Spring is almost here!

It’s been a while since I last posted, so I’ll catch up briefly on what I’ve been doing.

Training is going well now that the weather is improving. I’m able to get out at least once during the week in addition to Saturdays. I’d get out more if I could wake up earlier. The time change always throws me off for a while until I get used to it, so hopefully I’ll adapt soon and be able to get out on the shorter Monday runs. Since I currently run Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, running after work on Fridays is not ideal as I would be running twice within about 12 hours. I tried that once last fall and felt it all weekend. I’m also doing core work, thanks to Gordon at Running to Disney who sent me his core workout. It is pretty straightforward, but until I get used to doing the crunches, pushups, and planks again, it provides me a nice, tough workout (not only for my core, but my use of colorful language and metaphors!).

I have realized that, although I feel like I’m improving my speed a tiny bit and even beginning to get a handle on pacing, I need to do more. I think I have not been pushing myself as hard as I should on the weekday running and so I’ve begun to run harder, especially when I’m outside. As you may remember, I have an elliptical machine downstairs at my house, so if I’m on that, I can set the program and level to get tougher. Running outside is a whole different thing, though. Pushing hard was actually not easy while the routes I ran were icy, so now that our snow is basically gone for the season (knock on wood), I can begin to really push the tempo. On Saturdays, I’m trying to get into the habit of running paces that will give me negative splits. I think I’m getting there, we’ll see what happens over the next several weeks.

In late April, I’m running a half-marathon that happens to be on a weekend I’m scheduled to run 13 miles. Boy, is that ever serendipitous! I’m going to treat the race as a training run, so it will be nice to get a race in before the Minneapolis Marathon at the beginning of June. It will also be nice to do long training runs for a race without worrying about cold or snow!

In addition to the training, I’ve begun a change in my eating habits, again thanks to Gordon’s inspiration. I don’t eat much dairy or meat, make my own hummus now, and eat fruits and veggies more than I used (which was actually quite a bit). I’ve really cut down on junk, especially the “treat” Coke and Mountain Dew, and I’m limiting the number of Starbucks trips each week to one (two if I’ve been a very good boy!). I’m losing weight, a little more slowly than I’d like, but it is coming off and if I keep these eating habits in place, I really believe I will be much lighter come January 2011 and the WDW Goofy Challenge. I’m currently at 208.5 lbs. and I plan to be at about 180 lbs. by January. Lighter would be fine with me, but I feel that 180 is a good target and reachable for me. I feel better and I know that getting that weight off will help me finish the Goofy easily.