End of Week 6 and a Smoker!

Today I finished my sixth week of running. I thought for sure Monday's run was going to kill me after the performance last week. This week started 5 min runs with 1 min walks. Surprisingly I was able to make it through with more energy than I would have thought! I have been eating more regularly, so maybe at was it?

The runs got progressively easier on me as the week progressed. Of course the runs are generally hardest on Mondays, easiest on Wed, and somewhere in between on Friday. I am beginning to think though that it might also be better if I run later in the day. It is hard not to feel a bit run down all day after a run. I would prefer that feeling before going to bed. In addition I would feel like I'm burning off the days meals more. I might try that a night or two next week. Am just worried the gym will be packed! We'll see, maybe I will pick an evening where the weather is cool so if the gym is packed I can just run outside instead.

Onto other news, I put together my new smoker last night! It is a Brinkmann Limited Edition Trailblazer. This is an offset smoker and a step up from their intro level smokers which has much thinner gauge steel. It's still not pro level as those get pretty expensive, but I am happy with it as I consider it a nice step up. Been reading online about modifications people make to their offset smokers, will probably do some of the same.

Am writing this tonight while I'm curing it for the first time. I made it's place out on my lower deck. It is on a concrete slab, I figured that was the safest place. I do have the deck above, a fireman probably wouldn't like to see that, but it is about 10 ft up or higher. No flames are getting close to that. I sprayed the inside down with grilling cooking oil, which is a vegetable oil, and am now seeing how well I can control the temperature.

I went to Home Depot this afternoon and picked up a chimney starter, and some natural lump charcoal. This was the first time I've used either, I set my chimney started in the grill, filled it up with charcoal (first mistake, might have filled too much), put some newspaper underneath and lit it up. After a few minutes that thing was popping, and burning up a good storm. I realized then I wasn't sure how long I should keep it in there! I decided once I saw flames coming up through the top that would be good. Unfortunately by that time more little embers were popping off making it hard to grab. Is wasn't going well.

In a single motion I grabbed it, and dumped the contents into the firebox of the grill. However my motion was not so fluent, and it all didn't come out. As it started getting hot, I then dropped the chimney starter. Good thing I was on concrete! Only a few little coals came out, I picked it up and dumped the rest in. My new chimney starter has a small dent in it, but that will be a lesson I won't soon forget.

Lesson one, don't fill chimney starter all the way up! Not needed, just need some hot coals to start as they will light the others in the firebox. Second, get some protective gloves to be safe! That starter gets hot, need to be safer. Third lesson is something I just read online which indicates natural lump charcoal burns hotter, so don't fill the firebox up because you need less. Good to know, I suspect I will be tending to this thing for several hours tonight now based on the amount I put in.

I am tracking temperatures now seeing how good it does. The temp gauge that came with it on the top says it is at 300 degrees. That would be too hot for smoking. However I put my digital thermometer on the grill surface in the center right below, and it is showing 220! Glad I tested. I moved it over towards the opening of the firebox, and that was over 300, too hot. Now I have it on the opposite side near the stack, and it is about 220 as well. Looks like the left two thirds of the grill is where I want to be.

Some people modify their grills a few ways I've been reading. Some people put ,ore thermometers on the lid closer to the grill surface spanning from left to right to better monitor surface cooking temps. Another one is installing a heat deflector where the firebox meets the grill. This dissipates the heat more evenly reducing the hot spot. Some people line the bottom with firebricks wrapped in foil. This is so the bricks absorb the heat, and conduct it more evenly and help the grill avoid temperature fluctuations. I suspect with the thinner gauge steel cookers that is more needed, what I have seems to be holding pretty steady so I will hold on that one. Oh, they put foil around the bricks I think for easier cleaning as the drippings from the food above would fall onto them.

Some people also need to fill in gaps on the grill to better control the air flow. Mine doesn't seem to be leaking much, but there are a few places in the firebox which could probably use some filling. However since I'm able to hold 220 degrees, not sure I need to mess with it.

Tomorrow I will make a brisket, and a rack or two of ribs. The cooking surface is huge which is awesome. After today's cure we should be good to go! Looking forward to some great food, hopefully the weather will participate. I think it might rain some tomorrow which would be a downer, but maybe we will get lucky.

Until next time....

Into Week 5

Didn't post anything last week, so I will summarize. Last week was to be a recovery week, so the runs were light. I thought I would try to run outside on Memorial Day. Was apprehensive as last time I ran outside my knee pain started. Plus, it seems odd always running inside. We are cooped up all winter, just seems a shame to not go outside.

Here's where my mistake was, don't run at 12:30pm on a really hot day in a dark t-shirt and dark shorts. My heart rate went up quickly into the run, I thought at first it was my pace because I was excited to be outside. Maybe it started that way, but the heat took over shortly after. I ended up only doing 30 min of a 40 min workout, and there was a bit more walking than planned. Learned a lesson though, pick a better time of day to run!

The rest of the week I ran indoors on the treadmill. However I started another bad habit, not eating right. In addition I was not sleeping well for some reason. All of this caught up to me on Monday.

Monday was back to the heavy runs. Now the walk breaks have been reduced to one minute intervals. I completed the run ok, was pretty tired though and got my heart too high. After the run was the real issue, I felt like I was run over by a truck, just completely drained. In addition I was irritable all day, hard to focus, tired, no energy. I started eating right again on Monday, breakfast, lunch, snack 1, snack 2, and dinner. Am not starving my body resources. Yesterday I felt a bit better, ate well again. Today was a run day, and am feeling so much better all around.

I suppose if the computers are right, I am burning 500-700 calories a workout. I cannot short myself calories, and I need to eat regularly. I also need to keep on the water. I've been straying a bit from drinking 64 oz. Back on that too.

The frustrating thing for me now are a couple of things. I would think after 5 weeks of running, I would have lost some weight. Still the same! Every theory is floating around my head right now. Maybe I'm adding muscle while losing fat, so the scale sees no difference. Maybe I starved myself in bad eating, which ironically means the meals I eat end up going to fat for reserves. Who know, I guess I will know better after I focus on eating better.

My other frustration is that I am having trouble keeping my heart rate down. I know they say it takes time for your heart to strengthen, and it is really too soon. However it is making it tough to work out right. I have to keep slowing my speed down to keep my heart rate down. Way back when I started this program I was jogging at 6.0 mph, then down to 5.5, then 5.3, now am at 5.0! I feel like I'm taking steps backwards, however I do seem to be able to run more at a single time now than I could before.

All can do is keep on it. I suspect I'm at that time where I will be turning a corner here soon in the next few weeks where I am able to do more easily. Oddly enough motivation is not an issue, it is a routine now so I just do it. However I am ready to start to feel and see some results. We'll see how it goes I guess!

Another Week Down

Today concluded Week three of my running program. This was a week of a couple of tests. First, could I maintain my program while traveling for business? Second, would my knee make it through the week? Both answers are yes. I had no issues keeping to the program, in fact coming West this week helped because I was naturally up earlier anyway. As for my knee, it seems to be holding up just fine. I did take some Advil this week at night before bed a few nights to be safe as I felt a little something in my left knee, but by each morning I was good.

Am looking forward to a long weekend this weekend, am really craving some downtime. Heather will be studying for her CFA most weekend, so I will try to knock out house projects. Looks like we will have some good weather which is great news.

Onto Week 3!

Today I started week 3 of the 13 week run/jog program. It was a difficult one with 3 minutes of jogging, 2 minutes of walking, and repeat 10 times. First, I need to say my energy levels struggled towards the end of this one. I had my heart rate up too much again, and I really had to push myself to complete. I need to back down the speed that I'm jogging at because it is wearing me out too quickly. It was less of an issue with the shorter runs, but now it is different.

Second, my left knee was acting up again. It wasn't painful, and I could run on it ok, and walk on it ok too, however it felt a little weak and a little sore. I've got to really rest it properly if I'm not going to derail my effort. Either I have a magical 3 week mark with my knee, as this is when it was started hurting last time, or it is just a coincidence. The difference this time is I will take advil at night before bed, ice it, and rest it as much as possible. Wednesday's run is a much lighter one, so I'll see how that goes. If it is sore again, I'm not going to mess around and will rest it, and probably go see a doctor. I might even have my shoes checked out, maybe I need something with more support.

Other than all that I feel good I completed the workout. In total I covered about 3.8 miles today. Not a fast pace, but still progress. My watch indicated I burned 801 calories! That seems pretty extreme, but I have felt pretty wiped since, so maybe I did. After I immediately went out and got a meatball sub. I felt I needed something with protein. Maybe not the healthiest of protein options at my disposal, but I think I needed it given how hard I worked out.

Am writing this tonight on my flight to Vegas. Killing time here before we land, still another 45 minutes away. Bad movie on today's flight, good thing I brought my own,

So this last weekend brought another adventure, the dryer died. We were challenged with what to do...do you replace both the washer and dryer? Or just replace the broken unit? Fortunately I don't think this was a tough one to think through. Both were 13 years old, and were pretty entry level models. We decided to replace both.

After looking around in a few stores, and online research, we ended up going with LG units. Then came working out the best deal. Home Depot had them on sale, as did Sears, Abt was about the same price, however Best Buy did not have them on sale. I wanted to order them through Best Buy so I could get the reward points. I figured out the best prices, and went to the closest Best Buy, asked if they price matched something from Home Depot or Sears (which I knew they would), and no questions asked they gave me the best price. I was feeling really good about myself, thinking I got the best deal, until the next day. I checked online on Sunday, and Best Buy put my models on sale for an even better price! Fortunately they have a price guarantee so we got another $50 off everything, but it did take the wind out of my negotiating sale.

New appliances arrive on Saturday! They have nice new features, are high efficiency units, can steam things, I think we are going to be pleased as this is a real step up. By the way, did you know to get any color washer or dryer it is about $100 more per unit than if you just get white? I found that fascinating, we went with white, they live in a closet.

Well, I think we started our initial decent. Am going to wrap this for now, will drop another note after the workouts this week to see if my knee held up, or if I'm back on injured reserve.

One Week Down

I've officially hit two marks this week. The first mark is the completion of Week One of my running program. Sounds pretty straight forward, but here is the thing. I started this three times now, so running the Week Two program will be new. Now the reasons for the three times a charm is not due to lack of commitment, in fact quite the opposite. The first time I started this program I started on a Wed. That was just silly as it is three runs a week, so after two runs I started over that next Monday to get on track. By that Friday, my knee was wasted, thus stopping the progress. This bring me to now, and tomorrow marks my first venture into Week Two.

The other mark I hit was breaking a weight barrier. I had been hovering at this one weight, never going below since I started and got injured. This weekend I broke that mark. I feel progress is at hand. At this rate I should be in a new set of 10's in weight class by sometime next week.

Now onto other things, last week I also completed my class for my PMP Prep Exam. That completed my classroom hours requirement, so now I only need to submit my credentials to PMI, then study and pass the exam, and I'll have my PMP certification. The studying so far is going well, been memorizing all of the processes. Am about 1/3 of the way through having them committed to memory, then onto the formulas. Once I get all the material I can brain dump in the test down I'll focus on more detail study of meaning. I already have a comfort there, so memorizing PMI's verbiage is the priority right now. I anticipate being able to take the exam by the end of June.

Am going to keep it simple tonight in this post. Tomorrow starts workout number two in running program, and more memorization for PMP. Onto tomorrow...

Running Again!

Today was a big day, the day to test the knee out again. It hasn't felt sore for some time, and it stopped getting tired and stiff last week. This last weekend I had a lot of walking around to do, so I thought if I made it through that ok, I would give running a try today. Waking all weekend went well!

Today I started my 13 week program from week 1 and workout 1 over again. It is meant to start you slow with 1 min of jogging, and 2 min of walking, you then repeat this for 36 min. All week it will be this pattern, where only the length of the workout varies. This time I'm doing it all on a treadmill for at least the first several weeks. Then when I want to go outside I will find a softer surface than concrete to try running on. Eventually I suspect my knees and legs will get in good enough shape to run on any surface, but I will take it slow to get there.

Today was 2.89 miles in all, felt like I had a lot of energy, however I had my heart rate up too high. Hit a little over 170 at it's peak which is a bit too much. I felt like I had a ton of energy though, so it was hard slowing up.

Next run will be on Wed. Am back on it, and feeling pretty good about it.

Almost Ready to Run Again

I had to concede that my knee needed rest. Two weeks ago I could hardly walk, so I took a break from all exercise to heal. After one full week of rest, my knee felt better, but it was still tender and I was aware of it at all times. If I stayed on it for more than a couple of minutes it would start to get uncomfortable.

Into this week, I flew to Vegas on Monday. Lots of airport walking, sitting on an airplane for a long flight, more long airport walks, car rental center, etc.... It was pretty sore earlier in the week, I felt I took a step back at the end of my travel day and was worried I overdid it again. I took my compression wrap with me, which helped from time to time. Outside of that I rested it as much as possible, took Advil before bed, and that seemed to work, so much so on Wed I went to the gym and worked out on the cycle without any real knee discomfort.

Today is Friday, I had two flights today, walked all around airports, but am feeling much better. Now I did take some Advil earlier in the day, so it is possible I still have some of that in my system. If I had to put a scale on it all, two weeks ago my knee was at 30%, start of this week we were up to 75%, today am feeling 95%. Tomorrow I am going to ride the cycle again and see how I feel on Sunday. I am hopeful that come Monday I can try a light treadmill workout again, but I'm not going to unless it feels 100%, and there is no tenderness even to touch.

More to come soon on my journey to becoming a runner...

Testing New iPad App

I haven't posted anything in ages. I've been quite neglect in my duties as we have travelled places. Last fall we went to the big island Hawaii. This weekend we just got back from Seattle for Sam and Laura's wedding. I did a lot of flying last year, I actually hit 1K status on United. Point being I went places, yet I wrote nothing. For that I apologize and will refocus my on the road efforts to write updates. In addition I have decided to start to log my new challenge in life, running/jogging.

I must confess I hate to run. Not so much that running itself is an issue, but being out of breath for long periods of time is just very uncomfortable. I've been trying to get back in shape in general, and wasn't feeling like I was making good progress, so I decided to tackle the one exercise I have always avoided. I knew I would feel like I worked out if I ran.

I believe when i started this effort, which was about 4 weeks ago, I made all the mistakes you can. I put on my old running shoes, went to the gym, jumped on the treadmill, and started. I knew better than to just jump into a run, so I started by walking a 1/4 mile, then moved on to running as far as I could. I figured i'd maybe squeak out a mile. I wasn't even close. I made it a little under 1/2 mile, and was very out of breath, and felt like throwing up. I backed off and went back to a walk. After I regained my breath, I started running again. That didn't last too long. When it was over I was able to log a good 45 min between walking and running.

I gave myself a rest day, then went back on Wed and tried again, this time with a new strategy. Walk 1/4 mile, then run 1/4 mile, then repeat. My goal was to ultimately cover two miles, where I ran 1 mile of it. Didn't pan out that way. After the third cycle I took my pulse, which was at 185! There was that feeling of throwing up again too. I ended up trying to run that last 1/4 mile, but couldn't finish it, so I walked the rest of my workout.

After another day of rest, I decided to give it another go. I figured for sure I would be able to finish that mile this time. I felt pretty good, was not sore, mentally was ready. I did the same routine by breaking up walking and running. However it was not meant to be, I hit the same wall, pulse again at 185.

I decided after that run that I needed to learn more about my pulse, that number seemed high. After some reading, I realized that is very high. This began my journey to learn how to run properly. Learning that most people make these same mistakes was encouraging to hear, and that most people get turned off from running because they push themselves too hard initially as their body isn't used to it. I learned all about heart rates as well, and the different zones I should be exercising in.

First thing to address, the equipment. My old running shoes were too old and worn out, so I went after a shoe built for flat footed people with more support. That seemed the right shoe based on what I read. I also purchased a Polar running watch with heart monitor and gps, was a good price at Best Buy, and many articles I read said they are worth it, especially as they are so affordable. The watch is a great tool as it uploads my workout data straight to my running log online. Lastly, picked up the right clothes. Today's shirts and socks can pull the moisture away well and are comfortable. Plus I always believe in looking the part! Now I have my gear, am ready to go.

I adopted a new running workout based on a book I read for beginners to running. It starts very slow where you run 1 min, then walk 2 min, and repeat for anywhere from 27 to 36 min. I started running this routine on Wed morning when I was in Vegas on travel. There is a road right next to the hotel which was perfect for me to run up and down as it was mostly a service road with no traffic. I had read running on asphalt was better than concrete, so I ran the road. Though I still managed to get my heart rate up a bit too high on the workout. I learned that I can control that by the pace I run. Workout number 1 of the new routine all in all went well.

I ended up not running on Friday as I felt I overdid things on Wed. After work on Wed I went out and played tennis, made my shins a bit sore. Plus it was very windy outside in Vegas, and it would be nice on Saturday in Chicago. I decided to run on Saturday.

It was a fantastic day on Saturday, and I was going to run my neighborhood. It was a great run I felt, I completed the second workout in the new routine. As the day progressed I started getting stiff in the knees. This is where my trouble began.

On Monday morning I decided to start the program over from the top because I wanted to start each workout week on Monday, and was off that schedule. My legs and knees were a little tender so I decided to run indoors on the treadmill. I was a little sore running, but I made it through the workout. Later that day my legs and knees were very sore.

It is here I should point out that when I was a kid I was pretty flat footed, and my legs below my knees would get very sore after running around the soccer field. After that time I started wearing insoles with arch supports in my shoes. I did that until Jr. High, then just wore shoes without special insoles with no issues. The soreness I felt on Saturday reminded me of that leg pain when i was very young. However on Monday I felt more muscular soreness around my knee. I was actually encouraged by this because I was worried my feet would need arch supports to run, and the muscle soreness on Monday told me I was probably ok. Not so much though.

Cut to Wed, I walked to the gym and then ran, then walked home. That run actually hurt, I knew I should have stopped shortly into it, but didn't want to admit defeat. After this point. I started walking with a limp, and I couldn't put all my weight on my knee. Thursday I was hobbling around and started to wear a knee brace. I also started to ice my knee, and sit with it elevated.

Onto Friday, I knew I couldn't run, but thought I would ride the cycle to get my heart into my workout zone. I was able to ride ok, my knee was a little stiff initially, then was good to workout. I felt pretty good on Friday. Then Saturday came and I ended up making some mistakes for my knee. By the way, it is my left knee. I was on my feet almost all day, and was taking Advil all day because my knee was hurting. I was at my brother-in-laws wedding, so I had to be on my feet a lot. I probably shouldn't have taken the Advil because it masked the pain, and I was probably injuring it more and not realizing it. I woke up on Sunday and my left knee was swollen, and I could hardly walk on it.

From this point on I've been doing my best to stay off my feet. I've been icing my knee periodically, and always sitting with it up. When working this week I've either had my leg kicked up on my desk, or I'm working with my laptop on my lap on the sofa in my office with my knee up. I've been trying to walk as little as possible.

Today is Tuesday, and the sharper pains have subsided, however it still hurts. I am very aware of pressure on my knee, and generally there is always a dull ache. It is much better than Sunday, but I am still hobbling around. Needless to say I have decided to take this week off from exercise to heal. My only debate now is if I should see the doctor. I'm going to see how my knee progresses this week before I make the call to see the doctor, but I suspect I will end up there when all said and done.

Well that is the current tale of my running. I am bummed that I have lost my momentum in learning to run. I was in a good mental place where I enjoyed the challenge. I am confident I will be able to get to that same place, but it doesn't make now any easier.

I will post more as I heal and get back on the road. Am signing off, time to take the ice off the knee!