Milestone Day: 50.2 pounds!

Today marks another milestone - 50.2 pounds. It's flour time. Took a little longer to get to the fifth bag of flour. I think a number of things need to be taken into consideration on why it took a little longer to hit the next milestone. But considering we went through the Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's Holidays, and during the holiday window, I only gained 0.6 pounds. I have to consider that a win. To have enjoyed the feasts of the holidays, in moderation, and basically come out at the weight I went into them, that's a win.

During the past month I also made a couple of other changes. First one is that I started the C25K - Couch to 5K - program in an attempt to become a "runner". My goal, to run my first 5K in mid March. The second is that I started strength training on January 3rd. Don't know if that has had any impact on the slow down in my progress, but I do know it is making a big difference in how my clothes fit. So while the pounds aren't coming off as quick as they did during the first 40 pounds, the inches are. The Wellness Zone on the Best Buy campus has a fitness contest called Drop it Like it's hot. I signed up for it. It's a 12 week contest. Next week is the 6 week check in and I am very curious to see how things have changed in 6 weeks.

Next week marks 6 months of Project David 2.0. It's been an amazing journey so far. Hard to imagine what can happen during the remaining 5 months of this project. I know I can't wait to find out!

I'm running? What's up with that? It's about the shirt.

I've never been a runner (well, there was soccer in junior high), and I never planned to be one. Of course I never planned on Project David 2.0. That all changed 4 weeks ago when I decided I was going to run a 5K before my project goal date, my next birthday.

4 weeks ago I started the C25K - Couch to 5K - program. I had seen tweets about it, and decided to check it out. The concept, for those that are not familiar with this program, is a running program that takes you from the couch, or a non-runner, and in 9 weeks gets you ready to run a 5K or 30 minutes non stop. Since I've been walking 60+ minutes a night since the end of September I jump straight to week 2 of the program. My wife asked me why I wanted to run since I've never shown any interest. Told her it was about the shirt. You always get a shirt when you participate in a 5k. The real reason was that I wanted to shorten the amount of time I have to spend on the treadmill each night, so I needed much a faster pace. I was already walking at 4.2 miles per hour, so I was going to have to start running. Tonight was workout of 2 week 5:

00:00-5:00: Warmup walk

5:00-13:00: Run

13:00-18:00: Walk

18:00-26:00: Run

26:00-30:00: Cooldown Walk

I continue my usual walking for another 30-40 minutes beyond the C25K program. I don't have the speed there yet. More focused on actually being able to sustain a run. I figure the speed will come once I can reach a sustained 30-40 minute run. So far in a combined run/walk on a treadmill, I can cover a 5K in 42 minutes. That's with 16 minutes of running in that 42 minute window. The next workout, on Friday is a 20 minute run. Crossing my fingers that I'll be able to make it!! In a little over 3 weeks I'm supposed to be at a 30 minute run. That will be amazing. My first goal will be to run a 5K in under 40 minutes. There are two in St. Paul around St. Patrick's Day, and I am thinking that maybe that will be my first. I think I need to commit to that in the next week before they close registration.

So that's my story and I'm sticking to it - another goal added to continuing to be successful Project David 2.0.