I'm feeling fat and sassy

Hi Running people-

 Since I'm new here I guess I should introduce myself.  I'm 27 years old and a PhD student at the University of Buffalo Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences  My thesis work involved understanding the Pharmacokinetics, dynamics, and Pharmacology of organic nitrates (think nitroglycerin) and other cardiovascular drugs.  I also graduated from UB with a PharmD in 2007 and I work as a community pharmacist per diem.  I live in Buffalo with my wife, Ashley, our 2 dogs, 2 cats, and a bunny. We enjoy really anything outdoors during all seasons, including hiking, camping, snowboarding, water skiing, etc. 

I started this blog because I'm out of shape.  During my high school and early college years I ran and road biked a lot and was fast.  I did track and cross-county in high school (Galway, NY) and ran independent in college.  I cross-trained on my road bike and frequently road on fast group rides and Cat 5 races.  The load of Pharmacy School caught up with my in a bad way and my fitness suffered a lot.  I put on about 40 pounds in the last 6 years and my fitness is now blech.

My goal is now to get svelte again.  I want to get back to around 160# and have my running speed near what it previously  was.  I've started eating a lot healthier and commuting to work by bike.  Small steps  My commute is a nice 6.5 miles one way which puts me at the University in about 24 minutes.  I shower at the gym and get to my lab in about 450 minutes after leaving my door.  It's about twice the time if driving but I enjoy it.  I've also started running again after a long break.  It's tough to be as slow as I am now (5k in 30min) knowing where I've been, but I know it's slow going. 

So I'll be using this blog to publicize my progress knowing I'll be much more apt to follow a plan with the anonymous eyes of the public on me.  I'll probably complain about my jobs a little too and just talk about whatever.  Feel free to ask medial/drug questions to make use of my schooling, I'll try to help the best I can. 

Thanks

Nate

Thanks for all the welcomes

 Did the bike commute thing today.  I was a little worried about the weather as it stormed quite a bit last night but it was a dry ride, just a little windy.  Mondays are always tough becasue I need to lug my laptop, shoes and clothes to school for the week which adds up.  I have a gym locker on campus and shower there after my morning leg which is a nice way to start the day.  But the morning seem to be naked old men time.  What is it with this?  They don't even try to cover up while strutting allover the place.  One elderly gentleman was actually hold his towel out at arms length while walking around.  Plus our showers are the old style, were it's just a huge tiled room with numerous shower heads

I'm flipping buried in work at school for the next several weeks.  I have a department seminar mid-Sept and I'm also working on an NIH training grant application (k99 for the science people) which is due Oct 1st.  It's a huge application which would seriously set me up for the next 5 years into junior faculty.  But it's super competitive and the science we do is not that sexy in the eyes of reviewers/public so...   I'm also teaching a couple of classes (intro to drug development) at the beginning of the semester for my boss in addition to my regular experiments and lab work.  Blech...

Maybe I'll try to run with Sadie (our lab) tonight, she really like it and now that she's old enough (16 months) I don't have to worry about her quite so much.  We really should walk/exercise them more but it's tough after a long day.  We can get away with it becasue we have a large backyard that they can run around in.

Bike commute deal, nothing special.  It's been very windy lately, especially on the trip home.  Like sustained 25mph headwinds, it's brutal.  Typically my average speed is around 18mph but this takes it down to 16mph and it's a struggle.  I think it's suppose to calm itself later this week.  I had to stop at the grocery store on the way home and it was like old lady obstacle course.  It took me forever to get to the things I need and make my way to the check out, 

I haven't been sleeping as much as I should be.  It's a combination of all my stress plus Ralphie.  He's our 9 month old Eskie mix.  We got him at 8 weeks old to be a companion to our 6 month older lab.  He's got a great personality and only has one bad habit.  He wakes up between 6 and 6:15am everyday regardless of anything.  You could run him for hours the day before and he'd be barking at the door to go out the next morning.  The only time I've slept past 7am since we got him was the day he was at the kennel, it's brutal some days but maybe he'll grow out of it. 

Bike commute, luckily no headwind on the way home.

Ran with Sadie before work.  I could not do the bike commute today becasue one of my friends just defended her PhD thesis and we are going to dins after work.  I didn't wear a watch but I imagine it was around a 9min pace.  It took Sadie about a 1/2 mile to calm down but after that she was a perfect running partner.

Also, yesterday was the first day I am below 200# since I started weighing myself in mid May (209#).  I'm guessing some of it is water weight because I saw a little spike in BF% on my Tanita scale.  It's a pretty good way to monitor your hydration status in addition to BF%.  Long-term trends are BF while daily fluctuations are water balance changes.  I should probably try to drink more water after dinner