Fitness journal

[stephen_dedalus]

Hey everyone,

Decided I was going to start taking fitness seriously after my last three break ups I've thought that its time to start adopting habits that I have a lot of respect for and dropping ones that are holding me back. I want to be able to look in the mirror and respect myself and what I have accomplished.

Bad things that I have stopped doing in the past two months.

-quit watching porn completely, I installed some software on my computer so I can't even look at it now and have been clean for over two months

-quit drinking excessively, I would only binge about once maybe twice a week before but I recently had two good friends go to rehab, so I think I am going to cut binge drinking out completely or at least only once or twice a year.

-quit staying up late and not getting sleep for no reason just surfing the web, its kind of like an addiction.

Good things I have started doing

-boxing lessons once a week, my university has a club that I have been practicing with that is free and meets once a week during the summer. I will start practicing more once the fall semester starts up in August and the club starts meeting more frequenlty.

Couch to five k program- I have never been great at running and am pretty out of shape 178 and 6 feet tall with a bit of a gut. I decided two months ago to do one of these couch to five k programs and have gotten awesome results. Went from not being able to run a full mile back in April to just finishing my first five k with a time of around 28:00. Plenty of room for improvement . I have begun talking to my brother who was a competive runner in high school about helping me train.

My first long term goal is to break 20 minutes on the 5 k which is very possible I feel. Then we will see about getting it lower.

I am currently training 2-3 times a week just running for thirty minutes. I am very gradually bump this up to 4 thirty minute work outs plus 1 long run each week with two rest days.

Today: 28:00 5k 178lbs

 

[stephen_dedalus]

28:45 5k. I was on pace for a 24 minute 5k, however half way through I thought I was going to die so I had to slow it down significantly.

Short term goal is to bump up my running frequency to 4 times a week and try to shave some seconds off my time/ try to pace myself better.

Positive note from this run was that I ran around an 8 minute mile which is a PR.

 

[stephen_dedalus]

29:00 5k, I think my hang up has been mainly mental. I feel pretty spent at the end of the run but I still have some energy left

 

[stephen_dedalus]

Lots going on with me, I have been taking my qualifying exam for my PhD in Genetics. Easily passed its crazy that figuring out women is so much harder than science for me haha.

Wednesday I went to boxing, good mitt work and cardio work out.

Thursday did some light weight training.

Today I actually ran for about 30 minutes straight and then for the next 45 minutes I did a combination of walking and running. Probably went about five miles total which is a PR.

Weight is down to 176, not sure if this is due to a decrease in water weight though.

 

[stephen_dedalus]

28:45 5k. I picked up the pace big time for the last 800m and still had a lot of energy at the end of the course but was totally winded. Thursday I am going to try for more consistent laps. I was definitely dragging the pace in the middle.

Legs are looking a lot more toned up and have probably dropped like one pant size over the last two months of doing this. I am going to try to get my diet more serious in the coming weeks, it is very clean now but I am not counting my calories the way I should be to start losing more weight. Also I am going to start drinking a lot more water throughout the day, I think I get kind of dehydrated at work.

 

[stephen_dedalus]

27:15 5k last night, think I overcame whatever mental hang up I was having.

I was still pretty exhausted afterwards.

Boxing was on Wednesday and went really well also.

 

[stephen_dedalus]

ran another 27:15 last night, it got easier to do, however still very tired at the end of it.

 

[stephen_dedalus]

played alot of squash yesterday and also lifted weights.

today had a 27:45 5k, really was exhausted during the middle yet did not have to sprint at all for the last two laps as I have been doing for my past two better times.

177 lbs

 

[stephen_dedalus]

40 minute run tonight to build endurance. It went very well, felt great afterwards.

Also played a few games of squash

179 lbs, i have been eating very cleanly but also drinking a ton more water which is causing my weight to fluctuate maybe.

 

[stephen_dedalus]

27:15 5k, very tired at end but i think they are getting a tad easier

 

[AAAgent]

keep up the good work. I'm not really a distance runner as i am horrible as pacing myself but what i do to increase my speed is to run long distances to accustom my body to the long time of running and then i do 1 mile fast runs/sprints.

I was getting my miles close to 6 minutes.

When i ran my 13mile race it was more like sprint, run job, sprint, run jog, and i used the slow jog pace as a recovery. That's just how i overcame not being able to pace properly.

It just makes sense to train some quick sprints/ fast runs if your ultimately going to breaking sub 20min for a 5k which is around 6 min miles. Congrats for keeping up with your program.

 

[stephen_dedalus]

ran some more and broke the 27:00 mark with a time of 26:51 Friday.

Today I just ran a 26:40.

Slowly working my times down.

keep up the good work. I'm not really a distance runner as i am horrible as pacing myself but what i do to increase my speed is to run long distances to accustom my body to the long time of running and then i do 1 mile fast runs/sprints.

I was getting my miles close to 6 minutes.

When i ran my 13mile race it was more like sprint, run job, sprint, run jog, and i used the slow jog pace as a recovery. That's just how i overcame not being able to pace properly.

It just makes sense to train some quick sprints/ fast runs if your ultimately going to breaking sub 20min for a 5k which is around 6 min miles. Congrats for keeping up with your program.

Thanks for the tips man (also nice times)! I do plan on doing sprints and other training methods in the future right now I am trying to get acclimated to just running at this pace and increasing the volume of runs. I am trying to make running like the number two priority behind getting my PhD right now.

 

[Krueg]

Good goals, keep up the hard work!

 

[stephen_dedalus]

26:39 today

 

[stephen_dedalus]

very pleasant 45 minute run last night after the weekend off plan on running again tomorrow, this is pretty addicting haha

 

[stephen_dedalus]

26:28 tonight

 

[stephen_dedalus]

sorry for not updating, been camping out in the mountains

anyways about diet..

I pretty much exclusively eat the following chicken, potatoes, different kinds of nuts, all kinds of fruit and veggies, whole grain stuff, etc. I don't eat any really processed or sugary stuff anymore.

just ran a 26:23 tonight

 

[stephen_dedalus]

was on vacation for the past long while and went on two 45 minute runs on the backroads of maine, also hiked like 6 miles three days. I am going to get back into the normal regiment now.

 

[stephen_dedalus]

ran around a 7 minute mile today followed by an 8 minute mile with rest in between. Ran a couple of 800 meters also, boxed yesterday

 

[stephen_dedalus]

man lots of spammers on this message board.

Anyways ran a 26:10 today and was very excited about it