Running day 2: man, that hurt

Today's run started with 30 minutes on the elliptical (damn them for playing a James McAvoy movie at the gym) followed by another 23 minutes of 60-second walk/run intervals. First 10-15 minutes were fine; by minute 22 (the last run) my sides had started buckling up. 

Next time, I'll likely do 15 on the elliptical, or potentially start off with walking again (I'm scheduling another run for Sunday). Can't say I'm disappointed with my progress, but it does look like this running thing will take a while to get into fully, and I don't want to stall my weight loss by moving into an activity that I have to take slowly.

Meanwhile, I did some quick measurement comparison at the gym. 

Back in 9/07 (when I quit the gym for a while):

weight: 208

tricep: 13.5

chest: 42.5

waist: 38

abs: 42

hips: 43.75

thigh: 27.5

calf: 16.5

as of 7/25/08:

weight: 186 (-22lbs)

tricep: 13 (-.5 in)

chest: 40.5 (-2 in)

waist: 35 (-3 in)

abs: 39.5 (-2.5 in)

hips: 42 (-1.75 in)

thigh: 25.5 (-2 in)

calf: 16 (-.5 in)

It would be great if these numbers were a bit lower, but I'll take it. Also, this really is pretty impressive considering that technically, I've only been losing weight since February of this year, and I started at 210 in February.

The only thing I'm worried about now is plateauing - I want to keep the weight loss going. I'll figure it out somehow.

Today's workout

45 minutes on the elliptical, followed by about 20 minutes of intense stretching. I really needed the stretching; my hips especially have been mad as hell at me for the last couple of weeks.

I'm very glad that I didn't feel as sick/nasty this morning as I did yesterday, but yesterday's case of the nasties was an interesting experience. I just was tired everywhere in my body, and couldn't focus worth a darn. Looking at a few days of eating records, I'm realizing that I'm not feeding myself nearly enough during the day, which is resulting both in feeling really nasty/useless all day and gorging myself on whatever's available and convenient in the evenings. Today was the first day of planning out what to eat, and I think I'm doing all right so far. My cereal and blueberries for breakfast, a couple of fresh rolls and a small iced coffee for 1st lunch (at 11am), and brown rice with steamed spinach, olives, cashews and a bit of Bragg's Liquid Aminos for 2nd lunch (at 3, when I become STARVING). I feel much better today.

Either tonight or tomorrow, I go for my second running session. I'm thinking about five PM I'll think about it.

Today's workout/progress

Today: 15 minutes of elliptical followed by 30 minutes of strength training and 15 minutes of stretching.

Normally, I flank my strength workouts with 15-minute jaunts on the elliptical, but last night's run has my legs and hips a bit tighter than normal, and I started feeling gentle pulls on my thighs as I did the first part of my strength workouts (front, side and back squats with a 4-kg medicine ball), so I felt it was probably best to rest and stretch after the workout.

All in all, though, it felt good - and my mood is much better now than it has been in the last couple of days. This, of course, indicates that I should work out more often, which is Fine by Me.

In terms of progress, I also weighed myself this afternoon - and I'm down to 186, from 189 last week. This is mostly water weight, I'm imagining, but still - that means that 185 is around the corner, which in turn means I'll be down 25 pounds total since the beginning of the year. Not too shabby!

Couch Potato to 5K: Day 1

Last night was the start of my Couch Potato to 5k training program. I'm not a couch potato at this point by any means, but let me tell you - running's a whole different ballgame. There's another version (which I believe is the official version) here, but I'm doing the program I found on Marathon Training Schedule. It's a bit more doable, I find.

Day 1:

5 minutes brisk walk to start
25 minutes alternating running and walking (1-minute intervals)
10 minutes walking home from Shaw's (laden with vinegar because I'm making mustard and I forgot to get white wine vinegar)

Feeling pretty okay - the last 5-6 minutes of intervals were tough, but I got through them all right. Running for 60 seconds at a time is definitely doable, although 90 seconds would have been a bit too much. Also, it's important to bring water, and to run just around sunset or early in the morning; by the end of 20 minutes of intervals I was insanely thirsty and starting to get a bit weak.

Next week: bring intervals up to 30 minutes at a time, add one run to make 2 total sessions. See if I can bring intervals to 90 seconds-2 minutes at a time on second run.

One major stressor at the moment: I seem to have come down with a Sugar Issue the past couple of weeks. The caramels recently sent to me by a potential client, thankfully, are almost gone, but I can't have more than two of them without going into a sugar coma, and I also ate about a pint of Reese's Miniatures in three days last week. Have to get it under control STAT - it's so hard to get anything done with sugar in my system, and I don't want to derail my progress.

And now, I'm off to the gym for strength training and elliptical before I go see Mamma Mia.