Week 1 Run 4 (of 3)

Got out for another run today, it was hard but it is getting easier.

I nearly left it too late, it was all but dark when I got back but at least I did it.

The basic stats are:

Stage	Distance	Time	Pace
Exc. WU/CD	1.72 miles	18:30	10:44
Overall	2.34 miles	28:30	12:12

I have sorted out getting a better report from the app too. Along with messing about with the settings so it is a bit less annoying and only gives me the information I actually want (pace and runs remaining), rather than waffling on with all sort of irrelevant stuff about distance covered, total time blah blah blah that it was doing before.
I initially didn't sign in with my google account or facebook because I didn't want it posting spam on my account, but now I've signed into google it will upload it to the RunDouble website and give me a nice breakdown without spamming anyone but me, hopefully.
Anyway the detailed stats and run map are here if anyone is interested.

I have decided to do one more go at the week 1 program. If I can get out Sunday or Monday as planned then I will have effectively done 3 in a week, after taking a week off for and should be able to push on to the next section without dying. I will have to come up with a better route though, as I posted a letter before I set off and ran a bit quicker, I got far enough down the canal path that I very nearly got to the bit where it becomes mud instead of path. Once I move on I should get further and that will be impractical until the weather improves. I guess I am just going to have to put up with some hills at some point.

Today's entertainment was courtesy of BadDice again, talking about the UK masters winner's Dark Elf list but it was only a 10 minute episode, so I moved on to Bach. Music probably isn't as bad a plan as I first thought, I was way too tired to be paying attention to a podcast, and too knackered to be bored.

Weigh-In-Wednesday (delayed...)

Been a bit slack with the updates this week.

After I pulled a muscle last Tuesday I wanted to rest it until I was comfortable exercising again. It was sore on Wednesday and Thursday but felt fine on Friday. I went for a walk on Friday which was fine and I was thinking it might be sorted but on Saturday I ran for my train; only a few steps but it was painful enough to know that it wasn't fully healed, so I've been continuing to take it easy. I went for another walk on Monday and things still seemed fine.
I've mostly been walking into Rothwell, google maps reckons my route is about 4 miles I haven't really been timing it but I think it takes about an hour. It's actually further than I thought now I've looked it up. The quickest route is a lot shorter, but when I'm doing it for exercise then I go the long way around.

Anyway yesterday was weigh-in day. Bit of a disappointment, 18 stone 3. So apparently I've only lost 1 pound this week. Probably a result of doing less exercise and not watching what I eat quite so much, though I've still been way healthier than I would normally be, I have a feeling it might be because it was so low last week, 8 lb over 2 weeks sounds a lot more realistic than 7 lb in 1 week.  Anyway I'm still in front of my target.

Back to the exercise. I went for a run yesterday, day 3 of week 1, though I'm actually into week 2 now...anyway it was the 8 x 60 seconds again. My legs felt a bit stiff at first but I was surprisingly OK with it, I thought I would be back to where I started but I was about the same as my last run, I guess keeping up with some exercise when I'm not on the program has helped there.
The stats were 1.7 miles at 10.54 minutes/mile so a very slight improvement on last time. 441 calories including the warm up/cool down.

I think I will do another week 1 run next time, week 2 moves onto 6 x 90 second runs and I'm not convinced I'm up to that yet. Though I know I need to push myself if I want to build fitness, I'm very wary of pushing too hard after overdoing it and needing a week off.

In other news I'm also 2 weeks into Dry (most of) January.
I was drinking a bit much last year and it started to get a bit silly over Christmas/new year so I thought I would give it a go and see how I went. In large part to make sure I wasn't an alcoholic but also the money savings, calorie savings and potential health benefits are worthwhile too.  There still hasn't been a "real" study on whether taking a month off is worthwhile but a small scale study New Scientist did indicates that there is a worthwhile benefit, which goes counter to the previous advice that taking a month off has no real benefit, mostly because you use it as an excuse to go nuts when you get back on the booze.
I don't plan to quit booze permanently or anything, and in fact I'm not doing the whole of January, I have a warhammer weekend in Stockport on the 24th to 26th that I would like to drink at, but it isn't really bothering me and I think I will try and get into just drinking at the weekend or when I go out rather than every night when I'm sat on my arse watching TV. I reckon as 40 approaches taking a bit more of a grown-up approach to drinking shouldn't do any harm.

Ups and Downs

I decided to go for a run yesterday to finish Week 1. I had a bit of a false start as I got the "start running" message as I was waiting for a light to change on the pedestrian crossing, but never mind, just start when I get over. Which I did. About 10 paces in I get a stabbing pain in my right thigh. I tried to keep on running but it just gets worse. Looks like I've pulled a muscle....
I walked for about half an hour without it getting any better or worse just to be doing some exercise but I'm pretty annoyed. Stupid body.
It was painful last night and is still painful today so knocking the pain down with ibuprofen and hoping that should help with any inflammation. Looks like I'm going to have to research how to deal with pulled muscles now, though I'm guessing it is going to be rest.

Anyway the point of the post: the weigh in. After a week of increased exercise, no booze, and being pretty careful with what I eat (No snacks basically), did I lose any weight?

The result: 19 stone 4 Lb. So I've apparently list 7 Lb this week. Get in!

That seems wildly too high, for that to be real I would have to be on a calorie deficit of 3500 per day, and there is absolutely no way I have come anywhere close to that. I checked my waist and my initial measurement said 46" which is a 2" loss, but re-measuring it I'm still at 48" or maybe a shade less. I think I'm going to have to get Clare to help me get consistent measurements there.
(edit. Clare measures me as a 47". I will stick with getting her to do it so it spuld be more consistent from now on) Overall pretty pleased though. In the highly unlikely event I can keep it up at that level I will hit my target in another 3 weeks rather than the 9 I'd planned on. I don't think that is very realistic, but it is a hell of a start!

Achievements this week:
Ran a mile
Lost half a stone

:D

Week 1 Session 2

I ran a bloody mile! Seriously, a mile!

Ok, it was in 8 1/8th of a mile instalments but still! 

I was feeling better enough to have another go with the C25K program again today, still a bit of ache but if I wait for it to wear off completely every time I have the feeling that I will end up going a week between sessions and never get anywhere. 

I went down by the canal again, 8 60 second runs with 90 second walking between and I followed my own advice from last time. 

I did it in daylight, which was cool, someone has done a load of wood carving so there were trolls, dogs, deer, an elephant and a few other things sprinkled along the route. There must be at least 30 of them in total. I stuck to the paved side which meant the ground was a lot easier, wet tarmac is a lot easier to run on than mud. 

I paced myself to a steady jog, I still thought I was going to die by the end but the actual running segments were all very close to an 8 min/mile pace, though my brisk walk sections dropped from about 12 min/mile on the first one to about 16 min/mile by the last one.   

The stats were :

I completed C25K Week 1 Day 2 (timed) (1.68 miles), in 18:30, pace 10:59 min/mile.

So about a minute a mile less than the average last time, but I was a lot happier with my performance overall. I very nearly gave up half way through the last run section but I managed to push through, hopefully my breathing will improve a bit for next time as I felt like I just couldn't get enough breath by the end of it but pleased overall and I have a feeling I'm going to ache tomorrow. 

I'm tentatively scheduling my next run for Tuesday, which will mean I will get 3 runs in this week (just) but I might do it on Monday if I feel recovered by then.  

Entertainment for my run was courtesy of the Bad Dice Daily, their 400th episode doing a "Warhammer Personality of the Year". Pretty entertaining even if none of my votes won their categories. Shame their episodes are only 15-20 minutes really as they are a bit short for a half hour session. I might give music a go but I've been listening to a lot of podcasts and audiobooks over the last 6 months and they seem ideal to stop me getting bored when I'm exercising.  

Day 3

Well after Wednesday's fun I was pretty achey, nothing really huge but my lower back arms and thighs were a bit sore and tight and my right calf was worse. It wasn't so bad yesterday (Thursday) but it was worse today.

I had planned to do another run today but I don't want to push it and do myself some injury that will leave me unable to exercise for a few days. So I decided to go for a walk instead of a run. I'm not really happy to be breaking my exercise plan on my second session, but I think that I am better off deciding that if I can't do the exercise I planned I will do some other exercise, even if it is a bit easier, than just staying at home on my arse. Hopefully it will have subsided enough by tomorrow that I will be comfortable having another go at running.

My running app doesn't seem to do "free runs" where I can just make it start recording and tell it when to stop, which is annoying, but mapping it out on Google afterwards it was about 3 miles.  Interesting really as that is pretty much my target for running. It seems like a long way but a not totally unachievable target.

On the upside I got weighed this morning to find I'd lost 3 pounds. I don't really believe it; I'm sure a fair amount of that is water loss thanks to diet changes, exercise and not drinking alcohol for a couple of days (yeah, I know nothing like going nuts with it right? ) but I can't say it isn't encouraging! Looking forward to having a weigh-in and measure at the end of the week now.

I've just had a bit of a Google around about whether you are supposed to exercise with sore muscles or not. Apparently the sore/achey/stiffness you get 24-48 hours after starting new exercise (or different exercise, or adding extra weights etc.) is called "Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness" or DOMS, and is perfectly normal. I already knew that, well I knew that it was normal, although I had no idea what it was called.
My word is there a lot of contradictory crap information out there over whether you are supposed to exercise when you have it or not.
I will do some more research and see what I can figure out. I think that sort of thing is really important to know as someone who is starting a new exercise regime. Do I put up with the pain and press on or rest up until it is completely gone or what? That will make a massive difference.

C25K Week 1 Session 1 - Disaster!

So I broke off half way through writing the 1st post because I realised I was just using it as procrastination to avoid actually doing the exercise I was talking about. Now I've finished that I can post my update.

This was the 1st stage of the couch to 5k (C25K) from the app I am using (RunDouble It seems OK, but I've never used a running app so what do I know?) 5 minute brisk walk warm-up, 60 second run 90 second walk x 8 then 5 minute gentle walk. I should be doing this 3 times this week then it gets a bit harder next week.
Should be a piece of piss right? 8 minutes of running in 1 minute chunks? Lets go!

First of all, it was harder than I anticipated it said "start running" so I set off running. Soon I was desperately hoping for my minute to be up soon, then 90 second recovery, that's loads right? Nope. I managed the 2nd 60 seconds just barely then the 3rd, 4th and 5th I couldn't do the whole minute. I could hardly breathe by around the time I had to go back to walking. The last 3 reps were a bust thanks to my stupid choice of route.

I thought running along the canal would be a good plan. It's flat, the only place in the area where I wouldn't be running up/down a fairly steep hill for at least part of it which I wanted to avoid, pretty quiet and I reckoned about my 5 minute warm-up away. I had just hit the tow-path when I'd finished the warm-up so it went well as far as that goes. Things started OK, it was dark but there was enough light to be OK on the wide paved path. Then when I got to half way I was just by a lock, so I thought, why not cross over and go back on the other side? Big mistake. It was raining hard all day and the other side is a dirt path. In the dark I couldn't tell the path from the puddles, the path was slippery and the grass/mud at the side even more so. My last 3 reps turned into a trudge through the mud since as well as being knackered I didn't want to risk breaking my neck. Then of course as I was walking I was going much slower so instead of being back to my house by the end of the half hour I was still trudging along the tow-path. Balls.
I got back eventually, put the bins out and hosed off my trainers and the bottom of my trousers and came in to see how I had done.

I completed C25K Week 1 Day 1 (timed) (1.44 miles), in 18:30, pace 12:52 min/mile

The app gives me much better stats than that but it only exports the very basic. I apparently burned 426 calories including the warm up which is great (if a little unbelievable), but I'm disappointed with the rest of it. The whole "run" averages out as a brisk walk.

I'm a little worried about how I am going to do this now but I haven't given up yet. I think I have learned some worthwhile lessons:

Pace myself - I just set off full speed on my first run section, I should have gone for more of a jog than a sprint to make sure I could actually complete it.

Think of a sensible route - In hindsight I could have run on an at least relatively flat course on the road with a bit more planning, and some smallish hills would have been better than the mud path.

Run on the road if it is wet - I could do the canal path again and just turn around at the half way point but once I'm fitter/doing longer runs I have a feeling that it turns to a dirt track on the paved side too further up.

Do it in daylight  - I planned to do it as soon as I got up, but I had a long lie-in so I was starving by the time I finally got up.

Looking on the bright side I'm so bad that I should see some good improvement fairly quickly. As to sticking to the plan, well I'm going to see how it goes but I'd like to be at least able to complete all 8 repeats of this section. If I can't do that in 3 goes then I think I will stick with this "easy" program until I can, then move onto week 2 when I'm ready. So effectively week 1 might actually take a bit more than a week.
 

New Year, New Start?

Yeah yeah, you have heard it all before. I'm gonna get fit and lose weight in the new year, for real this time....

Well I guess we will see.

A bit about me.
My name is Chris and I'm 37 years old. I was always skinny as a kid, then in my late teens and early 20s I filled out a bit, I didn't really get fat but I was certainly no longer what could be called skinny. A combination of discovering beer and no longer getting balanced home cooked meals any more I guess.

By my mid 20s I was probably a little overweight but nothing very serious, but I started working in a restaurant, between having as much to eat as I wanted at work, lots of left over deserts and such and having no interest in cooking when I got home, there were take-outs galore, lots of beer etc. etc. etc. and long story short I put on a lot of weight, I think I peaked somewhere around 21 and a half stone (300lb/135KG for the foreigners) I'm pretty tall, just short of 6'1" (185cm) with pretty broad shoulders so I've never quite managed to get "Jabba the Hutt" fat but I was fat.

Over the last 10 years or so I've been fairly steady around 19 stone. But between stress from my PhD, stopping smoking and Christmas I'm just about up to 20 stone again.

OK, that was a history of my weight. That was supposed to be about me, and I'd like to think there is a bit more to me than a fat guy who wants to be thin.

I've just finished a PhD. Kind of. My thesis is written and submitted but I needed more data so since October I've been back in the lab trying to get a few loose ends tied up so I can have something worth talking about in my viva, which should hopefully be some time in January or early Feb. For anyone who might be interested my thesis title was: Development of ClpXP as a tool for investigating the mechanical properties of biomolecules applied to polyglutamine repeat proteins. It involved a lot of molecular biology, biochemistry and biophysics. Don't worry if you have no idea what any of that is about, I don't really plan to talk about it here.

I don't have a job lined up yet, and honestly I don't really know what I actually want to do for a job, I've spent the last year in such a state of stress and depression that I haven't been able to make myself think sensibly about it.

Why Gaming Loser? Well my hobby is miniature wargaming, mostly Warhammer Fantasy though I dabble in other stuff on occasion. If you don't know what that means; I collect, paint and play with little plastic/resin/metal toy soldiers in a tactical wargame resolved by rolling dice. Pretty geeky, hence loser as a bit of a joke. I don't really think wargaming is for losers despite what the stereotype of being a saddo who lives in his parents basement might say, I actually think it is pretty cool. I certainly enjoy it, so if you think it is for losers fuck off back to youtube to watch your "how to twerk" videos so you can be as cool as Miley Cyrus.
I'm a pretty prolific painter, and I get to about a tournament a month I also co-host a warhammer podcast.

Anyway that's enough about me for now. Let's get to the point of this blog.
I was reading some lifehacker article about sticking to your new years resolutions. They recommended having an actual goal rather than just a fuzzy "I'll lose weight and get fit" which seemed like a pretty good idea to me. They also recommend telling people about it so you have some self-imposed peer-pressure.
So I've started a "Gamers not Gainers" facebook group with a few guys from my local gaming club. I'll link my FB details on here somewhere, people are more than welcome to get involved, the more the merrier. We have people ranging from me who is probably the least fit and fattest who wants to get to a point of not being a saggy mess who can't run for a train to people who actually do sport and exercise who want to push themselves a bit harder. But it's a secret group so you will need to send me a friend request so I can add you. And I've started this blog to talk about how I'm doing for anyone who is interested and to keep a record of my progress for myself.
My initial goal is to do a couch to 5k (C25K) running programme over 9 weeks and to lose some weight. I guess my ideal target is 16 stone but I think that is a bit ambitious for 9 weeks so I am going to go with a goal of hitting 18 stone by the 10th March 2013, which is just over 3lb per week. My main plan is to do it by increasing the amount of exercise I do. Rather than "dieting" and trying to count every last calorie I'm going to try and cut out the shit I eat, so no (or at least a lot less) cakes/sweets/biscuits and a sensible lunch rather than the meat feast baguette with cheese I am a little too prone to stuffing my face with.
At that point I will reassess and see what the prospect of getting to 16 stone looks like and start taking my body fat and such into account.  

I plan to update 3 times a week with my C25K progress at least for the 1st couple of weeks which should be where I see the most improvement with a weekly weigh in/progress report.
 
My starting point:
Weight: 19st 11lb
Waist 48"
Chest 47"
Body fat: 6 st 11lb (from my fat measuring scales which may be fairly inaccurate but should give a measure for comparison)

And I debated whether to post these, but some pictures:

My Facebook: here
I'm also on twitter: @SkavenblightRad
I'd love to hear comments, encouragement, advice, whatever really. Contacts as above or leave a comment here. I would put my email, but I get enough spam already without posting it on a public website. If you want it find some way of contacting me and I'll send you it.