Tuesday Run and a Little Background

Well, I overslept this morning so I had to wait and run during my lunch break at work. I wish I had gotten up earlier though. It would have been only 73 degrees (RealFeal of 83) running at 6:00am, but instead it was 86 degrees (RealFeal of 99) when I ran at 11:30am. So that gives me even more incentive to get up early and run in the morning.

I've really gotten to where I like running in the mornings. When I started running back in February, I did a lot of it at night after Sarah went to sleep. This worked okay for a while, but it really ate into the time I got to spend with Wendy each night. Finally, after being egged by some teenagers on a late night run where I didn't step out the door until after 10:00, I decided to give up night running for good. The mornings work much better anyway though. It's cooler in the mornings, I'm not missing any time with Wendy (she's still asleep) and it just makes me feel energized as I start my day.

Well, yesterday was a scheduled rest day, so I didn't run. In fact I didn't remember that I needed to exercise until it was about 10:30. So I got Wendy to cue up three 10 minutes sessions on one of her pilates DVD's and I did me some pilates. Okay, I know what some of you guys are thinking, but don't knock it 'till you've tried it. Pilates aint that easy. I sure worked up a sweat and my abs have been sore all day.

I'm sure some of you are wondering just why in the world I've suddenly gone nuts about exercising and eating right. Well I'm glad you asked. You see it all started back at the first of this year when the company I work for (Thomas & Hutton Engineering Co.) started a "Wellness Challenge". Basically, you get points for doing certain healthy things everyday and you compete with everyone else to see who can get the most points. There are monthly and quarterly prizes for each office (I've won $150 in gift certificates) and at the end of the year the company wide leader gets a $1000 vacation.

Well, that was all incentive it took to get me moving. Each day there are 4 possible point I can get. I get one point for wearing my seatbelt everytime I get in a car. That point is a gimme' because I feel naked if I don't have my seatbelt on.

I also get a "Water" point for drinking 64 ounces of water and having no more than two caffinated or alcoholic drinks. I'm a good baptist, so the alcohol part is no problem, but I had to cut back on my morning coffees and afternoon cokes to start getting this point. Nowadays it's become a gimme' point as well.

The third point I get if for eating 5 servings of fruit and/or vegetables and "avoiding fatty foods". That also took some adjustments but I get this one most days now as well.

The fourth point is for exercise. I get a point for either 20 minutes of aerobic exercise or 30 minutes of strength training. This is what got me running.

Since I don't have any weights and I didn't want to join a gym, running for 20 minutes was how I started getting my exercise points. At first I ran mostly on the treadmill, but that got really boring, so I do almost all my running on the streets of our neighborhood now. I only run the treadmill now when it's either raining or it's late at night and I don't won't to get egged again.

I can also get bonus points for doing other things. Each time I lose 5% of my starting body weight, I get 10 points. So far I've lost 23 pounds so I've gotten those bonus points twice. I also get 3 points for running a 5k race, so I started running 5k races. My first one was pretty slow at 33 minutes 12 seconds, but I've been steadily improving. My last two races were run back-to-back, on a Friday night and Saturday morning. I ran a 25:44 and 25:41 respectivley and took home a medal for 1st place in my age group with the Saturday run. The race on Saturday was for the Marine Corp. Toys for Tots program so there were lot of young military guys and I really enjoyed passing them.

I get bonus points for doing other things too, like giving blood and getting an annual physical. I've done both. In fact, I've given blood twice. I had never done that before, but it really isn't that bad. In fact it's pretty cool knowing that I could be saving someone's life.

Anyway, I guess that's enough ramblin' for one night.

Catch ya'll later.