A Weekend of Basketball, Chruch Volleyball, and Running

1.Basketball in Champaign

I shot my first basketball game this weekend. We travelled up to Champaign to cover the American versus Illini game on Saturday. It was a long day and once I finish the photos, you can read about it on my Off the Street Photography blog. For now, here’s one of the pics that I posted.

2.Church Volleyball

This weekend was our annual church Christmas party and volleyball tournament. It’s a fun time for all of us to get together and fellowship and have some friendly competition. My wife and I are in a home group for newly weds. Sadly most of the group is much younger than we are seeing as we got married a little later in our lives. I made a reference to Zack Morris from Saved by the Bell and one of the guys in the group responded with “who is that?” My jaw hit the floor! He said the show was before his time. I’m not even that old!

We played against several different home groups and got knocked out in the second round. It was still lots of fun and very great to have some competitive fellowship with friends!

3.Running

This week was week 2 in my current training regimen for running. It has been so long since I have run consistently that I have to start off so very slow. In looking for some program to aid me in starting super slow, I stumbled upon Personal Running Trainer.

The program starts off by having you train to run a mile then moves you into running a 5K, then a 10K, then a Half-Marathon, then a Marathon. I like this program so much better than Couch to 5K because it really makes certain that you don’t over do it and injure yourself. I tried Couch to 5K and felt like it was too much too fast. So after finding Personal Running Trainer program I started at the beginning and am moving into week three.

Here is the training schedule:

4 Weeks to 1 Mile Training Program by Personal Running Trainer.com

.	Day 1	Day 2	Day 3
Week 1	45 seconds of running followed by 2 minutes of walking, repeat x4	45 seconds of running followed by 2 minutes of walking, repeat x4	45 seconds of running followed by 2 minutes of walking, repeat x4
Week 2	90 seconds of running followed by 90 seconds of walking, repeat x4	90 seconds of running followed by 90 seconds of walking, repeat x4	90 seconds of running followed by 90 seconds of walking, repeat x4
Week 3	2 min. 15 sec. of running followed by 45 seconds of walking, repeat x4	2 min. 15 sec. of running followed by 45 seconds of walking, repeat x4	2 min. 15 sec. of running followed by 45 seconds of walking, repeat x4
Week 4	4 min. 30 sec. of running followed by 45 seconds of walking, repeat x2	6 minutes of running followed by 45 second walk and finishing with 3 min. run	10 minute run

I’m rather nervous about moving up to week three as all through week two, my legs have been hurting while I run. I asked my sister, who finished her first half-marathon about a month ago, about pain while starting out and she said that she basically ran through the pain. “You hurt for about a month and then you just stop hurting…” or as I interpret it, you get used to it. This is where my problem occurs. I’m so reluctant to push through the pain because when I was in my last year of college (the class part of college) I ran cross country and went from running maybe a mile to running from 3-5 miles a day and increasing speed too! I ended the season with an 8K time of 37:37 and bilateral stress fractures to both my shins which turned into compartment syndrome and required surgery. I’ve been struggling to get back into running ever since then, the surgery was in 2010. So needless to say that whenever I have any pain in the shin area, and I have this week, I am very afraid that I am headed back down that injury road again.

I’ve been reading several blogs about pain and injury prevention and I found several things out. Pain is your body’s way of being uncomfortable and when you are uncomfortable you grow stronger. I’m not talking about the-worst-pain-you’ve-ever-had kinda pain. I’m talking about the I-haven’t-done-this-in-a-while-or-ever-so-my-body-doesn’t-like-to-have-to-move-this-much-or-this-hard-and-it-hurts kinda pain. I also learned that running hurts. It’s hard on the body and starting a running program hurts. Did I mention that running hurts? You just have to get used to pain.

I’ll still admit that even though I know these things and have read the articles, which you can find Here | Running Pain Hurts So Good and Here | Running’s Dirty Little Secret, pushing through the pain and moving forward is hard. It’s really hard, more mentally than it is physically. There are some things that I have a high pain tolerance for and others that I don’t. In this case I can push through the physical pain, but mentally not worrying that I will end up like I did in college is probably the hardest thing to get over and the single thing keeping me from succeeding in running.

This is where I am and I intend to get over this hurdle. I’ll leave you with a couple of pics from my last two runs. Thanks for reading, until next time!

Getting Back on Track

Its been a while since I wrote in this blog. I had been wanting to update on my running and weight loss but there was nothing to update. I hadn’t been at all successful in getting anything done, at least not consistently. So I haven’t wanted to write anything as I feel like I’m extremely hypocritical even having this blog.

If I have a blog about exercise and weight loss and don’t do anything to get myself towards weight loss, then how can I write a blog about weight loss or my fitness adventures. Blogging for me has always been a love-hate relationship. I love the idea of a blog and I hate taking the time to write in it. The blogging higher-ups would tell me that I shouldn’t be this open and honest while blogging and maybe they are right, but I have always gotten good responses while bearing my soul, as scary as it is.

So I am going to attempt to revive this blog. I don’t need to have advertising, I’m not looking to get paid for this, all I believe that I want is to be an inspiration to someone who is looking to lose weight and wants to revive his or her exercise/fitness life. If nothing else happens and all I get to do is share my experiences with the interwebs then so be it! For those of you reading, please comment either on this blog or on Facebook when I share it to FB. It would make me happier to know if people are actually interested in reading my stuff.

Lets get started: here goes!

1. What’s been going on for the past several months?

The last several months have been crazy. If you’ve been following along with my photoblog, I got a job as a photographer for a wire service agency, Icon Sportswire . They had me shooting professional sports off an on all summer long. I think that most of July and August was spent at Busch Stadium photographing the Cardinals. I don’t think I shot all that many games as it feels like but between shooting games and working my real job at the hospital, I haven’t had all that much time to write or any energy to workout.

Here’s a little secret, I’ve actually been rather lazy up until this last month when it comes to working out. One of the things I’ve found out is that the more you exercise, the more energy you actually have. It is the most paradoxical thing I’ve ever come across, but it works.

2. Have I been exercising at all or just sitting on the couch eating bon-bon’s?

Ok, so I don’t even think I’ve ever eaten a bon-bon, but I definitely have eaten my fair share of crap. When I went to my health-care convention last December in Orlando, FL, I weighed in at 256ish. This summer I gained almost all of the weight that I lost when I was getting married. I had had enough. What I was doing wasn’t working. Before I start into what has been going on in the last few months, here is the little that I was doing this summer.

From the beginning of May and throughout the summer my buddy, Jeff and I had been running/walking once per week-ish after I got off work. It was going okay...well it actually kinda sucked since that was the only exercise I was getting in a week. I liked exercising at night after work so I joined Planet Fitness in Ballwin and guess how many times I actually went? Once. The one time I went was good I did some running, but it ended up being too far from my house and I never went. There was nothing wrong with the gym, in fact, I liked the gym it was just too far from my house and thus I didn’t use it. The one thing that I did like about the gym that I was unable to use was their Planet Fitness Biggest Loser 30 min Express Workout. Basically, the workout is a giant circuit that is supposed to only take 30 min. You are given a timer in the form of a stop light. On green you work and red you rest. You alternate between the steppers and the circuit machines. It looked like a killer workout if you followed the whole thing from start to finish.


So where am I now? Well, after getting sick and tired of being this way and not doing anything about it, I decided to start up our Biggest Loser competition at work. It’s going ok. I’m not winning but I’m not losing either, the competition - I am losing weight very very very slowly.

I’ve been going to Gold’s Gym in St. Peters which has really helped me get back into the swing of working out. I went there because my wife and I got a 3 month groupon deal and figured we couldn’t pass it up. I’ve been doing cardio and circuit work including a few kettlebell swings. I think that I strained a muscle in my lower back from the kettlebell swings so I’ve taken a few days off. Hopefully this week I will be able to start working on my sprint triathlon training. I’ll let you all know in a few weeks how things are going.

Thanks for reading as always. Cheers!

New Team Chocolate Milk Contest and Update on Training

Blank...I sit down to type a blog post and thats what happens, I hear crickets. It's terrible. I want to write a consistantly, but I sit down to write and I got nothin'!

Ok so here is what has been going on in my training world since I wrote this blog as a way to spread my insights in weightloss and training as well as keep me accountable for working out. Ha! That last part is rather funny. I have this terrible habbit of avoiding things when I am behind on doing them or have been lazy. I have been having a terrible time working out lately. Infact, I haven't been working out at all. I was supposed to start my training a few weeks ago and having recently been sick...again!...it's been really challenging to even get back to doing anything. So, since I haven't been doing much of anything, I haven't been writing. I didn't want to get back on this blog and write about how I haven't been doing anything again and sing the same song I feel like I've been singing for so long now. So that is why there has been a long lapse in blogging.

Last Friday, April 4th, I received another email letting me know that I had been accepted as a finalist in the Team Chocolate Milk Contest! You can vote HERE. I was really excited to hear this since I didn't get in last time. I've been given a second chance. If you haven't been voting for me, it's ok to start now, and if you have been voting for me, keep it up. Because of the second chance in getting into the contest I felt like I needed to get back to working out. I felt like I couldn't be in the contest and not do anything. I'd be a hypocrite if I didn't workout and continue on this journey to be on the Chocolate Milk Team. So I put something in to motivate me that would probably motivate anyone...money.

I signed up for the BikeMS race, I signed up for the distance I wanted to do, and I booked the hotel. After looking at the final bill I was so much more interested in biking and getting my act together that if it hadn't been almost 1:30 in the morning I probably would have biked, but it being so late I decided to go to bed instead.

That all being said, tonight I restart my training and I don't know how much I will blog during this. I will probably blog alot more than I think I will, but I'm not super sure.

So here I am starting up my training again and using $$$ as a motivator. I'm excited for warmer weather to start golfing again. Some of my golfing buddies have been talking about hittin' the links when it gets warmer and I am rather excited about getting back into golfing again. I didn't do much golfing last summer because of it being my first year of being married and being lazy. I'm excited about getting back into golf. I need to get my clubs regripped with my new grips that I bought a few years ago. I also got some new Nike Golf shoes although they are nothing like the ones desgined for the Masters, which by the way comes on TV this Thursday through Sunday! I'm excited to watch it!

Here is the tweet @NikeGolf sent out about their new shoes:

Designed for Augusta. Engineered for greatness. http://t.co/j9v7hx1hxe pic.twitter.com/EnSSNNcofy
— Nike Golf (@nikegolf) April 8, 2014

I'll have to post some pictures of my shoes and golf clubs after the clubs have been regripped. I will also be posting some pictures of our golf outings as well as my training from biking. Right now with all the rain, I've been biking inside (and by right now, I mean last night (this got is getting posted a day late)), but once I get outside I'm sure to be posting photos.

Thanks for listening and don't forget to vote for me for the next Team Chocolate Milk!

Team Got Chocolate Milk Update Final Results

The wait is over, I have the news…and it wasn’t what I wanted to hear. I just received an email from Team Got Chocolate Milk and it reads:

”Thank you for submitting your application to join Team CHOCOLATE MILK. While your entry did not rally enough votes this time, don’t let the competition leave you in the dust during the next voting period!...”

Yes that’s right, unfortunately I did not make it on to the team during this voting period. I was very much disappointed when I read the email. I really wanted to be a part of the team. The good news is that I have a chance to apply again. I’m not sure as to whether or not I actually have to apply again, but it wouldn’t seem fair to me to not apply again so I just resent my application in using the same video (I haven’t had a chance to make a new one yet, but I plan to do so soon).

So assuming that if my video made the small cut last time, only 8 finalists with only 2 winners, it should make it this time as the cut is larger, 25 finalists with 8 winners. I believe that they widened the cut amount due to the popularity that this contest has gained. That being said, there are going to be a larger number of people applying for the competition and having the opportunity to win. I can get in the door, but I need your help to make it the rest of the way.

This really will be a team effort. Much of what I’ve been writing about lately has been me talking mainly to myself to get myself motivated, but I’ve also been trying to encourage people who read this blog (friends, family, random strangers) that anyone can change and become better. Anyone can workout and get stronger and healthier. There are so many benefits to working out, most notably more energy, better mood, and decreased risk of long term disease.

As I said, this contest is a team effort, I cannot become a member of team Chocolate Milk without the help of all of you, much like all the Olympians could not have made it to Sochi without the help and support of their friends, family, and even those who donate to the Olympic Committee. I loved the celebration after the women’s skeleton race by USA Olympian Nicole Pikus-Pace when she realized that she had won a silver medal. She couldn’t contain herself, jumped into the stands straight to her husband and family screaming we did it! WE DID IT! She never said I did it, she always emphasized the “we.” I was very much inspired by that.

So, provided that I make the final cut for the next round of Team Chocolate Milk voting, I need your help! I need all of you to be behind me! Team JStreet! #teamjstreet I appreciate all of your support as I continue on this journey toward weight loss and healthier living. I appreciate your support as I continue to apply for Team Chocolate Milk. I appreciate you joining me in my journey, bettering yourselves and working toward your own healthy lifestyle.

My first week of riding is done. Total weekly miles from cycling and walking = 31.9 miles. Last night I rode 14 miles while watching the Sochi Closing Ceremonies. I did infact use chocolate milk after my workout and while I was sore this morning, I wasn’t as sore as I thought that I would have been. That’s my blurb training update along with my Team Chocolate Milk update.

Team Got Chocolate Milk Update and Bike MS

It’s been almost two weeks since the got chocolate milk? Team Refuel (now Team Chocolate Milk) voting period has ended for the first of this year and I haven’t heard a thing. Because of the silence, I am assuming I didn’t win, but at the same time I am holding out a little bit of hope. I won’t lie, I really wanted to be a part of the Team Chocolate Milk. All is not lost, especially since I still don’t know for sure. I have been looking and checking the websites looking for any information, but I believe that it is more of a secret than the next Apple product release.

Moving on to where I am in training. I just started my newest training program as a way to get my body back into the swing of working out. I took almost two months off due to illness and then laziness so it is time to get back on the proverbial horse. I am training for a Bike MS race in the middle of June. There are several events during the weekend that I am looking at so I haven’t picked a destination yet, but I will update when I know more. As far as the race goes, for those who don’t know Bike MS is a bicycle race to raise support and awareness for the MS society in order to hopefully find a cure for MS. The races have multiple degrees of distance such as 35mi, 50mi and 100mi and most are two day events which you can choose the same or different distances on each day. My goal and what I am training for is the 50 mile each day distance. This will be the furthest I have ridden. I haven’t invested in a road bike yet because of how much money they are so I was going to try and do the entire ride on my Trek mountain bike. I’ve been told that would be a mistake as the mountain bike is a lot heavier than the road bike, but they are SOOO expensive! I’m not sure, but I know that I will be doing my training on my spin bike and my mountain bike, I figure that will be like taking practice swings with a heavier bat, or swimming with drag shorts on. The extra resistance will give you more power when you use the lighter bat or in this case a regular road bike.

Given that I haven’t done much in the way of working out or training in the last two months, I have had to kind of start over in the way of working out. I found a 20 week program from Britain online to bike a 60 mile bike ride. It is from a website called doitforcharity.com. Here is the program:

20-week training guide for Beginners/Social Cyclists! 

(taken from: http://www.doitforcharity.com/cycling-training-guide.aspx)

Week 1 2 x 15 – 20 mins Sat or Sun: 1 hour Week 2 Mon or Tues: 20 - 25 mins Thurs or Fri: 20 - 25 mins Sat or Sun: 1½ hrs Week 3 2 x 25 – 30 mins Sat or Sun: 1½ - 2 hrs Week 4, 5, 6 & 7 3 x 30 – 40 mins (8-10 miles) Sat or Sun: 2 hrs (25 - 30 miles) Week 8 Tues: 10 – 15 miles Thurs: 10 – 15 miles Fri: 5 miles Sat: 30 – 40 miles (2 - 2½ hrs) Week 9 & 10 Mon or Tues: 10+ miles Thurs or Fri: 10+ miles Sat or Sun: 20 – 25 miles Week 11 Mon: 8 – 10 miles Tues: 10 – 15 miles Thurs: 10 – 15 miles Sun: 40 – 50 miles Week 12, 13 & 14 Mon: 10 miles easy cycling Tues: 15 – 20 miles Thurs: 15 – 20 miles Sun: 45 – 55 miles

Week 15 Mon: 10 miles easy cycling Weds: 10 miles Fri: 15 – 20 miles Sun: 50 – 60 miles Week 16 & 17 Tues: 20 – 25 miles Thurs: 20 – 25 miles Sun: 50 – 60 miles Week 18 Mon: 10 miles easy spinning Weds: 15 miles Sat: 20 – 25 miles Sun: 55 – 65 miles Week 19 Tues: 15 miles Thurs: 25 miles Sat: 25 miles Sun: 60 - 70 miles Week 20 Tues: 25 miles Weds: 15 miles Thurs: 25 miles Sat: 25 – 30 miles Sun: 70 – 75 miles THE WEEK BEFORE YOU GO! Mon: 10 miles Tues: 5 miles Weds: 10 miles Thurs: 5 miles Fri: Rest

This seems to be a pretty daunting task, but I am very much tired or sitting around wanting to do bigger athletic things and not making them happen. I am tired of yo-yoing up and down with my weight and I am tired of not feel as good as I could. Do you ever feel this way? Do you ever feel like you are so tired of sitting on the sidelines of life that you are desperate to do something?! This is where I am and I am so ready to change. So here goes. Cheer me on and/or join me on this journey. You don’t have to do anything huge, but get up and move. If you’re tired of where you are then change is on you! It’s not ever going to be easy and I’ll be the first to admit that most days, I don’t want to do the things I need to do, but I know that I feel better when I do those things. Let me know what your story is and how you are going to join me in this journey!

I can already tell you that one of my biggest challenges is going to be my diet! After being off my game for two months it is very challenging to get back on track with food as well. I know that it is going to be of great benefit for me. Here’s to eating healthy!

I look forward to being able to update more as the training program goes forward. This is my first week and I have completed my first biking workout last night. It was hard and felt good. I biked just over 9 miles. I am looking forward to this race as it will be my first big race since I ran cross country in college. Stay tuned for more updates. Pictures of me training to come…at least that’s the plan. J

If you would like to learn more about the Bike MS races visit their website by clicking the image below. You can also check out the charity website by clicking their link below.