2-27-14 Evening Run

My run tonight was satisfying. I have been feeling really depressed lately and running has helped some which is a plus. My work load at school is really heavy this semester, but I am still making it out to run which feels great. I found out if I don't get into my BFA program by next spring I will be able to graduate with a BS after a summer class next year.

But onto running, 51 days until I face the SLC half marathon. I plan on crushing my PR this time around. I am already feeling faster, and have lots of energy even at the end of long runs. I was informed that we will be incorporating speed work into my long runs next month (next Saturday). For my 10 mile run I have some peanut butter Gu and Salted Caramel Gu that I'll be having. I am kinda looking forward to them.

It's getting late, have a good night!

-Riley

2-25-14 A Simple Post

2-20-14 Running in the right clothes

I planned on running the 5 mile option today with the 3 minute run hard, 1 minute run less hard, but I got out later than I intended to. So I had to sacrifice 13 minutes to the homework gods. It turns out those 13 minutes were sacrificed in vain because I get home and the Masonite board with my drawing mounted on it has yet to dry completely. So I will wait these extra 13 minutes I had set aside to work on my painting and type up this post.

I wanted to get out early and run today so I could work with a clear mind all day, but I set off one of my mental illness triggers (which I am still fighting through the after affects right now). The trigger was letting my stress build up without venting it out properly, then staying up to late, and not eating healthy food. To my understanding most people can recover quickly from this. It knocks me out of sorts for only a day or two if I can identify it and make the needed changes right away. Running helps to subdue it, and I was happy I was able to make it out and run. I have gotten to the point where I still function relatively well when I experience these bumps in the road, just because I stick close to my daily regime. When things like this happen I am not able to sleep and am often up until 2 or 3 AM when I am used to being in bed by 11 most nights. My thoughts become severely pessimistic and I start to withdraw.

Ok the title of my post is about the right clothing for running. I have probably had a post with a similar title already, but this one was spurred by getting ready for the gym. I grabbed my compression shorts, one of my first pair I bought after I started running. I realized they weren't compressing any more. They have started to become a loose pair of tight fitting shorts. It's coming time to replace them, not due to wear, but due to me losing weight. This is a great problem to have in my opinion. By summer I am hoping to need to get new running shorts because of the same reason. I am also able to fit in a dry fit Under Armor top that I got about a year ago that was fairly tight on me. Soon I will be back in my non running clothes that I wore when I was teaching karate.

Well, I believe my drawing is dry and I can start work on my painting.

Have a great day!
-Riley

2-18-14 Good Runs Make Food Taste Better

Last night I went to the gym and rode 7.4 miles. It was intense especially since I did it in 30 minutes on a stationary bike. Then to add to it, I went running this morning. It reminded me that back to back running days are exhausting, and I am building up to starting them again next month.

My run today was great, right now I am listening to the TV as I type. It will be soon turned off so I can work on my homework, and eat something. After I have a solid work out, I am hungry most of the rest of the day. I read somewhere if you consume 35g of protein your hunger is curbed for most of the day. So I need to give that a try, it should help by the end of the night tomorrow when I get to my 700PM class. But back to my run, I did 4 miles today. Two of the miles were at a slower pace, then I was told to push myself for miles 2 and 4. I was completely spent by the time I got to my 4th mile. I pushed a little too much for mile 2 and think I should have done 5 miles with 2 warm up first. It took almost the entire 3rd mile before I caught my breath again. But those 4 miles were great now that I look back at them.

Reviewing this workout got me thinking about the last 5k of my marathon. It was hard when doing it, but looking back at it, it's amazing! After a tough run, remembering that feeling is great.

My workouts this week are simple, Thursday I will be doing 4-5 miles, with a segment of 3 minutes at a 11 minute pace, then 1 minute slow. Repeat that 4 or 5 times. I will be doing a 2 mile warm up and then my cool down will be what ever distance I have left. My goal is to do this up in the canyon. My long run this week is 10 miles, then next week is a rest week (so less intense workouts). It's nice that my marathon was in December, because my fitness level is allowing, me to really focus on getting faster.

Weight wise, I am staying within my calorie range easily. Sunday I binged on brownies, and went about 900 calories over. But had been under multiple days, so I'm not too worried about it. I need to get my quality of food up. That will allow me to have energy.

Well time to get back to reality.

Thanks for reading,
Riley

2-15-14 Compression Socks

 I am sitting here watching college basketball, wearing my Levi's, CEP compression socks, and an Old Navy shirt. In a few minutes I will start a marathon of homework here in the next few minutes (after some foam roller).

My splits weren't the greatest, but were ok considering I ran yesterday. And my last 5 miles my knee was bothering me. I still haven't fully taken care of my right knee, so I shouldn't complain about it. I started typing this post 20 minutes ago and still haven't progressed very far, so I will now focus to finish.

My run was great, it has been my longest run this year, I ran the whole way (accept that little pause where I had to make the decision to keep running). So I ran the whole 9 miles!

At the beginning of next month I will up my runs to 4 days a week again, and with the trend in weather I should be doing them all outside instead of cowering from the elements inside the gym. To help with that I will not be renewing my gym memberships this coming June.

I have been trying to decide if I am going to do the Canyon to Canyon trail run or change it to the Provo City Half Marathon (May 3rd) or the Vigor Bog Cottonwood Canyon Half Marathon (May 10th). Any feedback on this idea would be great!

As always, thanks for reading.

-Riley

2-14-14 Valentines Day Run

 It's Valentines day an I just got the internet working again on my laptop. It was funny, I could only do Google searches and go to Facebook. I power cycled the modem and router, and magically I am connected to the world.

I will be brief tonight, since my wife is cleaning up after the dinner I made, and the homemade chocolate covered strawberries. Dinner was shrimp scampi pasta. It tasted great, and I have one serving left for after my run tomorrow.

So for valentines day I made Silvia dinner, and we did desert.

Run wise, it was an exhausting run, and I need to get them in on the days I am supposed to. Tomorrow I have a 9 mile run and am a little nervous about it because of my run today. Then it will be home to work on my digital painting I am doing of a saber-tooth tiger.

Today has been a good day and Silvia and I will be heading up stairs do give me a leg massage. On a side note, about 5 years ago I was doing a fitness plan that didn't quite stick, and Silvia and I were at the gym on Valentines. I jst thought I would share that with you.

Thanks for reading,
Riley

2-11-14 NEW PR

Today was a great run, and it was that way from the beginning. I stayed at my target times for my first three miles, then rocked my forth mile with a 10:18 time. Considering I had a bad nights sleep and didn't eat the best yesterday, I think I did pretty dam good.

After my run I quickly went to Smith's (grocery store) and picked up a core power (like muscle milk but tastes like melted ice cream). I finished my water and ran my errands in SLC (picking up more oil paint and dropping off some essential oil at Irene's house). Speaking of Irene, she does a nutrition program that is really powerful. If you would like to know more about it I can get your information to her. I still haven't done it, but am teetering on the edge because I would have to decrease the intensity of my workout.

So my remaining work outs this week are simple, I will be doing 9 miles on Saturday, and Thursday I will be doing 5 miles. After 2 miles I will do a speed drill of 2 blocks at a faster pace, then two at a slower speed. Then cool down until I reach mile 5. Well, I need some food, to go grocery shopping, and start work on my figure painting project.

Thank you for reading,

Riley

2-8-14 Group Running

So I missed my group run yesterday and am full of regret on it, but that is short lived because it's a new week and I am looking forward to the group run. I haven't really run with other people because the Tuesday morning group is all a little faster or have people the run with already. So it's me, my iPhone, MapMyRun, and music.

My run last night was hard, I hit mile two and I was running out of gas. I had a stinger strawberry waffle and downed half of that as I ran, and then told myself when I ran another mile I could have a little more waffle. So I continued that was until I was finished with my waffle at mile 4. After that I just ran/walked with water. I was completely spent.

I figure the reasons for getting exhausted so fast was due to poor diet Friday and Saturday. I really need to address that. I am able to keep within my calorie goal now, but it's not always the best food. For tomorrow I have  my meals planed out as follows. Breakfast: Sesame Bagel w/ strawberry cream cheese and light and fit Greek yogurt. Lunch will be this awesome curry that I picked up at Costco this past week and some right with another yogurt, and some tangerines. Dinner will be subway (I can control calories easier by eating subway than just about anything else). So having my meals planned means greater success.

Back to running, I will be starting some cross training on Monday mornings by riding my bike. So just keep an eye on it. record will appear for that in the coming weeks.

Thanks for reading,
-Riley

2-6-14 Losing Weight

Today I made it to the gym for my work out. Without any deadlines tomorrow I was able to get my run in. I made it 2.54 miles and through 5 of my 8x1x1's. Then stopped because I was getting light headed and kept veering to the right one the treadmill, I also had to use the restroom. After that I weighed in because I remembered for once (I'll get to that in the next paragraph). I decided to finish my 8x1x1's at least. I ended up finishing them and then doing another 3, so it became 11x1x1 (11 reps of 1 minute run at fast pace then one at a slower than cruising pace for a minute). I like to use the cool down option on the treadmill to run them, but it only goes to 10 minutes. I pumped it up to a 9ish minute mile for a minute then dropped to a 14 minute mile. My cruising pace is just under 13 minutes now where it was over that right before my marathon. On the cool down I ran out of time before I got to the complete 4 miles for my run today, and had to start the treadmill for the third time. Overall I did some god times on the run. I am still trying to get the first mile at a slower ace figured out when I run outside, and am going to work on that with three other people this Saturday when I do my long mile run.

Now onto my weight. I mentioned that I started to use the Livestrong app on my phone and iPad. I have been doing great lately and have had quite a few days where I was well under my caloric intake for the day. Today will be another one of those days. But I weighed in at the gym (the same place that told me I was 304 lbs. when I started to run again), and the weight was down to 296 lbs. So over the last month I have lost a total of 8 lbs. just like that prediction in the app if I stuck to my daily calories.

I said I didn't have any deadlines today, but I do have pieces I need to work on to get them done by Monday, so I can start on my next project.

Thanks for reading,
Riley

2-4-14 Running in the Drifting Snow

Right now I am successfully avoiding my homework as I write this post. I missed two of my runs last week and really wish I didn't. I also ate really poorly yesterday which bogged me down in my running today. So here I am after my run, worn out more than I should be because of my diet. I drank two Pepsi Max yesterday, and a Mountain Dew Kickstart Lime, that alone shows how bad my diet was. So that leads to my slower than average times (compared to my last runs).

Today I had two funny stories as I ran. The first is when I got to the SLC Running Company, I stepped out of the car and my feet about froze. I was wearing socks that were for the summer. They were so thin that I could feel all the cold on them. So I picked up a pair of wool running socks (and am still wearing them). Ok that wasn't that funny, but this next one will be. I was running down 600 East, and I was in mile three, and was experiencing pain in my right knee. I had run by one of those speed signs that lets you know how much you are going over the speed limit by flashing at you. The first time I passed one nothing happened, and I thought it would be cool if I could run fast enough to trigger it. So here I am running, and see one flashing at me. I thought it was most likely the a car behind. I know I didn't hit the 27 mph. But I looked and there was nothing going behind me. I laughed thinking back to what I was thinking earlier, I triggered the sign (which was probably gliching), but it was great. I kept on trucking from there.

My runs for this week are fairly simple, Thursday I will be doing 4-5 miles and at mile 2 I will change from my cruising pace to 8x1x1. That will be 8 sets of 1 minute sprint 1 minute running sub cruising pace. Then on Saturday I will be doing 8 miles and need to make sure my first mile is in the 13 minute range. I keep going too hard on my first mile and have been trending slower after it because of that.

I think I have been loosing weight, my arms are looking thinner as well as my my shirts fitting a lot better. I keep forgetting to weigh myself when I go to the gym.

I need to get back to working on my homework. So this is me signing off.

Thanks for reading,
Riley