Hills, facial hair, and trying to be healthy again!

Ill go in that order...

Conroe has hills. In fact, its proven difficult to find somewhere to run (outside of a high school track) that does not have elevation changes. 

That said, League Line Rd kicked my white ass the other day. 

4.6 miles, out and back, and not a flat spot anywhere! The road itself is a straight shot from the interstate to Lake Conroe, but the 4 persons wide sidewalk wiggles itself along the side of the road for about 80% of its length. Unfortunately (or maybe I should say FORTUNATELY...)  it stops just before the biggest, steepest hill of them all. 

I haven't hooked up our desktop yet (for those younger readers out there, that's what your grandparents owned back in the early 90's for a computer. Their big, bulky, and have separate components) so I don't have an exact elevation profile for this road just yet, but I did attempt to take a picture, and I drew my own elevation profile as well. 

The sidewalk is on the right, and you can see 3 or 4 of the hilltop peaks in the distance. Steadily dropping down further and further as they go. 

This is a fairy accurate portrayal of the elevation profile for this run. Yes, I'm running up a vertical wall. That happened. My pace was slow. 

If I can make a good habit of running this course often, hills shouldn't ever pose a problem for me again (unless I attempt the Barkley....)

  

Facial Hair. 

Since I'm unemployed, and an aspiring ultra marathon running barefoot hippie, I decided to go all natural with the facial hair and proudly display my white trash heritage. 

This is about a week and a half worth of razor-less glory! Duck Dynasty guys better watch out!

Trying to be healthy again. 

I've been trying to get back on path. I've been trying to get back in the habit of eating healthy (per The Makers Diet) but with the actual move, going back to Lumberton to clean the house, and all that junk, its been very hard. Ill do really good for a few days, then it will all go to hell and I just say screw it and go to the nearest gas station and grab a King Sized "Zero" bar.... Mmmm.... Zero bars.... NO! Must... Resist...

Need to eat more of these instead!

Mmmm..... Fruits and veggie smoothies... Much better than Zero bars (wtf? Did I just say that????)

But I have been running more than I had in the past couple of months. I've enjoyed the change of scenery and the actual elevation changes. I'm used to a speed bump being an "obstacle", now I'm running hills that are a steady incline for miles on end. 

Arghhh

Life is good!

 

Loosing weight!

We (my lovely wife and I) started The Makers Diet again this Tuesday. 

I'm excited!!!

Tuesday morning I weighed in at a nasty 196.6 pounds. I was down to 179.9 back on March 26th (day after our wedding anniversary... Maybe I burned some extra calories that night!!!), and that was after being on the diet for 11 weeks. So in 11 weeks I went from 203.6 to 179.9. That's 23.7 pounds in 78 days, or .303 pounds per day. 

I want to do it faster this time. Since I'm not working, I'm not going to be constantly bombarded by coworkers bringing cakes and brownies and donuts and the sort. I will be able to follow the diet much better this time. 

Something else interesting about last time we were on the diet, I lost the first 20 pounds in just 6 weeks. That's .47 pounds per day on average. And there were several cheat days in the mix there too. 

If I can average something like .5 pounds per day (somewhat doable I think!) then I could hit my goal of sub 170 at around day 53... But since I'm on day 3, and I'm already down 4.5 pounds to 192.2, I'm already ahead of the curve! Not that that means I'll hit my goal by day 53 (Monday, September 2nd...), or anywhere near it, but that the first little bit of weight is easiest to loose!

I did take some before pictures that I'm refusing to post anywhere until after I've lost some more weight so that I can show before and after pictures and the length of time between them. No weight loss supplements or anything like that will be used, just good dieting and a good exercise regiment!

I will measure specific body parts today (NO, not THOSE body parts.... Geez...) to set a baseline on where the weight is lost. 

Wish me luck!

Relative Temperature Chart!

I've been looking for an electronic copy of this for a long time now, and it just randomly shows up in my email inbox this morning attached to a local running organizations monthly email! 

How cool!!!

In case you've never seen one of these, or can't figure out how to read it, at the top it lists off actual air temperature going from left to right for the columns. Going vertically on the left is the relative humidity for the rows. You just find the row and column that fits your situation an can the deduct the relative temperature (or the "Feels Like" temperature). 

So, for example. Right now where I am in Conroe its 77 degrees F outside, and 98% humidity. Therefore... The chart doesn't go that low on temperature. Damn. Lets just say its 80 outside with 98% humidity (which it will be here in a few minutes I'm sure). That would mean that it FEELS like its more like 86~87 degrees outside. That's almost a 10% increase in temperature just due to humidity. 

Unfortunately, 77 is a bit unseasonably cool for this time of year. Normally we're looking at closer to 85 degrees at this time of day (8:00 AM) with 98% humidity. That would make it feel as if it was between 103 and 108 outside.... 

Not egg frying temperature just yet. But we're getting there! 

On a side note, I have started doing a little training again. I've ran a few 5K solo runs. So not an awful lot of volume, but I'm getting there. We're actually still trying to move! The relocation company has been dragging their feet, so we haven't officially moved yet although we're now spending the majority of our time in Conroe. 

So, until next time.... Stay cool and keep hydrated!

OUCH!!!

2 weeks ago I managed to barely escape breaking both of my legs. Instead of breaking them, I just hurt them really really bad. You would think that I would know better then to try my luck on a trampoline by now!

I was teaching my son, Preston, how to do a front flip, and he's almost got it down! He's almost landing on his feet now, which is very exciting.  Realizing that he's almost got that down I decided it was time to introduce the back flip. 

I did 3 or 4 of them with no problems and the. Said "ok, watch this Preston! It's my last one, and its going to be a big one! So get ready!"

Yeah... It was a big one alright... I found myself coming down in the springs and the frame on the side of the trampoline. I knew that if I landed on my feet I would most definitely shatter multiple bones within my feet and just be all out pissed off. So I decided to attempt to fold my legs under my body and land more on my right butt cheek / hamstring area since its pretty beefy (fat...) in that area it might be able to absorb impact better. 

I wasn't fast enough and instead came down on my shins. OUCH!!!! My son started freaking out, along with myself. The pain was quite immense, and I was sure that I had just broken both shin bones clean in half. I grabbed the trampoline and pulled myself erect and started hobbling my way to the house. Although it hurt something fierce, I figured that since I could put weight on them that they weren't broken. 

My caring wife insisted that we go to the hospital, but I declined saying that the only thing broken on me was my pride. 

There wasn't any bruising at first, just lots of swelling. LOTS of swelling. I had an area on my left leg about 6" long that was raised a good inch and a half high. 

Now for the good stuff. Here's some pictures in chronological order....

Left leg the next Monday (4 days later) there's some bruising and swelling. 

Right leg / ankle the same day. Lots of swelling and a little bruising. 

Here's the right leg / ankle the next day (Tuesday / day 5)

And the left leg same day. 

Here's a few days later. I think it was on day 7? Right ankle first. 

Left leg. 

Day 8, left leg. 

Right ankle. 

Here's day 11. Left leg. 

Right ankle / leg. 

And here's today. Day 13!!!!!

Left leg. 

And right leg. 

There's still a good bit of swelling, and obviously a lot of bruising and discoloration. There's also a lot of tenderness and pain Involved. I think there might be a permanent tender spot on my left shin. Just lightly touching it (even the covers at night) sends a shock up my leg into my stomach. 

SO, what's the lesson to be learned here? Hell, I don't know! But it could have ended a lot worse than it did!!!