Surgery Week

This has been a tough week for workouts, as my wife had a cerglage placed on Tuesday morning, and that left me to deal with the kids for the week.  You can read about her surgery here.  I managed a run on Monday and did Jillian Michael's 30 day Shred Level 2 on Wednesday, but couldn't manage a workout Tue/Thur.  I'll excuse Tuesday because it was the day of the surgery, but on Thursday, I just didn't plan my day well. 

I do believe this is the single most important thing to do when trying to exercise regularly.  The need to plan.  When I'm at work I have a routine; the workouts come easy.  At home, chaos rules the day, and often times the day is done before I think about it.  That's not to say I can't get a workout in, I just need to plan it better.  Next week I return to work, so at least I'll be back in my routine!

My First Seven Days...

are through!  I did manage to workout five days, but only if you count half a day of raking leaves as a workout.  I was sure tired after it, so I'm going to count it as a workout and that makes five workouts this week.  I ran this morning as well, and it hurt.  I had been running quite a bit early in the summer, but I got out of it and I definitely feel it now.  Here's what I ran today:

3.0 miles
29:30
9:50 min/mile

Not as fast I was running earlier in the summer, but it was still a good workout, so I'll take it.   I haven't stepped on the scale yet, maybe I will later in the week.  I feel pretty good though, and that's what counts! 

How do you know when to begin?

Back in March, my wife Stephanie began a 90-day challenge, in which she committed to working out for 90-days, culminating with the Portland, ME Sea Dogs Mother's Day 5K race. She utilized the couch to 5K program and various Jillian Michael's videos and I was so proud of her. She lost 15 pounds during her 90 days and got down to her ideal weight. During her time, she blogged about it here. I half-heartily completed her 90 day challenge with her, improved my fitness some and ran the race with her, which was one of my proudest moments of her. But I wasn't committed, didn't lose any of the 15 pounds I've put over the last several years, and by and large did not shock my body.

Fast forward to present - My wife is pregnant with our fourth child, and while she has not been working out, she has supported me and I recently decided I'm ready to shock my body and push it through a 90 day challenge. She encouraged me to blog about it, so here I am, writing my first blog post ever. I'm not blogging for any notoriety, but more for accountability. If no one reads this blog, and it motivates me to workout on a day I might take off, or work an extra ten minutes, then this blog is a success!

So about me: I'm a 36 year old guy's guy who borderline obsesses over fantasy football, love any good sporting event, never had a beer I didn't like, and all in all just enjoy a good time. I am an athlete, I've just gone dormant the last few years due to life.

I don't have a culminating event like a 5K race, but I do have some goals:

1. Run a sub 7 minute mile (just one)
2. Run a 5K in under 26 minutes
3. Gain control of my diet (more on that later)
4. Workout five days per week

I thought about when I should begin this challenge, and was going to start November 1st, but once I committed, I couldn't sit around waiting to begin. There is never a good time to begin, and I think this is people's biggest challenge. The inertia it takes to overcome years of a sedentary lifestyle is daunting, and is probably the biggest reason for failure. So I jumped right in and started working out several days ago; here is a summary of my workouts so far (click on image for a larger view):