I'm not completely lazy...

.....Only mostly.

I know I've been missing. After the back pain I laid off and I kinda got away from the habit of running. The only thing I did was a really great snowboard session with BJV.

Yesterday, however, I had no excuses! The weather was perfect with a spring like temperature of 65 degrees so I went for a run. A long run of 4.5 miles that took 45 minutes. It contained a huge uphill that lasted forever! The run felt great and I only started feeling discomfort with about a half mile left.
(below you will find photo proof of my run and the gigantic hill!)

Today i feel pretty good. Tomorrow I'll run again, not a huge run but something to get my legs moving

- pj

Back to running

So my back feels significantly better today so I went for a run. Did a 30 minute run for a distance of 3 miles. It was a pretty good run with no troubles to report.

I'll see how I feel tomorrow and I may do a 15 minute run on the "off" days now.

-pj

Back pain

No idea what happened today but I was at work, everything was fine and suddenly I had an extreme pain in the center of my back in between my shoulder blades. Lucky for me my very next inspection was for a doctor that noticed I was in discomfort and advised me to take some Motrin and how much of it to take.

It feels better for a while until the pills wear off. Anyway today I will skip my run cause I'm hurt. We will see how tomorrow goes

-pj

Weekends

They have to be the hardest thing to get thru for me. Partly because it's so much harder to get motivated to run but mostly because it's so hard to get motivated to write on the blog.

My Saturday run was terrible. I went out for barely 15 minutes. It was so cold that my legs never got warmed up and stayed stiff. The cold air was hurting my chest so I felt it best to just call it a run. I, however, made up for it yesterday. Barb and I went to the Natural History museum where we walked and checked out all of the exhibits. Afterward we walked from the museum on 79th street all the way to a restaurant on 13th street. It was a very long cold walk but I was happy that I was moving around rather than just sitting around.

Well I hope those of you that resolved to be fit keep going. It's hard at first but slowly I'm sure you're noticing you're making your belt one notch tighter

-pj

Hill workout

I wanted to do something different other than the regular LSD (long slow distance) run so I did some hill repeats.

I started with a 10 minute warm up to a hill that I thought would be a challenge. Below I attached a picture of it. Honestly it looks worse in person, it's pretty steep but it's not very long. I did 6 sprints up with a jog down.

Next time I do this I will pick a longer hill for sure

-PJ

Tools of the trade

Wondering how I keep track of my runs? Well I use an iPhone app called imapmyrun+. It's a really great running aid that does so many things. Here is a quick list of my favorite features

• gps tracking that plots out where you ran
• integrated music and camera thru te app so you don't have to back our of the app to change a song.
• it connects to all the social apps so friends can see what you're doing
• (this is my favorite) you can set voice prompt parameters that will tell you current time, speed and distance at a specific time or distance. It's really useful when you're trying to keep an even pace

I know there are a bunch of other thing out there but I find this one to be the easiest and straight forward to use.
I attached a few screen shots for your enjoyment

-pj

Weigh in...

Well I literally weighed myself today, and I have to admit I was surprised. Current weight is 191. That's 4 pounds lost in about a week and a half only doing runs, nothing else.

Yesterday I also completed another run. It was a little over 3 miles and everything felt fine..... Kinda. I had a major case of chaffing which sucked in the shower. I know that's not glamorous but it's the reality of running.

Today is a relax day and tomorrow is another run.

The weekend

I can already see that the weekends will be the most difficult thing to get thru both workout wise and with blogging.

Saturday was a day off so I gave platelets while barb gave whole blood. It took a while and made me feel pretty drained.

Sunday however I was supposed to go for a run. I did, but it only happened because barb wanted to go for the run also. We both had a lot of things going on so the run was for only about 15 minutes.

Today is a day off and tomorrow is another run.

3rd run complete

I did my third run tonight and it was great. I only had enough time for a 20 minute run but it's better than doing nothing at all.

Best thing about the run was that I wasn't sore at all! I guess your body never really forgets.

Tomorrow I'll be giving plasma at my local blood bank so my Sunday run should be interesting

-pj

another run

second day of running was completed last night. It was really cold last night and it was really hard to motivate myself to get out there. I'm sure glad I did.

I did a 25 minute run at a really comfortable pace. The first few blocks I was a little stiff from the previous run but I soon warmed up and had no problems. It was really nice to just have the headphones in, music playing and being all alone with no interruptions or distractions.

Today I actually feel pretty good. I can honestly say I felt more soreness in my legs last night compared to today.

Today is a day of rest and tomorrow another run. Who knows maybe I'll go nuts and do a 30 minute trot.

-PJ

Weigh in Wednesdays.

I can honestly say that I am not looking forward to this, not because I am embarrassed about my weight (195 is fine for someone my height) but because I do not consider myself a very confident person when it comes to taking a shirt off.

So here is the plan.... every Wednesday I will track my progress in a few different ways.

WAY 1 - shirtless photo. We see ourselves every day so we may not notice any changes but if you track it over time who knows! Maybe we can see the changes

WAY 2 - measurements - I'll have my trusty assistant measure my waist, chest etc and we will see how that changes

WAY 3 - the scale - this is my least favorite but I am doing this one to simply show the number on a scale is not important if your clothes fit better and you feel better.

So without further delay....Here is me..now....

 

I just hope i continue moving along and stay motivated

PJ- Making it happen

BTW this is me two years ago when I ran a marathon. The time isn't impressive but I fractured my foot with about 6 miles to go so it took me the same amount of time to do 13.1 miles as it did the last 6 miles, 2 hours.

and so it began....

....with a simple little run last night. I know that it doesn't sound very glamorous or exciting but the important this is that I got out and moved and got started.

I think I will refer to this run as the "The Benchmark". It was a local loop that is 2.07 miles long which took me 19:35 to complete. I will make a real effort to rerun this loop at least once a month to directly compare and track my progress. I hope to get this run done in the 14 to 15 minute range in the future, maybe even quicker.

 To simply summarize the run, it sucked. I stuck my headphones in my ears and off I went. It was fine for a about 4:35 until an awesome song came on and suddenly I am cruising WAY to fast and suddenly I am breathing far to heavy for 6 minutes in. Luckily for me I had to fix my bunched up sock which caused me to slow down. After the problem was resolve I slowed down and trotted away.

I felt fine (sorta) up until about 5 blocks from my house. Not sure if it was the knowledge of being so close to the finish line or the 30 degree air stinging my lungs but I felt like trash. I know it will get better but I also know how much I hate running in the cold. I must keep going.

Today I felt lightly sore. Nothing to horrible but I definitely feel like I ran.
Tomorrow I will do another 20 minute run. It may not be the same loop but it will be something.

My plan so far is to simply form the habit of working out again. After that I will start adding gym time and getting more and more elaborate with my work outs.


PJ - keep moving, we all have to start somewhere

My New Years Resolution

Hello everyone! My name is Pawel and I am a 28 year old guy from Staten Island. If you can't tell I have made a New Years resolution...to get fit!
I know this is something countless people do every single year but believe it or not this is honestly the first time I have ever made this my resolution.

HOW? you ask. Well its simple.. I have always been a healthy person, always trying to keep fit with running or any activity.

WHY now? Well first let me tell you my former working out habits. About two and a half years ago i was driving and hit a pot hole and felt my belly jiggle a little, after that I joined a gym and worked out every day. after about 6 month I saw some major changes. I wasn't the only person to notice either, the ladies noticed too! (it felt awesome). I was doing great in the gym, until one November day i felt a strain in my shoulder, I tore a ligament. As soon as this happened I first said "I'll take a little time off to let it heal", but that turned into "I'll go back tomorrow". Well now its been a years worth of "tomorrow" and I feel like I am heavier than I ever was.

WHY blog about it? Well as I get older it is harder and harder to get motivated to move my ass.
SOoo I am airing this in public in hopes that it will motivate me and hopefully motivate someone else out there.

MY GOALS!
I wish i can just throw a number at you and say I want to get rid of 10 pounds but that's not how my body works. My current weight is 195, my weight at my 6 pack abs best was....wait for it.....195. So I don't have  number in my mind. I will track my weight just to show people that the number is not always important, hopefully people will notice a weight increase but I'll be leaner and meaner.

So my goal is to be able to look at myself and feel proud again.
I also want to beat my time in a marathon I raced in 2 years ago.

WHAT TO EXPECT
I'll post photos of myself over time to show how things are coming along.
Track the numbers like weight and inches (hopefully get body fat percentages)
I'll post my meals, hints, workouts, all my aches, pains, successes and set backs. (I'm human, not some rock hard nut case that takes getting yelled at in the face for motivation)

Well... Wish me luck
PJ

(Ill slowly get this blog all fancy like)