Weekend

Well, it was a pretty normal weekend, did not do any running, was up late last night with my son and me and the wife argued some because we both have different views on how we should put him back to sleep. That's another story altogether. My kids were dedicated on my church tonight, it was nice but they messed up on the slide show when they called our name and only had my oldest daughters name.

I need to get back on track on Monday with my running, I think last week with the softball game, it really threw me off and really made me sore for most of the week. I did not feel like jogging or doing anything for that matter, I was exhausted.

Have a good run..

Bad week

Well, I had a bad week in working out. I think the 2 softball games that I did on Monday really wore me out this week. I did not get out to run on since Tuesday but I will see about tonight and tomorrow morning. Below is this weeks meet with the LR running group.

This Saturday we will be meeting at the River Market in downtown Little Rock at 6 am. The scheduled distances are: 3 miles (marathon build up), 4 miles, 6 miles, and 8 miles. Directions: We meet at the corner of the River Market where Boulevard Bread is located - the corner of President Clinton BLVD and Commerce.

I did get out and mow the back yard yesterday, so I did get out some oversize.

Wed Run

Well, I ran my lap around the lakes and runkeeper messed up. After getting back to the computer it said that I ran 22 miles :-) I wish. I did move on to week to of the pod runners interval couch to 5k pod cast. I noticed that the jogging part was a little faster and a little longer. I am glad that I got the run out of the way, and now I can enjoy the rest of my day working and with my family.

I found these 7 tips on completerunning.com about breathing while running:

1. Try slowing down before attempting to change your breathing.
2. Focus on longer, deeper breaths.
3. Breath more from your diaphragm (belly) than your chest (chest breathing is more shallow).
4. Focus on exhaling more fully. This will remove more CO2 (Carbon Dioxide) and allow for deeper inhalations of O2 (Oxygen).
5. Allow air to enter through both the nose and mouth. This will allow for maximum O2 intake.
6. Aim to take three footsteps for every inhale, and two footsteps for every exhale (3:2 ratio). A good descriptions of this can be found on Military.com:

Many experts will say that to fully oxygenate the muscles and clear the body of carbon dioxide you should breathe a 3:2 inhale-to-exhale ratio; full inhales and full exhales. This means you INHALE on the LEFT, RIGHT, LEFT foot strikes and EXHALE fully on the RIGHT, LEFT foot strikes. This pattern is not that hard to turn into a habit, but it may require you to slow your pace down for a few runs to master the technique. You will notice a lower heart rate as you are able to get more oxygen in and more importantly push all the carbon dioxide out of your body. You may notice that you naturally drop to a 2:1 ratio when you are really pushing it to the finish. That is OK. But realize it is difficult to maintain a pace that requires you to breathe at a 2:1 ratio.

7. One last thing – try not to over-think your breathing! It’s best to try to slow down, relax, and let yourself fall into your body’s natural rhythm.

Yesterdays run

Well I was unable to run last night, my wife was not feeling good and it rained. I am trying to motivate myself to go during lunch, as of this post I will go home, change, jog my route, eat real quick and then go back to work. I have never done this before so it will be a learning experience. If it works, maybe it will motivate me to go during my lunch break at my daughters school track down the road.

I will let you know in a few hours ;-)

A Long Day

Well, this day is over and I am about to fall asleep. Work was busy and when I got home I cooked dinner and then went to play 2 back to back softball games. Luckily it was my last game of the season. I did not get a chance to run today but I think playing 2 softball games qualifies enough exercise.

Well, I am going to begin budgeting, not that we absolutely need it but I want to really start saving and get those things that I really want. My wife wants to get a new washer and drying and I want to be able to get it for her, but I can't because I know that we can't afford it. I need new components for my computer but again, I know that right now money is tight and we really can't afford it. One day though I will get it !!

I have been taking a multivitamin in the mornings, and I believe that it has been giving me that little extra kick, because today I came home and ate lunch and after wards, instead of just sitting and watching TV, I vacuumed the floor, picked up toys and moved the patio table back to its position on the deck.

What do you think, the multivitamins giving me that kick?

The wife and I are going to start planing out our meals, so if there is anyone out there that has some suggestions on planing a weeks meal please let me know. In the meantime, I will do some research and find out what I can do to plan out a weeks worth of meals ahead of time. It will be a challenge.

Deck

Well, as promised, here is the deck, before, during and after.





I have to do some touch up work and some of the stain was no even on some of the boards, but all in all, pretty good job if I don't say so myself. The sad thing is that I ran out of stain, so there are areas that need to be restained or stained and I have to go buy another gallon to do it. I will prob only use a tenth of it.

I used Cabot simi-solid deck stain with tile red color, and everything I read it should last me for 2-4 years.

What you think?

A long day

Well, This day is about over, it is 1am and I am about done with my work. It all started today with me jogging my usual lap around the lake (stats are below) and then got hot and messy from there.

Me and the wife finally got around to finishing up our deck. I have been working to get the old stain removed, cleaned and re-stained for about 3 months now. It took 6 hours to stain the railing and about 1 hour for me to finish up the floor of the deck. All in all I think it looks good, but I will have to get one more gallon to do my touch up because we used up the 2 gallons that we got.

btw, it was 95 degrees today ;-)

My daughter came home today. I am glad that she is home, I missed her. Me and the wife have been keeping the house pretty clean since she was gone, now we have to let my daughter know that the house needs to stay clean and that she will have to pick up after herself. She is about to turn 5 in October, is that asking too much?

I will get some pics of the deck up over the next few days. I will have a before and after.

2.34 miles
16.16 pace
3.69 Avg speed
363 Calories burned

I will be resting tomorrow.