Wednesday, May 31, 2006

Tomorrow is my 1 year anniversary of running! Okay, well, probably couldn't call what I did a year ago running. A lot more like a slow jog or a fast walk depending on your point of view. But it was the first time in a long, long time that I was able to go 3 blocks and not have my lungs feel like someone was putting a blowtorch to them. Thanks Singulair!

Some statistics. In the last year and a half I have lost a total of 80 pounds. 60 of those pounds in the past year that I have been running. I am still a long way from my goal but I am solidly on my way there. One year ago it took about 5 mins to slow jog the 3 blocks. Today I ran for 62 mins for roughly 6k (I have no accurate way to gauge my distance right now) and managed to work 3 hills into my route. I did hit a major weight plateau at the end of last year. For 3 months I made no progress on my weight loss which was major frustrating. I finally broke through that plateau only by upping my distance, time spent running each day and running as many days a week as possible. I even had several weeks where I have managed to run every day of the week. Weather and my day job do not always give me the chance to run all 7 days. I think I'm sitting on another plateau right now. Since I know the solution is only MORE running then I need to get with it! Size wise, I am officially thinner than when I joined IBM 5+ years ago as I'm wearing jeans 2 inches smaller than I did then and there is plenty of room in them.

Speaking of progress... I tried to do my 4 hill run last week on consecutive days. That did not work out too well. I think 4 hills is too hard for me to do right now consecutively. Therefore, this week I changed up my routine and found a 3 hill route. This new route seems to be working out better. I do not feel as tired after the 4 hill and I have done it 3 days in a row now. I have high hopes that I can sustain 3 hill for the whole week. This brings my time now back up over 60 mins again.

Have I mentioned in another post that I also clean out my sinuses with a sinus rinse I got from my local Walgreens? That alone has REALLY helped me out during the run although I still need to take tissues with me I don't use nearly as many and I don't gag as much as I used to.

I quit wearing my Polaris F11 heart monitor this week. While I really like the data I get from the F11 the warm weather and the strap around my chest resulted in a rash that is obviously coming from all the extra sweat, heat and rubbing. For example, today not only was my t-shirt completely soaked through front and back but my shorts were soaked too. That is some major sweat going on! So I've lost my data/log keeper for now. Although I've heard from some other runners they really like the Garmin GPS unit. I'll keep my eye on those and see. What I'd like to see is a monitor that can take the pulse off the wrist. I mean, really, the watch straps around the wrist, why doesn't it just use that instead of a chest strap to measure heart rate? I don't know, you'd think that was obvious. I guess it isn't.

Diet wise I am still on my high fiber diet. Although years of bad habits and low fiber are slowly taking their toll on me I am hoping that my current efforts will help improve things. Only time will tell I guess.

I also got my 10th invention plateau award from IBM. The certificate arrived yesterday and today is payday and the award is in it! See more detail at http://www.alexandre.polozoff.com/

Well, that is about all for now. I need to get to work. I'm trying to get my Application Segmentation article in a state that is ready for publishing and to also provide some of the detail my European customers were looking for.




Wednesday, May 17, 2006

Today I did my 4 hill run. It takes me about 62 mins and takes me through 4 fairly long hills (as much as we can have a hill here in central Illinois). It was the 2nd time I've done this run. Although I got a bit of a later start than normally as I had to cook up spanakopita for Sandra's work lunch dish to bring in. So the sun was out and it started to get warm on the latter half of the run.

I've started to wear bandaids too. Turns out that either my longer running times or more sweat from the warmer weather or what I don't know. I find that a bandaid alone doesn't always stay on. Bandaid with one strip of waterproof tape also doesn't work well. But a bandaid with 2 strips of waterproof tape in the form of an X over the bandaid seems to work the best. I have yet to have a bandaid fall off with the X pattern.

I also bought a new pair of Asics gel 2110 shoes. I went to the running store here in town (Always Running or something like that). Best thing I could ever have done. Turns out I haven't been buying big enough running shoes. The ones the girl recommended are 10.5 wide and my runs have never been better. Apparently the foot swells quite a bit from running so having larger shoes gives them room to expand. I also like these shoes because they seem to breathe better. I can actually feel the air move between my toes while I'm running and my feet don't get as hot as they used too.