It's Official!

Yes, the rumors are true! I am now officially registered for the Dopey! For those who don't know, that means that beginning Friday, January 11th through Sunday, January 13th, I will be running a 5K, a Half Marathon and my very first Full Marathon.

As most of you know, I've been toying with the notion of doing the Goofy for a few years now, but have never been able to make it work. I would talk myself out of it, or circumstances would prevent me from doing it. I almost talked myself out of it again. In fact, I had. My original plan was to only do the Full Marathon at Disney and do the Mississippi Blues Half Marathon in Jackson, which is the week before. But, because I messed up my registration and signed up for the Half instead, and the full was closed, I had no choice but to go Goofy. Then, because De'Dee is both evil and awesome, she talked me into adding the 5K on to it.

Training for me has been very hit or miss lately. I've taken up a new adventure, and moved out to Colorado for a few months. The altitude has me to the point that I can't even walk down the hall without losing my breath and the job has me extremely busy. But I've been trying to stay consistent and now that I know things are official, I've been doing much better. I even got up at 4 am the other morning just so I could squeeze a run in.

This is going to be a difficult challenge for me, but, as Walt Disney would say, "It's kind of fun to do the impossible!"

Goofy Training Update - A Slow Start

The past couple of weeks have been filled with challenges for me and have effected my plan for training. However, I have not let that stop me from getting some training in.

Last week started out very well. I began with a light, full-body workout on Monday and a 45 minute wog on Tuesday. But with going home to Brookhaven on Wednesday and all that went with that, plus the trip to Dallas, I slipped. But, I still managed to really watch what I ate. I just regret that I didn't fulfill my training goals.

Then, this week I began a new job. So that interfered with training consistency as I readjusted my routine. But I still managed to get some inconsistent workouts and wogs in. Nothing big, but enough to keep myself in the groove of training.

Food intake for this week went fairly well. I'm still having trouble resisting cravings. Granted, I really didn't try to resist them.

This week, it is my intent to begin the Jeff Galloway training plans. Right now, I'm going to focus on the half marathon training schedule, since the Goofy training schedule won't start until mid-June. That way, I'm getting back into running without killing myself... just yet. I'm also going to start some moderate strength training too. Nothing big, just some basic stuff that I can do at home (situps, pushups, dumbells, resistance bands, etc.). I am going to join a gym eventually, but I want to wait just a little bit before committing money that could be spent else where.

I do have to say that I feel much better than I did a few weeks ago. My clothes are starting to fit a little looser, I have more energy, and I feel better about myself over all. I feel that this will be a success. I just need all of your support! Hope you're all doing well. Happy training!

Goofy Training: Training Update - "Let the Training Begin"

Since April begins the first full month of Spring, Teresa and I have decided to begin our Training today, on April 1st. No, this is not an April Fools joke. I WILL be doing the 2013 Goofy Challenge. It's going to be tough, but with your help and support, I am confident that I'll make it to 39.3.

In all honesty, this year has not been bad. I have been walking, and even running, a couple of days every week and I have been trying to make good food choices. But there has been no consistency. No pushing myself. It's time to kick the training into high gear and follow a true plan. Last year, I had really let myself go. I utterly destroyed all of the progress and results that I had gained the previous year. I have no excuse for what happened. It just happened and all I can do is dust myself off and get back to work.

Today, I did my first weigh in and measurements. I came in at 250 pounds. That means that I am up over 50 pounds from the day I had my surgery back in June. Disappointing, but there is some good news. I am now down 15 pounds from January 1st when I weighed in at 265. So, it's a bitter sweet day.

The plan for this week is to go for a 45 minute wog on Tuesday and Thursday and a long run of 4 miles on Saturday. It's going to be hard to make the long run happen, since I will be traveling to Dallas, but I will find a way to make it work. Also, I'll be doing some form of strength training on Monday and Wednesday and will be going back to the daily 50 pushups and 50 situps plan that Chris had me doing back in the day. I'd also like to try to start swimming again at night, but with the traveling, I may have to wait and start that next week.

I'm pretty excited to get back to training and living healthy. I've got some Weight Watchers recipes and plans already in place. Weight Watchers did wonders for me before, so I am hoping that the principles that I learned from them will help me now.