More Running

This month saw me running the Colorado Mini-Marathon, a 15 mile race down the beautiful Poudre Canyon and finishing in Old Town Fort Collins. Yeah, I can't believe I can run 15 miles either. This was the race that I've been training for since the SuperBowl. I finished in 2:51:05. That's 11:25 miles, 11 seconds faster than my half marathon in April. And my half marathon split was nearly 5 minutes faster than my time in April.

I also ran my first Bolder Boulder on Memorial Day. I walked this popular 10K event last spring (and by popular I mean 50,000 runners/walkers). The company I work for sponsors any employee who wants to run or walk the Bolder Boulder. We had 13 people participate this year and had would have had more were it not for 3 training injuries that kept runners out of the race. That's a pretty good turnout for a company of around 115 employees. Last year was our previous high with 12. I like to take credit for the surge - I am proof that anyone can get out and run if they put their mind to it. I finished in 1:04:01. Only my second 10K, but a PR by over 9 minutes! And over 31 minutes faster than last year.

Having completed the Colorado Mini-Marathon I have turned my mind to my next running challenge. In the next year I would like to run a full marathon. There several I'm looking at in the May/June time frame next year. I will spend the rest of 2007 maintaining my half-marathon shape, increasing my speed, and building a strong base to start marathon training upon next winter.

I'm still losing weight, averaging 1 lb/wk since switching back to the FLEX plan in March. I'm at 213 here at the end of May, just shy of 130 lbs gone. My next weight loss goal is to weigh less than 200 lbs by my birthday in August. I probably last weighed less than 200 lbs as a freshman at UW-Oshkosh in 1987.

My wife's digital camera was in the shop most of this month, so no new pictures to share. Thank goodness for extended warranties though -- the repairs were thus "free".

Half Marathon!

The switch to the Weight Watchers Flex plan (and more good carbohydrates) continues to pay off. I switched on 6 Mar. I've lost 10.8 lbs in the 5 weeks since, and have crossed the 125 lbs gone mark. On 15 April I also ran my first half-marathon. The Horsetooth Half Marathon was 13.1 miles of hills, self-exploration, and fun. And I finished quite a bit faster than I predicted at 2:31:56 (11:36 min/mile). It's cool when you meet your "pie in the sky scenario" goal for a race. I still find myself in awe that am able to run that far. Here is another of my wife's scrapbook pages.

Faster 5K

After some slow going weight loss-wise, I have broken through and reached that 120 lbs gone that I've been chasing (since last October when I hit 115). I credit the breakthrough to switching to a higher carbohydrate diet (although whole grains as much as possible). Although this sounds weird, I think it worked because I am training a lot in preparation for 2 big races in April and May. Typical weeks have been 17-20 miles, some of it hard and some of it in long chunks (10+ miles). My body is burning a fuel burning machine! Below are some more of my wife's scrapbook pages. You'll see she scrapbooks a lot, and is quite good at it. One is of me in the local St. Patrick's Day 5K. I set a PR of 31:00. This was my first race at a sub-10:00/mile pace (09:59 ;-) and shattered my previous 5K PR of 35:45. We also took a family vacation to Arkansas to see my wife's family this month. I had to include the scrapbook page from the zoo because I can't believe that I look almost skinny in that picture! In addition to getting to show off the new me to Shawn's family, I have had a nice victory recently. Several people at work have commented to me recently that "you look really good" or "you're still losing weight aren't you". Even though the weight hasn't been flying off, I do look and feel a lot better. But it's really cool when others notice!

Bring on L

I hit 2 milestones in November. First, I have kept up my running. I am running 3-4 days a week, 12-15 miles total and ran my first 10K (6.2 mile) race this month. Below is one of my wife's scrapbook pages of me running. The second milestone was even more unthinkable. I went out to get a new dress shirt to wear when I took my wife out for her birthday (and to celebrate the 1 year anniversary of maintaining her 70 lb weight loss - she still looks great, and still is supportive and inspiring). I tried a few shirts on and they were all too big on me. So I went back to the rack and pulled off a size L. It fit! I'm sure I wore some size L shirts while in college, but I really didn't remember the last time I had bought one. I have gone from size XXXL to size L shirts. Size 48 to size 34 pants. I'm flirting with 120 lbs gone too. Wow! I have far exceeded any expectations I had when I joined Weight Watchers. We didn't cut our own tree this year so my "annual tree cutting picture" isn't to be. I have included a picture of me and Sandis near Christmas though. I'm sure I'm wondering what size L clothing I'll be getting from Santa.

I can run?

This picture is not well focused, I apologize for that. It is the first picture I have of myself running though, so I had to include it. Farther down the page I comment how I did not see myself ever running much. I re-affirmed that in July while coming down off Mt. Sherman while talking with one of my climbing buddies. But here is proof that I was wrong! This picture is of me with my daughter Sandis running in the 1 mile fun run before the 5K Colorado Run. The Colorado Run was my first 5K (3.1 Miles) ever. I finished in a fairly slow 38:00, but most importantly I finished. And I was soon after addicted to the road. I am at 115 lbs lost now, the weight is still coming off slowly but again I feel better, look better, and my clothes continue to fit better.