I'm feeling fat and sassy

Lazed around the house and didn't get a chance to run.  Did my 200 squats and 100 push-ups build up instead

Ran after dinner with Ralphie.  It was cold out (30ish) and my shins kinda hurt. Blech.  

Ash had we company Xmas party tonight so I jumped on the trainer for a quick 30 minutes before we had to leave.  It's not in the basement and I sweat a lot, need to get some fans down there.

Did an easy "long" run around tonight after din.  It's kinda fun running at night in the dark but it's always a little cold especially without the sun to warm you up.  Shins are kinda sore but not getting any worse so I figure I'm still adjusting to running. 

 Planning on doing a couple more 15-20 mile weeks with running 4 times a week and then start to bump up the milage depending on my body feels.  I'd like to work up to a 30-40 mpw over the winter to start serious training when spring hits.  

Rode the trainer in the basement for cross-training.  Went 45 minutes at a moderate-hard effort.  Watched "Knocked-Up,"  Pretty ok movie, but I like it for the one-liners a lot more than the plot.  "I'm not poor or anything...but I eat a lot of spaghetti."  I like the trainer becasue it's power curve is available and I can say manly things like I pushed 250 watts for 45 minutes and then threw in a couple 1 minute intervals at 390 watts.  

Finished with my 100 push-up training.  In 2 weeks I went from 18 push-ups to failure to doing 4 sets of 15 with a final set of 20.  I'd say it's a sweet improvment.

One thing I'm super grumpy about is that my weight has been flat at 188-189 for about 2 weeks.  I was losing about 1-1.5 pounds a week until then but now nothing.  Super Frustrating.  The only saving grace, and it's not much, is that my Tanita scale says my BF% is slowing going down.  So maybe I'm gaining muscle but I don't care.  My goal was to be svelte by Christmas and that is clearly not gonna happen at this pace.  Maybe I need a speed habit.  Rant done

Ran 4 miles on the treadmill. Started with a 1 mile warm up @ 8:30 then increased to 7:30 for 2.75 miles then a 0.25 mile cool down. Nothing special.

Rode the training at a moderate effort for 45 minutes. Tossed in some hard 1 minute intervals for good measure.  Felt pretty strong.

 Today was the 2 week progress test for my 100 push-up challenge.  Did 31 push-ups to failure.  Compared to my intial test results of 18, I'd say 72% increase is not bad.  Gotta keep building up.  On target to bust out 100 around the first of the year.

Once again my weight is a frustrating 188.5. The only saving grace is that I see my BF% slowly dipping but still. 

The end of last week was shot with me being lazy and the weather dumpy so I resolved to start the new week better.  Ran 3 easy miles with Ralphie after dinner in the cold and wind.   Did my 100 pushup training.  Scale still not moving

Ran on the treadmill tonight.  Easy 1 mile warm up (8:30) then 2.5 miles @ 7:30 with sprint at the end and then .4 cool down.  Total time 31 minutes with average pace of 7:54.  Felt fine and comfortable.

On a super snazzy note, It looks like the weight loss train is back in town and maybe I'll this 2 week plateau is over.  Fingers crossed!.  In addition, I had my cholesterol checked for free at the university and my total came back 167! (they only split it if you come back high).  This is fabulous news and way lower than I hoped for.  I had it checked 3 years ago at probably my most unhealthy and out of shape.  It was 218 (LDL 141, HDL 68, Tri 45), while the HDL was good the LDL was higher than I'd like.  I guess eating healthy and exercising more pays off. 

Rode the trainer for 45 minutes after din and then did my push-up challenge training.  It's getting hard and tonight was the first night I did not complete the set fully

Ran a quick 4 miles on the treadmill in the evening

Had to work 9-9 today so I jumped on the trainer for a quick 30min before work knowing I'd be dead when I got home from work

Had a crappy day at work so I went to the store and bought oysters and a trout for dinner, went home and baked the fish with some herbs and broiled the oysters with a wine sauce.  Made me feel a little better.  Fell asleep on the couch and woke up at 10 to run.  Felt like crap and ran 3 miles on the treadmill (7:50 overall pace). Blech, tired with a cold

 Yesterday was our Department's Christmas party.  They also give out awards for outstanding grad student and outstanding TA.  I manged to win outstanding TA for an undergrad class I helped with.  I did pretty much what was expected of me with a couple little extra things thrown in so I did not expect to win.  It was pretty exciting and totally unexpected.  The teacher of the class wrote some pretty nice things about me!  Sometimes these things can turn into a popularity contest which I definitely would not win, so yea me!  My friend also won the outstanding grad student award so we cleaned up!.  Sadly, our assistant dean/professor is leaving to go be dean at another school.  Aside from my boss, she was the biggest influence of me going into research so she'll be missed. 

Rode the rollers for 30 minutes after taking a nap tonight.  Felt like absolute junk, it's either a cold or SAD.

We are going back to Albany tomorrow afternoon for Xmas so i need to get a workout in before we leave.  On a good note, I've lost more weight this week

Home for the holidays and did a nice 5ish mile run in the morning at an easy pace with ralphie.  Not used to the hills but it was ok and I miss running at home on these roads.  Ralphie slipped his coller when a group of 10 dogs charged their fence and scared him.  Luckily he did not get hit and I got his coller back on but it took 5 years off my life.  It was a semi-busy road with 45mph traffic, ugh, stressful. 

Ran with my sister at home before coming back to Buffalo.  Got to try out my new toy, a Garmin 405.  We wanted to go for 6 but living in the middle of nowhere and a bad choice of a left stretched it into 9 miles (average pace 7:45).  IT was pretty much the longest I ran in 5 years.  And the Garmin is SUPER COOL!  No shin pain, I only get it on the treadmill, must be something with my gait when on it.  

Rode my rollers for 30 minutes after dinner.  Listened to some Metal and rocked out.

Ran 3.6 miles in the snow yesterday night with ralphie. Pace was 8:10 due to the slipping and sliding. And it was fracking cold

Rode the trainer for 40 minutes before bed.  I still have somewhat of a cold and feel poopie

Got a foot pod for the Garmin GPS watch so I had to run on the treadmill tonight to check it out.  It worked perfectly and was only off by 1% over 3 miles (uncalibrated).  Way better than the nike junk.  Average pace was 7:37 and check this cool pace/cadence chart you can make!.  Awesome Oposum!