Running Update

This week was a pretty good week for running and exercise. I woke up at 6:15 am on Monday morning and ran 4 miles before work. After work, I went to the gym and did some circuit training with the weights. I am a member of 24 Hour Fitness, and they have a circuit training area that includes machines for abs, seated squat, seated leg curls for hamstrings, leg press for quadriceps, bench press, shoulder press, tricep press, seated row, and bicep curl. I haven't worked out with the weights in a while so my muscles were sore all week long.

On Tuesday, I ran 4 miles and then offset all the exercise with a wine tasting and dinner at Fleming's. Wednesday I hosted dinner and a movie night with some friends and grilled Prime filets that I got from Central Market. I have never bought Prime beef from the grocery store before, but it was amazing. The cut of meat really makes a huge difference!! We watched Love Actually on DVD which the girls suggested (I wanted to see Wedding Crashers), and it was pretty good. I had very low expectations for this chick flick.

Friday I ran 4 miles on the dreadmill and Saturday I did 8 miles at Town Lake although I only ran 6 of them. After that I got some new shoes from a friend that works at RunTex. I changed from the Asics GT-2100 to the Brooks Trance 5. I wanted the Asics Kayano, but they didn't have my size. Today I went to the gym to work out and then ran 3 miles on the indoor track (my friend said that if I run on the treadmill or indoor track and don't like the shoes, I could bring them back for a full refund) to take the new shoes for a test drive. The shoes don't feel nearly as "cushiony" as the Asics and seemed really long and flat. I didn't have any discomfort, but I like the Asics much better. I think it's just that I am used to the Asics, so I think I am going to find some Kayonos in my size or just go back to a new pair of GT-2100s.

So, that gives me 21 miles for the week. I haven't broken the 20 mile mark since before the Freescale half-marathon. Additionally, I have added incentive. I am weighing in at around 204 lbs, and haven't been sub-200 lbs in probably a decade. So, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel to reach this milestone. For the past 2 weeks I have been on the Abs Diet which a friend recommended and lent me the book. It is really a common sense approach to eating healthy, eating 6 small meals a day, and exercising. The theory is to increase metabolism through eating the right foods and building muscle mass.

I haven't really lost any weight in the past two weeks since I have been on it, but I feel great. I haven't eaten any fast food in 2 weeks (with the exception of a late night Whataburger last weekend after Richard and Lauren's wedding shower party at 3:30 in the morning). Also, I usually have 2 diet colas at work a day. For the past 2 weeks, I have only had 1 choosing to drink only water, green tea, or milk. I went to Whole Foods 2 weeks ago and loaded up on healthy foods and snacks, it was expensive at $143. But, since I have been eating in and the groceries have lasted over 2 weeks, it is probably cheaper than my normal diet of eating out every night.

Best Running Cities in the US

See the article on MSN.com. Austin was ranked number 11, Dallas 15, and Houston 21. It's nice to see that the race to run in Dallas is the White Rock marathon. I am looking forward to it. I ran 20 miles last week despite a major drinking binge over the 4th of July weekend. We did the Texas Hill Country wine trail and visited Lost Creek vineyard near Marble Falls and Flat Creek vineyard just outside of Lago Vista near Austin. Anyways, I am not used to drinking wine and it was flowing like beer. Needless to say, it caught up to me fast...really fast.

Lance Armstrong Foundation Night at Dell Diamond

My soon-to-be sister-in-law works for the Lance Armstrong Foundation and invited us to the LAF night at the Dell Diamond last Saturday night to watch the Round Rock Express play. We had a really good time. My nephew, Kaleb, is a really great kid.



Kaleb is a Lance fan.


Kaleb eating cotton candy at the Round Rock Express game.


Kaleb and Uncle Dave.

Dallas White Rock Marathon

Well, it's been almost two months since I have blogged. You can definitely tell it's summer time because it seems like the frequency of posts has decreased on most of the blogs that I read.

My friend, Patrick, sent me an email the other day saying that he is going to run the White Rock Marathon in Dallas on December 11. I asked if they had a half marathon (and they do), but said to myself, "screw the half, I'm doing the marathon." There is a guy that sits one row over at work who recently ran the San Diego marathon. If he can do it, so can I. It took him 6 hours to complete it, and I figure I can do much better than that. He doesn't look like he is that great of shape...but either do I.

I have been running about 3 miles, 3 times a week just to offset all of the heavy beer drinking this summer. But, I will increase my training beginning next week. If all goes well, I will try to get back to Town Lake this Saturday and do a long run of 5 miles. With the heat in Austin, I have been having difficulty running 4 miles which used to be my bare minimum for a run. I have been using the Pose Method and have increased my running pace to sub 10 minute miles which is quite a bit faster than the 11:30 to 12:00 minutes I was running before.