West Palm Beach

I ended up missing the New Year's Eve
5k in Stow because my quads and hammies were still rebelling from the
Saturday 50k. They vetoed the brain and ego which were yelling at me to
get off my ass and go run the little 5k. I am glad I made the decision
although I missed out seeing a bunch of friends who were likely there.

Back
on the road now, a whole day later, my legs have gone from weak and
sore to feeling strong and ready to launch. I ended up in West Palm Beach tonight so an airport circuit seemed in order. I first went down to the exercise room and did the following:

5 curls each arm - 50#
15 curls each arm - 35#

25 inverse situps

30 pushups
15 curls each arm - 40#
25 leg lifts
20 toe touches
20 more inverse situps

I
felt really good after this and headed out on the run. The thoughts
going through my mind were that I am on the journey to make sure I can
have my shirtless summer. I felt really revved up prior to the run, and
I have read in some exercise magazine that lifting weights before a
cardio workout or run, increases overall fat loss!

I
wore my watch and started it at the start of the run, but swore to
myself not to push the pace too hard and just enjoy the run. I got off
and as always it took about two miles to warm up and get into it. About
a mile and a half in it occurred to me that there was very little
traffic out both due to the hour (12:30 am) and the holiday, so I
decided to say screw it, and start my shirtless "summer" early. I
whipped off the green and felt awesome! The stars were out in between
the columns of moonlit cirroform clouds above, and my senses were in
overdrive. I was listening to a new band for me, called Underworld, and
the sprinklers on the grass in the median were blending into the music
like a background score. I snuck past the pit bull that always barks at
me around mile 1.2 or so without waking him as I ran with "ninja feet."

The temp was in the low 60's but since I am acclimated to our
winter back home, it felt great to me! I did the 6.14 mile run in
somewhere around 59 minutes. I started pretty easy, but as I felt
better and better, I just kept cranking it up without realizing it. I
actually had stopped my watch when I stopped to remove my shirt and
forgot to restart it, so the total time is just a guess. I am going to
get back to running treadmill miles at The Pace as soon as I hit a
colder climate. While it is warm, I want to enjoy the chance to run
outside.

Not the prettiest shot, but I wanted to prove I was bare to the air!

Now
part of the other reason I was proud of myself tonight is that when I
got in to my hotel room, I was going to order a pizza for dinner, and
as I sat on hold with Papa John's I thought about what I really wanted,
and hung up. My calories were pretty low today. I had the breakfast
meal service in First Class on my flight down, probably about 400
calories altogether, it was very light. Then at lunch time I had a rice
dish with some beef strips on top, and a mini salad on the side. I did
have one cookie at the airport prior to leaving for the hotel, so I
would guess my total calories for the whole day were around 1700, which
is a touch low for me, but a good start. I should be shooting for
around 1850-1900 calories for my optimum fat loss without losing my
muscle tissue.

*Sensophoric - my way of combining sensory euphoria into one word. I claim the copyright to the word as of this blog post!