Getting into Shape -- 02/21/01

Last year -- in late June -- I decided that it was well past time to take action to lose weight and get into shape. I started out at 206 -- eight months ago -- and over the course of three months I managed to drop fourteen pounds. (Well, looking back at some of last year's journal entries I can find a weight chart on Sept. 16th showing me at 193... however, memory tells me that I hit 192 but I don't have time to search every entry trying to find documentation of that fact.)

My regular workouts were becoming somewhat irregular as summer became autumn and daylight drained away... When I was in Norway in late September I ran two or three miles each morning but I think that was the end of any daily running schedule... and by the time actual winter set in I was barely running once or twice a week... Needless to say, as I lost conditioning I gained weight... No, I didn't put it all back on but I did gain far more than enough.

Okay... so I'm back up to 200... Yeah, fourteen off and then eight back on...

But now I have my treadmill... Monday afternoon I jogged two miles on the treadmill... I start out walking, gradually increasing the pace until I reach a ten minutes per mile pace (6 mph) -- I start counting my running distance once I reach that pace -- I gradually increase the pace until I'm doing around a nine minute per mile pace and then, as I get near the two mile mark, I bring it back down to a ten minute pace and then slow it down to a walk for a cool down. (So doing a two mile run means I actually cover between two and a quarter and two and a half miles if the warm up and cool down parts were to be included.) When I was using treadmills at the Y on a regular basis I might start measuring my run at a ten minute per mile pace but would increase the speed until I was running much faster, maybe eight minute pace, sometimes throwing in a quarter mile or so at a 7:30 pace. I'll be doing a bit of work before I get myself back into that condition. (I always have to remind myself that I was eighteen years younger when I started running for fun and exercise... when I fail to keep that fact in mind, my body is quick to remind me.) Four years ago, running some one mile runs with Jennifer, I did a few 6:50 miles... *sigh* once upon a time (when I was in my 40's) I could do a 6:20 mile and had dreams of breaking six even if only I could find the time to do some real speed training... now I think I'll be happy if I can break a seven minute mile this summer. (In the fastest 5k I ever ran I averaged a 6:59 pace for three point one miles.... long ago...)

Two miles on Monday, two miles yesterday, go for two more today, the same on Thursday and Friday... and maybe (what's the weather going to be like?) running outside on the weekend....

So... I have goals -- I want to lose twenty pounds by mid-July -- but more than just losing weight I also want to get into shape -- to get into good physical condition -- good muscle tone (by lifting weights) and good aerobic conditioning (by running and biking).

I think that I will go back to posting a weight loss boxscore. Last year I tended to do that in my Saturday postings... that assumes, of course, that I update often enough that I would have a Saturday entry. Hmmm, I'll have to think about that. I suppose I could put it on the index page....
One year ago today I was talking about getting a new laptop at work. It came with 64Mb of RAM but I needed more so a few weeks later I upgraded it to 288Mb (32 on motherboard plus two 128's); today I can't use it for some of the stuff I teach because the minimum recommended memory size for the latest software release is now up to 384Mb with a recommended standard size of 512Mb (which is what we have in our newer classroom machines).

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