Weekly Update #11

Last week was the slowest in months. Last Friday I woke up with pain between my back and chest. Felt as if I had pulled something. I had some trouble moving and breathing at times. 

Monday my friend and I went out for an easy walk at Deer Island, 2.7 miles. We jogged up some hills, but we walked most of the peninsula. 

Friday I went out on the bike and completed 25 miles. My body was complaining for the last 10 miles. Saturday I was feeling pretty damn sored. I suppose it’s to be expected when I took a full week off from the bike. 

The good news is that my chest and back pain are gone.

Saturday my brother and I decided to take the boat on the water for a couple of hours. The sea was pretty damn choppy for some reason, but it was lots of fun. 

Lucas is home! Vero, Jose and Lucas left the hospital on Tuesday evening. 

That’s pretty much the week. 

Some of the issues that have risen can be discouraging but I have to make sure to remind myself why I’m trying to get healthy in the first place and push myself when I’m down to keep going.

Thanks for reading. 

Padrino

So it’s Monday, August 15, 2016. Lucas Oliver says hello to this world and brings so much joy to our family. I wish every baby came to this world the way Lucas did. Everyone in the family from his mom and dad side were so excited for his birth.  

He is a big boy, measuring 21 inches and weighing in at 9 pounds and 8 ounces. And it was a natural birth. God bless you Vero. Both Mum and Baby are doing great. Jose, my brother and baby’s father is so happy and proud. I know both of you are great parents and Lucas is fortunate to have you both in his life. 

I feel honored to have been asked to be Lucas’ godfaher. Lucas, I promise to love you as a father. 

Lucas welcome to our family. We love you so much and can’t wait to play with you and see you grow. We’re lucky to have you in our lives.

Weekly Update #10

I feel the week flew by too quickly. Work was pretty hectic and before I knew it it was Friday. 

This week was didn’t meet my desired goal of 4+ activities a week. I only went out on the bike on Tuesday and Thursday. Both days I rode the 27 miles course. Although on Thursday I only intended to do 20 miles but my GPS took me through the 27 miles instead. Both courses are the same for the first 10 miles, then they splits in the middle of the forest.

Saturday was a lot of fun. I had a school reunion at an amusement park. I got to go on some fun rides with my son and some old friends. 

I intended to do another biking session on Sunday morning but plans changed. A problem I’ve had this week is insomnia. After my run of shame I couldn’t fall asleep until 4:30am. Monday I went to work on two hours of sleep. On Saturday I also had a hard time going to sleep. I think it wasn’t until 3am when I finally fell asleep. So Sunday morning I slept in instead.

Today I’ve been on baby stand by. My sister in-law, Vero, and my brother Jose went to the hospital at 2am because she was having contractions. It’s almost 10pm and baby Lucas doesn’t want to come out yet. I’m currently at the hospital and hope that she has a safe birth soon.

On Friday morning I woke up with a pain on the right side of the back which hurt a lot when I breath or eat. I think I either slept the wrong way or pulled something. It has gotten better over the past two days. If it doesn’t go away I will go see a doctor and make sure it’s nothing serious. 

Throughout the week I’ve been rolling and icing my foot in an attempt to get rid of my plantar fasciitis once and for all. It definitely has gotten better. The pain is back to the way it was a week ago. 

This coming week I need to do better and get more active. I’ll also start to be more careful with what I eat. I’ve been neglecting my diet for a while now. I want to look better in two weeks. I’ve been asked to be a judge at a beauty pageant 😎

That’s it for now.  Hope you had a great weekend and look forward to the new week. 

I didn’t run or jog this week

I blame my dress shoes for the pain I was experiencing on my heel. According to my coworkers I have ‘plantar fasciitis’. I had to look up what the heck it was.

Plantar fasciitis refers to irritation of the plantar fascia where it attaches to the heel bone and runs along the bottom of the foot — Google

Still means nothing to me!

I decided to change my strategy. I wanted to rest my heel but I didn’t want to stop.

Soooo my solution: walk ALOT this week!

Monday here in the US we celebrated Memorial Day. I tried my normal routine and jog along the beach. I did my normal 30 min couch to 5k program. Then i kept walking along the entire length of Revere Beach, total I walked 5.5 miles.

Tuesday my heel was bothering me more than the days before. I tried walking for a while. It just happened I need to go to the Apple Store to look at my phone, the battery has been acting up. I also had to have my headphones replaced. I walked to the store. It’s only about 2.5 miles from my job.


It was a nice walk. Once I was done, I had the option to take the train to my car OR walk to my car which was a 5.5 mile walk from the store. I opted to walk to my car.

On Wednesday my heel was feeling a lot better.

My buddy Mike and I decided to go for a walk after work. We ended up walking for over two hours, 8.5 miles.

‘The Garden’ and the Zakim Bridge

Boston Skyline from East Boston and the Tobin Bridge

Legoland in Simerville

Thursday is when we, friends and family do our Pena 5K, but I skipped the running and had a leisurely walk around Boston instead. I walked with my Mike again. This time we walked around some newly developed areas around Boston. It was beautiful.

Piece of the Berlin Wall

Bunker Hill Monument in Charlestown

Friday I didn’t do anything. I had a chance to spend some time with family visiting from my country. We went bowling and played on the arcade. It was a lot of fun. Lastly I went over to my brother’s to help him setup for Saturday’s BBQ.

On Saturday we celebrated my sister law’s baby shower. The day was beautiful and the while thing turned out great.

This coming week I’m planning to get back to the normal routine.

Thanks for reading!

What’s Working for Me?

Changing old habits is extremely difficult. The only time I can claim I was ‘fit’ was during my last two years of High School. I was in the my school’s fútbol & track team; I also played on a local fútbol club outside of school; lastly I would roller blade everywhere!

When I was in school and physically active I would eat ALL kinds of junk food and it didn’t matter simply because I was young and involved in sports.

Upon graduating high school my physical activity also graduated to non-existent, but my diet stayed the same. Bad combination!

My weight gain was gradual for the first five years; then it just got out of control and before I knew it I was the heaviest I’ve ever been in my life!

I’m fortunate I didn’t have a life threatening experience that made me realize I had to change my life. One day I simply woke up and didn’t recognize myself in the mirror. It made me realize that if I’m still young; that I should get healthy; that I want to play with my grand children when the time comes; that I work hard to be financially stable as I get older, but being financially stable won’t help me if I’m dead.

Sooo here I am writing about the changes I’ve made and I’m planning to make in my life to turn old bad habits into new good habits.

Below are some of the things that are working for me.

Consistency -Since I’m in the early stages of working out/getting active, I’m trying to keep the momentum and motivation going by not missing more than one day between activities. If I jog or run and I’m tired the next day, then only walk and take it easy, but DO something.

Make Time – Time is our most precious resource. We all have responsibilities and a million other things that need to be done yesterday, but you’ll have to make time for your health and wellness. Perhaps don’t watch that one hour episode of that mediocre TV show; maybe you can drop a bad habit that consumes time and replace it with a better habit. I add ‘exercise/run/jog/walk’ to my calendar. It helps me to get mentally prepared. Lately it’s also getting me excited to plan what activity I’ll be doing later.

Music – Good tunes will go a long way. I love my reggaeton playlist. It helps me forget that I’m ‘working’. It helps me to keep a faster pace. It helps me stay active longer. I’ve also tried listening to audio books while I walk, it does the job.

Variety – I’m so extremely fortunate to be surrounded by so many places to run, job, or walk. Close to work I have the Rose Kennedy Greenway, Boston Common and Charles River. Close to my house I have the beach, parks, and walking trails.

Running Clothes & Shoes – I found that having running ‘outfits’ tell your brain it’s time to go. My ‘outfit’ – running shoes, socks, sweatpants, and sweater. Now that the weather is warm I’ve replaced the sweatpants with shorts and sweater with a dri-fit t-shirt. It’s a simple trick that gets me in the ‘get active’ mind frame.

Tracking Apps – I use three apps for different purposes. Runkeeper tracks my overall number of activities, total distance, and total time. Couch to 5K is slowly building my endurance, stamina and speed. Fitbit tracks my steps, stairs, and heart rate through out the day.

I have to note that an advantage to walking around Boston is that I’ve discovered some cool new areas around Beacon Hill. Here are a couple of pictures. 

Any suggestions or routines you use to get you going will be greatly appreciated.

 

Sunday night’s run sucked

Thursday nights is our ‘Pena 5K’ which is the 2.6 mile course in Deer Island. This week I was really happy as I reduced my time by two minutes from the previous week. Friday and Saturday I rested and I was feeling good. 

On Sunday I think I might had eaten a bit too much and it’s my day to run. So I coerced my brother to go on a night run with me, albeit I didn’t have to persuade him much. Perhaps I shouldn’t have rested two days between runs. 

I determined that I wanted to run the distance of a 5K for two reasons 1) I wanted to see where I am time wise and 2) I wanted to complete Runkeeper’s 5K challenge.

I’m also using the Couch to 5K App which gradually changes jogging length each week to get me to a 5K in 9 weeks. 

Sunday’s run was the start of week four and the intensity changes significantly.  There are two 5 minute jogging segments and two 3 minute jogging segments. The walking time is also reduced to only half of the jogging time, 2.5 and 1.5 minutes. 

After completing the Couch to 5K scheduled program, 31.5 minutes, I still had three quarters of a mile go! I was tired by this time but I decided to push myself and jog the last stretch. 

By the time I was finished I could barely lift my feet but I did it. My brother kept encouraging me to keep going and to push myself and I finished the 5K distance in 41 minutes and 17 seconds. Terrible time from where I want to be but now I have a base line. I only have to reduce my time by 11 minutes in the next two months to achieve my  goal of completing a 5K run under 30 minutes. Very doable 🙂

I was definitely hurting more than usual today but I guess some platitudes are in order such as “no pain, no gain” or “push harder today if you want a different tomorrow”. 

I am determined more than ever to change; become healthier, lose weight and have a better life. So, if I have to crawl while crying to make it happen I will do whatever it takes. 

Why am I doing this?

At the tender age of 19 years old I learned I was going to be a father. At that point I had two options; either man up and become a responsible adult OR be an absent father and let the mother raise the kid; she’d probably do an OK job.

I chose the former and get my life in track. I left my dead-end job to pursuit an educational opportunity which opened many doors and changed my life.

The educational opportunity was a one year program that trained me in IT for six months and I was placed in an internship for the second six months.

This was my first experience in a professional/office environment. It was all so foreign to me. I had to learn soft skills as well as the technical skills.

After the one year was up I was awarded a scholarship to a local college geared towards working adults and the classes are in the evenings.

The second year and the subsequent four years I was working full time during the day and going to college full time at night.

For the past 16 years I’ve been driven to succeed because I want to set a good example for my son and show him that it’s possible to work hard and achieve more than what’s expected of you.

I wanted to prove to him that his environment and zip code doesn’t determine his future.

In short, I wanted to make my son proud; I wanted him be proud of his old man; I also wanted to be financially secure to provide a better life and opportunities for him.

I’m glad to say that I’ve been able to do achieve these objectives.

Soooo… That’s a long introduction to why am I making this new life altering change AGAIN

Because I’m still young and I want to visit other countries; I want to enjoy life, I want to participate in all sort of activities and have adventures with a partner.

Because I want to play and spoil the hell out of my grand children when the time comes; I also want to spoil the hell out of my nephew who I’m looking forward to meeting in 3 months, love you already Baby Lucas!

Because the older you get the more health problems arise if you don’t take care of yourself. 

For the past 16 years I’ve been doing what I HAVE, which is not a bad thing. I always thought about my son before doing anything. I never stopped to think about what I WANT. In another two years my son will turn 18 and he doesn’t need me to be meddling in his life. I understand he will want to be independent. I will always be in his life but I need to think about what I want to do with my life when I don’t have to worry about my son as much anymore.

These are some of the reasons why I’m making changes in my life.

What has been the most significant change(s) you’ve under taken in your life?

Rest

The week  of May 9th I was active four days in a row, Monday through Thursday. On Thursdays we run our pseudo 5K, it’s actually 2.5 miles around a nice peninsula in Winthrop Massachusetts.

After Thursday’s run I was hurting more than usual. My body was telling I was overdoing it. One of my main concerns is that I’ll overdo it and get hurt or I’ll burn out. Then, I’ll have to start over again and I know how difficult this is… Aaaah!

I’m very proud of my progress and the changes I’ve made. I don’t want to stop or slow down my momentum.

On Thursday’s run I feel that I would have benefited from resting the day before. Next week’s goal will be to shave off at least a minute from my total time, currently over 36 minutes.

I rested for two days, Friday and Saturday. On Sunday I went for a 2.5 mile run close to my house and I didn’t feel terrible; I rested on Monday. On Tuesday I went for a run with my brother and felt better than Sunday’s run. Tuesday’s run was at the beautiful Breakheart Reservation which is a 640-acre hardwood forest with jagged, rocky outcroppings, two fresh-water lakes, and a rambling section of the Saugus River.

What all this means to me: HILLS! There are hills at this location. I hated going up the hills but I felt pretty good at the end. I plan to go to this location at least once a week.

I’m currently reading a book on being more productive and one of the main principles is to work smarter not harder. I intend to do apply this idea to running. I’ll be doing more research on running; technique; length of run; number of times per week, etc.

Running smarter not harder:

• Set goals [check]
• Get started and correct as you go along [check]
• Correcting; do the minimal amount of work for the optimal results [todo]

My first finding …

… skip a day between workouts to give your body time to rest and build muscle – RedBrick Health

What’s your experience with resting between running/exercising days?