I got the green light to start running again, but I’m under strict orders to start off slowly. 1 to 2 miles for the first week or so, and on even, level ground. No hills. That’s fine with me, I’m just happy to be able to get out and run again. I tend to get a little stir crazy this time of year and I’ve been itching to get outside.

My hamstring is feeling a lot better, although it’s not quite 100% yet. The stretching and strengthening techniques I’ve been learning in physical therapy have been a great help. As long as keep that up, I’m pretty confident I will be completely healed in a few months. Knock on wood.

I plan on testing the waters this afternoon. Giddyup!

Things have been looking good. I’ve been going to physical therapy for my hamstring and I can already fell the improvements. It will be some time before I get the go ahead to put my running shoes back on, so in the meantime, I’ve beefed up my weight training and added yoga to my regiment. Yeah, yoga. Let’s talk about yoga for a minute. If you asked a year ago if I would ever consider trying yoga, I would have said “no way”. Here I am one year later all twisted up like a pretzel. And I’ll tell you another thing, I really like it. I honestly can say I feel incredible after a yoga session. Not only that, this particular routine I’m doing focuses heavily on meditation. Multiple positive anyone? Then again, all yoga may focus heavily on meditation for all I know.

My Russian has been improving steadily too. Not only have I been doing my lessons on a regular basis, but I’ve been finding ways to incorporate the language throughout my day. For example, I often answer my co-workers questions in Russian. It only pisses them off a little. I also only count in Russian. I’ll do this a lot when I’m working out, counting reps or tracking time. It’s a great way to keep my mind thinking Russian.

I may be getting a new Camera too. My 10D has had quite a bit of dust on the mirror for the last year and every attempt I’ve made to remedy this problem has failed. This includes spending $75 to send it to Canon directly. Well, I’ve decided to cut my losses and buy the new Rebel XSi (12.2mp) when it comes out in April. It’s about time I upgraded anyways. I’ll keep you posted, but hopefully I’ll start taking significantly more photos after I make the plunge.

I’ve been doing a lot of writing too. Actually, I never really stopped. I write in my journal at least once a week, but more often several times a week. These entries can range anywhere from day to day activities, thoughts and ideas, character development, random lists, just about anything that pops into my mind. It’s oddly liberating to get all your ideas out of you head and into written form. I highly recommend it.

Python and music are next on my list. I plan to do some coding tomorrow morning when I get up. In all fairness, a lot of my time has been spent reading lately. Currently I’m in the middle of two great books; The Victorian Internet and Ben Franklin: An American Life. Both are really fascinating.

I’ve also been watching some of the open courses Yale is offering. Specifically, Professor Kagan’s Philosophy course on death. This is what makes the Internet great, free knowledge. I’m not watching online courses made specifically for the net, but an actual Yale course, taught at Yale, by an actual Yale professor, in front of a real Yale class. Life is good. I even have homework. I have to read Plato’s Phaedo before the next class.

Coincidentally enough, that link to Plato’s Phaedo takes you to M.I.T.’s site, another incredible organization that promotes free knowledge for everyone.

But now I’m just rambling, and I’m hungry, so it’s time to wrap this up.

3 miles in 30:38:84

Not my best run. My hamstring has been kicking my butt lately. I think it’s because I’ve been slacking off when it comes to stretching after every run. Oops! Now I’m paying for it.

2.2 miles in 17:20:32.

Breathing is important. If you don’t breath, you’ll die. Did you know that? But what I’m talking about is controlled breathing. I use some controlled breathing techniques prior to meditation to help me relax, and the effects are quite astounding. I was curious to see what kind of techniques runners use to help them go through the paces.

Ehow.com had some good tips, here and here. I tried the four-stride technique laid out in the first example. It goes something like this:

1. Start by inhaling when your left foot first hits the ground.
2. Continue to inhale for two full strides, i.e., inhale at left, right, left, right, left, right…
3. When you left foot hits the ground again, start to exhale slowly for two full strides, i.e., exhale at left, right, left, right, left, right…
4. Lather, rinse, and repeat!

It worked out pretty good, though I found that I had to really concentrate on my breathing to keep a consistent pattern going. I also found myself screwing up the pattern quite a bit, or having to deliberately break the pattern to catch up on my breathing. Apparently, this is normal. Depending on your running conditions and experience (up hill, down hill, novice runner, etc…), this technique should be modified, and sometimes on the fly. Your strides change significantly when running up or down hill, so it goes without saying that your breathing patterns should change too.

I’m going to experiment with other techniques as I go. I’ll keep you posted.

I’m exhausted today and my body feels like it was run over by a dump truck. My brain hurts too, and I think I might even be a bit feverish (though probably not). It’s time to ease off the throttle a bit.

I’m only going to work half a day today, then I’m heading home and relaxing. No workouts, no lessons, no contemplation, no chores, no writing (except for this)… I’m just gong to do brainless activities. I may watch a movie or take a nap or play a video game. I’ve been pushing myself hard the last few months and I’m going to reward myself with a little bit of doing nothing. I think everyone deserves a day like this from time to time. Just don’t make it a habit.

From 217 pounds to 187.5 in a year. I know it’s not the two weeks everyone hopes for, but I’ve managed to change my life-style to help ensure that the pounds will stay off.

How did I do this? Small steps. I started, first, by changing my eating habits. Instead of three meals a day, I literally eat every hour or so. Not junk either, healthy foods. Once that became a habit, I added running to the equation. I started off running (mostly walking), two days a week for two miles. Fast forward to today and I’m running four to five days a week, anywhere from two to four miles day. And I actually love it! Weird.

I also add little things here and there, like drinking two tablespoons of apple cider vinegar everyday, or drinking more water and green tea, or adding cayenne pepper to my lunches and dinners, or adding vitamins and Omega 3 fish oil to my diet, or not parking in the closest parking spot all the time, etc… A lot of a little is a lot. It all adds up.

I think it’s time to add some weight lifting into the mix. I loathe weight lifting though, so this is going to be a tough one. I’m going to stick to the “start small and add as I go” plan that seems to be working so well. My idea is three days a week, one hour a day. That’s probably not that much in the realm of weight lifting, but then again, running two days a week for two miles wasn’t the most glamorous running schedule in the world either.

The equipment? A set of dumbbells from 10 to 35 pounds and a dumbbell bench. Again, not much, but I’ll add as I go. I also have a heavy bag which I plan on using before each workout to help me warm up. So here is what I’m thinking.

Day 1 - Chest and Triceps

Heavy bag for ten minutes. 3 x 3 minute rounds with 1 minute break in between each.

Chest

• Flat bench
• Incline bench
• Flies

Triceps

• Single arm dumbbell extensions
• Dumbbell skull crushers
• Tricep kickbacks

Day 2 - Biceps and Back

Heavy bag for ten minutes. 3 x 3 minute rounds with 1 minute break in between each.

Biceps

• Preacher curls
• Reverse curls
• Concentration curls

Back

• Single Arm Row
• Closed grip chin-up
• Double arm bent over rows

Day 3 - Shoulders and (Misc)

Heavy bag for ten minutes. 3 x 3 minute rounds with 1 minute break in between each.

• Front lateral raises
• Side lateral raises
• Shoulder press
• Bent Lateral Raises

Misc

• I’m leaving this space for muscle groups that I want to go back and revisit, i.e., chest, triceps, biceps, back.

For each exercise I will start off doing 3 sets of 10 reps each. I think that’s pretty standard and sounds like a good place to start.

So that’s the plan for now. With out actually having tried this yet, I can’t say that this regiment will fill up or stay under the alloted hour I’ve set aside, but it’s a starting place. I can add too or trim back the routine from here. And believe me, this routine will change, that’s a fact. My number one goal right now is to just do it and not worry so much about how, when, or why I do it. Make a habit out of it. Start small and add, and most importantly, don’t burn myself out. I know from personal experience that the number one reason I give things up is because It’s to hard. Sad, I know, but true. So with that said, incremental advancement is the key for me.

You may have noticed I didn’t add any leg exercises to this work out. The reason for this is because of the amount of running I do. In fact, I’m quite happy with my legs at this juncture in my life. We’ll see, I may end up adding legs to my routine eventually.

One last thing, in my travels around the Net looking for advice and techniques, I stumbled across this site –> http://www.exrx.net It seems to have a lot of helpful tips and information regarding all facets for health, nutrition, and exercise.

I’ve been experimenting with my running schedule over the last few months. My latest thing is to run on my lunch break. Since I eat constantly throughout the day and never really stop for a conventional lunch, this seems to make a lot of sense. I can leave work, run three miles, take a shower, and be back at work in just under an hour.

Another great benefit of running at lunch is that it energizes me for the rest of the day. Usually, come two o’clock, I start feeling a little sluggish, but after a nice run I’m ready to go.

On a side note, I’m making a spaghetti meat sauce tonight and I am going to add Goya black beans into the mix. Just thought I’d throw that out there.

I try to find multiple positives in everything I do. For instance, Leo over at Zen Habits wrote a post called The Zen of Running.

He talks about how to combine running with some good old fashioned concentration and contemplation techniques. It made sense to me, so I laced up and gave it a whirl. I really enjoyed it.

I ran twice this week so far. Last night for a little over twenty minutes and tonight for about 30 minutes. It felt good.

I don’t think I need to explain why it’s important to be healthy, so instead, I’ll tell you why I’m not. Most of my life I’ve remained sedentary and unfortunately, my physical health has suffered as a result. I wouldn’t go as far as saying I was ever obese, but overweight for sure. My eating habits were absolutely awful. My daily pattern went something like this: Eat nothing for breakfast, eat out for lunch (subs, pizza, Chinese, etc…), and then eat an unhealthy dinner, (hotdogs, cheeseburgers, scrambled eggs loaded with cheese, etc…) No fruits, no veggies, only fatty, processed foods. The only thing that saved me from being truly obese was the fact that I didn’t drink soda and I didn’t have a major sweet tooth.

Not only did I lead a sedentary life, and not only did I have the worst diet known to man, but my sleep habits were atrocious too. I would stay up all night, just to wake up only minutes before I had to go to work. I essentially rolled out of bed, took a shower, and went to work. I would repeat this everyday. When I got home from work, I was too tired to do anything. So I’d make a quickest easiest dinner I could make (see above) and plop down in front of the T.V. or my computer. See how vicious this cycle can be?

My goal is to break this cycle. I will eat better and become more health conscience. I will exercise and become more active. My plan is to start the process slowly and add new mini goals as I progress. I know it won’t be easy, but I feel it’s time for a change.