Pre race full of energy

Last weekend I flew home to participate in the 2010 Marathon by the Sea. This has been the goal of my run training over the last 9 months or so. I was a little jittery about the prospect of running in a race with almost a thousand people considering that I always run alone with an Ipod blasting away. My sister Kait and my sister in-law Naomi saw to it that I would have company on my run. They collectively signed up my brother Nat and my brother in-law Justin to accompany me.

Map of route

Race day I was up early and Nat drove us to Rockwood Park for the start. We were greeted by my aunt and grandmother, who wished us luck and took a few pre-race photos. We agreed to run together and while they ribbed me about having actually trained for this race (they only got 2 days notice), I was pretty sure I would be the slow runner in our group.

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So lately I have been experiencing new lows. In weight that is .

I have finally been able to breach the 260 barrier and had a morning weigh in @ 258.5. I need to stay villigant and watch what I eat. Running is doing great things for my energy levels and my well being. More updates soon. Thanks for tuning in.

So in May I was invited to Blackberry’s annual user conference (WES) in Orlando, Florida as a speaker. Specifically I was asked to participate in a panel presentation / discussion on Mobile workforce management. The trip down to Orlando was a quick and painless flight out of Buffalo on JetBlue. This was my first flight on JetBlue and I’ll have to say I was impressed. The ticket cost was fairly low with one checked bag included. Seating was a dream (I’m a big boy) and probably the most roomy I have even been in coach. Thumbs up!

RIM's WES 2010

On disembarking the plane I was pleased to see ground transportation folks with “Blackberry WES” name cards. I approached one of the greeters and was informed that there was a discount for WES attendees. Mentioning that I was a speaker got me a comped round trip shuttle ticket. Thanks RIM!

I checked into my hotel and headded over to the conference center on one of the rotating shuttle busses (direct to the conference every 15 mins). To say I was impressed by the scale of this conference is an understatement. The conference was held at the Marriott World Center, possible the largest hotel I have ever seen. RIM had taken over the entire first floor. There were some 5000 attendees, it was epic.

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A quick update on my fitness quest. I am down to 262 and running fairly regularily. I have done a few 10K runs and more 8K. I’ve registerd for the Marathon by the Sea 5 miler (~8km) in August. More updates soon.

I’ve been told by people far smarter than I, that “Image is everything”. In business or my personal life I am very aware that the way I look and act is a direct reflection on who I am representing. Perhaps this is why I was shocked when someone in a company vehicle was so rude to me this morning.

Stopping at my local Tim Hortons on the way into the office, I saw a van with plenty of writing on the side parking in the most mind numbing way possible. The driver had backed in to a row of parking spots, paying no heed to the marked spaces. The van sat squarely on the center of the line, taking up two spaces.

To add insult to my astute driving manners, I noticed that the business represented in smattering of text all over the van was indeed a “Driving School” of all things. That is just funny by itself.

Chuckling quietly to myself,  I parked a few spots down and hopped out of my car. Needing my wallet I opened the rear door of my car and reaching in I glanced over to read the side of the van. That’s when I was welcomed with the inquiry “Can I help you man?”.

Now being the polite guy that I am, I simply said “No sir, just reading the side of your van. Hope that’s not a problem?”. To which the cordial gentlemen replied in a loud, harsh tone “It is today asshole”.

We'll call this the "ass" van.

Something just didn’t compute, I stood there reeling from the foul retort for a few seconds before following him inside to place my own order for breakfast. The guy who was also in a company hat, shirt and jacket, grabbed his coffee and stormed out.

This got me to thinking of my own behaviour when I am wearing City of Hamilton clothing. Now I’m not always in the best of moods but I do think twice before acting like a fool when I am representing the City. Likewise when I am at functions representing other organizations, there are sometimes frustrating individuals who drive me to the edge of sanity. But I always think about how this will reflect on my own image and the reputation of the body that I am representing.

I guess our swaggering driver trainer doesn’t think of such things. Which is sad really. If I ever had any illusions about truck driving training (after all, its a fall back career for Navy pilots) they are most certainly gone.

My goal for the last 7 months has been to run in the Marathon by the Sea in August as a tribute to my best friend Scott who passed away last year. He was probably heavier than me at his highest weight and lost an astonishing 80 lbs through running and weight watchers. Inspired by my buddy I started hitting the roads running last fall.

I started off kind of rough, not knowing what I was doing. In the beginning I was just running for 1 min on and 1 min walking. I increased my time running as I progressed. Eventually when I got a distance measuring device and started running 1km and walking for 1 minute. The latest evolution to my running pattern as recommended by other runners is to run for 10 mins and walk for 1 (although I am currently walking for 2 while I build endurance). It was hard to run for the full 10 mins at first but its easier and easier. Now I am running / walking @ 10/2 for up to 70 mins.

Running has been a physical and emotional journey that I hope will last for a long time. While I am by no means a great runner, I know that I am doing ok. I’ve never really been into physical sports besides diving and I am glad to have found something that I can do.

Scott and Chris

So I have been lamenting lately about how a hot tub would make a huge difference in my recovery from running and be great all around. One of the things that drives me crazy is the bathtub in my house that must have been built for the vertically challenged. At 6′ 2″ and 265lbs I don’t see how any amount of weight loss will make that tub comfortable, its just too small. The only times I really talk a bath is when I am very tired or have sore muscles anyways. If I want to get clean its shower all the way.

Today while working at the dive shop, Tracy emails me and starts talking about hot tubs, specifically Softub spas. These are the kind of spa that doesn’t have fancy seats with 1000 jets, radios and other nonsense. Don’t get me wrong, that stuff is nice but out of my price range. I mostly want the heat and a few jets would be great too. Well Tracy has found two of them for sale on kijiji and has done her research. She thinks that we can afford one and that these are great deals.

We ended up picking up a 2 year old Softub out in Brantford, coincidentally from a fellow diver and municipal employee. We were able to negotiate a great deal and bring it home the same day. On Sunday I set up the tub and filled it with water from my kitchen tap, this sped up the setup time and we were in it by 9pm. Ill let you know how it affects my recovery time once I get some runs in.

So I took a week off from running, rested up and hit the road today for my first 10km run. Still on the run for 10 min, walk for 2 rotation I was surprised at how easy (for most of it) the 10 k was. Now a full 3 months ahead of schedule I will work on reducing my time and cutting down my walk portion to 1 min.

A weigh in revealed a new 10 year low weight for me as well. 265lbs. This running stuff is really working. I have also felt my SAC rate is lower in the water while diving which is a huge benefit, not to mention that the weight distribution difference makes getting into and maintaining trim easier as well.

As far as diet is concerned, I have definatly increased my water intake to roughly 2.5-3L / day. Trying to eat fast food less but I feel like its impossible to avoid with my schedule. I have some insights on fast food and weight loss that I will share later.

Ciao for now.

So today I bested the leg cramps by removing my MEC Breeze pants. Not only did I not cramp up, I exceeded my training goal by cranking out 9km. Somewhere near the 7km mark I just felt like I could keep on running, so I did.

I guess it’s important to know the temperatures at which to add or remove layers. From now on around 0 deg I will forego the wind pants.

On the training front I think I will move up to 9km at minimum. This puts me ahead of schedule and will have me running a full 10km well before the Marathon by the Sea in August. That way I can work on reducing my walk time and increasing my running speed.

This morning I tried to go for a run. With 7km as the goal for the Month of March I headed out at 6:30am. Did my normal stretch and warm up routine and hit the road as it were. At the 2.5km mark however, I started cramping up in the legs and couldn’t muster more than 2-3minutes running at a time. I ran, walked and hobbled home very disappointed in myself. Wracking my brain to find a reason for the cramping. Vitamins, water, bananas (which contain potassium, which help with muscles being able to relax), all were in check.

Speaking with a long time, long distance runner at work, she asked what I was wearing . After we laughed  at the innuendo I told her that I was wearing my regular winter running gear, Under Armour Cold Gear top and bottoms, toque, fleece gloves and MEC’s breeze jacket and wind pants. Maria thinks that maybe the cramps were simply from being overheated. As she pointed out, it was hovering around 0 deg C today. Normally I have been running in the winter @~ -10C.

Legs recovered quickly and I am hydrating like mad, so we will see what tomorrow brings.