date	Today	Aug 27th, 2009	4 days
Time	00:30:00	00:21:00	+9:00
Style	2:1s	1:1s	1:0
Distance (km)	4.2	2.69	+1.69
Average HR	153	140	-13
Max HR	173	159	-14
Calories Burned	540	309	+131

The good part about these numbers is that even though I ran more than all my previous runs, my average HR and max HR were still in line with all my other runs. To me, this tells me that my heart is getting use to the exercise.

Numbers update

Well I weighed myself the other day, and took the time to take some other measurements. Overall I wasn't happy as I gained 1 lbs over the last few weeks of August. That is not good considering I drank plenty of juice during that time and really limited my food intake while I worked. I'm guessing that being off every Thursday and Friday the past few weeks hasn't helped me as I tend to juice less and eat more when I'm home. After this week there are no more planned holidays so hopefully before October roles around I can lose some more weight.

On an upside, my blood pressure numbers were a little better considering I haven't been vigilante about taking my pills everyday. I also lost 1 inch off of my waist since the last time I measured it (early June) and that has made me feel better.

Hopefully I can refocus and drop ALL my numbers during the month of September.

Run Update

I managed to get out for a little run tonight after supper. I say little as I took my dog with me. Overall she did well doing 1:1s, except for the fact that she kept going around me and tangling me up with her leash.

Here are my numbers.

			Difference
Date	Today	Aug 18th, 2009	8 days
Time	00:21:00	00:30:00	-9:00
Style	1:1s	1:1s	0
Distance (km)	2.69	4.05	-1.36
Average HR	140	155	+15
Max HR	159	176	+17
Calories Burned	309	493	-182

As you can see my numbers were much lower than my last run, and that is because I wasn't trying to push my dog on her first run. Hopefully I will get out again this weekend and see if I can push her a little more.

Injury timeout

We interrupt this blog to report an injury.

Well I did it again. I pinched a nerve in my lower back last Friday and have been unable to do much ever since. The funny thing is that I did it reaching for the laundry soap! It has been several years since the last time I did it, and believe me, it is not a fun thing to go through. Especially since the only remedy is rest. No meds, heat or cold is going to help. All you have to do is rest as much as possible so that you don't aggravate it anymore. Unfortunately, with 3 kids and a dog, rest is not an option. And to make matters worse, my wife pulled something in her shoulder and she's not as functional as she would like. Ahh the joys of getting older.

So since I'm suppose to be resting, I'm going to have to hold off on the running for a few more days. Just when I was starting to get back into a rhythm.

Run Update (Yesterday)

I totally forgot to update my run stats yesterday. Yes, I ran yesterday, making it 2 days in a row. I don't plan on running today to give my legs a little break. Overall it was another good run and I managed to push myself a little after I did the turn around (15mins).

Here's the updated numbers.

			Difference
Date	Today	Aug 17th, 2009	1 day
Time	00:30:00	00:30:00	00:00:00
Style	1:1s	1:1s	0
Distance (km)	4.05	4.03	+0.02
Average HR	155	151	-4
Max HR	176	179	+3
Calories Burned	493	490	+3

Because I pushed myself a bit, my average HR was up, but my max HR was down. I consider this (max HR down) to be a good sign that my body is starting to adjust to running again.

I think if I can run once more before Monday, I will increase my running style to 2:1s (over 30mins). We will see.

Good start

Well for those who haven't noticed yet, the NFL pre-season started last week. I really didn't pay any attention to those games, as my beloved NY Giants only played their first game last night. That one I watched in its entirety, and thankfully I did as it was finally decided on the last play of the game, in which they won. I know it is only pre-season, but a win is a win and they looked OK doing it.

Overall, I was happy with the RB's, as Jacobs and Bradshaw showed some good form. I was also happy with the new 3rd back, Danny Ware, as he showed some potential. The defense (first and 2nd string guys) looked good and put some decent pressure on the QB. The 3rd string guys only had the game ending play to brag about, so nothing unexpected there. The offensive line also looked good protecting Manning and Carr, while opening some nice holes for the RBs. The 3rd string guys couldn't give Woodson and Bomar any time to step back and throw the ball, so don't really know which of the 2 is better.

Now on to the WRs. Many people (analyst) are all over the Giants for not having a top WR. I say BS! As long as the guys run their routes, CATCH the ball and can make some plays after the catch, then they will be fine. NY Giants football is all about the power run. I know you have to pass a little to open up the run, but opponents expect to get a healthy dose of Jacobs (and Bradshaw) each time they play the Giants. Last night, all the WRs played well. There were no obvious drop balls and they helped move the chains on several occasions. Give these guys a chance to get in sync with Manning and I see good things from them.

I know it is only pre-season, and 1 game to boot, but I will say it here first:

Giants take the NFC East (12-4) and make it (at least) to the NFC Championship game this year!

Run Update

Call me stupid, call me idiotic, but either way I went out and ran today at lunch. Crazy I know, especially when the humidex hit 41 C. Despite the heat, it wasn't that bad until my last 5 minutes. At the point I was really starting to feel it.

Here's the updated numbers.

			Difference
Date	Today	Aug 12th, 2009	6 days
Time	00:30:00	00:30:00	00:00:00
Style	1:1s	1:1s	0
Distance (km)	4.03	4.04	-0.01
Average HR	151	156	+5
Max HR	179	177	-2
Calories Burned	490	489	+1

As you can see, even though it was much hotter today than 5 days ago, I managed to almost duplicate the same numbers. The one point where I improved was my average HR, meaning this workout wasn't as hard on my body. I think the only reason my max HR was a bit higher was because I pushed a little harder the last minute of jogging to hopefully reach 4.04km.

Anyway I look at it, I was out running.

Another Year

I celebrated (with my wife of course) my 6th wedding anniversary over the weekend. Hard to believe that we have been married for 6 years now, and ultimately together for 11 years. As a little surprise (she hates surprises) I decided to plan an evening out. I managed to convince her mother to watch our kids (and dog) for several hours while we set out on a 3 hour Sunset Dinner Cruise of the 1000 Islands. I say surprise as I only told my wife to be ready for a specific time and that we would be out for several hours. I finally told her were we were going once we got onto the highway.

Overall, It turned out to be very enjoyable evening. Dinner was a buffet, but still decent and the scenery was amazing. Because of limited seating on the boat/ship, we shared a table with several other people who were also celebrating anniversaries. The company was great and we spent a great part of dinner laughing and joking with each other. Topping off the night was seeing the sunset while cruising the river.

I would definitely recommend the boat cruise to anyone looking for something different. You can get all the details on the Rockport Boatlines website.

Back on track

Weighed myself this morning and, to my surprise, I had lost another 4 lbs since the beginning of this month. I didn't have the time to take my blood pressure, but will over the weekend. So without doing anything special, other than drinking 2L of fresh juice almost everyday, I've managed to lose weight. I'm now down 10 lbs since I started drinking fresh juice. Very happy with that. Now to keep it up for the remaining of the month (and beyond).

Run Update

Well I finally managed to get out and run again. It has been 21 days since my last run, and I'm not really happy with that. I am fully motivated to run, just can't seem to find the time. Plus with a week of renos and a week of dealing with a sliced up thumb (weak excuse I know), I couldn't get out. Anyway, I ran today and everything felt great, even when I was walking (I had aches in my knees when I walked).

Here's the updated numbers.

			Difference
Date	Today	July 22nd, 2009	21 days
Time	00:30:00	00:30:00	00:00:00
Style	1:1s	1:1s	0
Distance (km)	4.04	3.89	+0.15
Average HR	156	146	-10
Max HR	177	164	-13
Calories Burned	489	472	+17

As you can see I ran a little harder today compared to the last time and went farther. My HR was a little higher due to this, but that helped me burn off more calories. I've also added a new line of date (Style) which will represent the type of running I did. For this time, and all my previous times, I did 1 min jog and 1 min walk. As I run more, I plan on increasing my running time and hopefully decreasing my walking time.

All's well

With my thumb that is. Had an appointment with a Plastic surgeon yesterday and he feels that my thumb is healing fine and the I won't need to repair the partially torn tendon. That is some good news as I was dreading the fact that they might have to re-open my thumb. At the moment, all bandages and stitches are off, but it still looks nasty. Oh well, at least it works, albeit not 100% yet.

First day of School! First day of School!

Tomorrow, our dog Bailey, will be attending her first day of puppy training/school. Should be interesting to see how she deals with all the other dogs around, as she is mostly submissive when other dogs come around and pretty much hides between our legs.

Hopefully she does well and doesn't embarrass us too much.

SYTYCD Finals

Well after 10 weeks of dancing, last night was the finals. Congratulations to Jeanine for winning it even though I thought Brandon was better. Don't get me wrong, Jeanine is an amazing dancer, and not too hard on the eyes, but Brandon brought it every week in a variety of styles, while early on Jeanine has some not so great dances, especially with Phillip.

Overall I'm very happy with this season, as all the dancers were amazing. The only real surprise is how far Evan made it. Even though he could dance, it never did anything amazing to warrant being in the top 10, let alone the top 3. That is reality TV though, as it is more about popularity than skill.

Congrats to all the dancers and enjoy the tour and your future dance careers.

Vacation, Renos and Stitches

Well I'm back to work after being off for 12 days (including weekends) and what an interesting week+ it was. The plan was to paint 4 rooms and fix up our 2nd bathroom (new floor, window frame and light fixtures). Well everything was going well until I thought it would be great to slice the top part of my thumb. After spending 5 hours in Emergency I left with 5 stitches and a partially torn tendon. That kinda put a halt to the renos for a few days. The wife managed to finish the floor in the bathroom and she did a wonderful job, then we hired someone to finish the window frame and I finished all the painting once everybody else was done.

So even though there was a setback, all work was completed before coming back to work. Now I get to rest a bit.

On a side note, I did weigh myself the other day and only gained 1 lbs during the month, which had over 2 weeks of holidays and not juicing everyday. Overall I'm still down 6 lbs since I started juicing, so that is good. I didn't get the chance to check out my blood pressure or waist size, but I will at some point this month.