Peace and Progress

"Peace is not the absence of noise, trouble or hard work. It is to be in the midst of those things and still be calm in your heart." ~Saw this at A2O fitness and had to share!!

"Anything in life worth having is worth working for." ~Andrew Carnegie 

I was reminded of this the other day.  A friend asked me what my running time was when I first started.  It took some thinking, but I remembered that I have a receipt from the grocery store on the nightstand next to my bed with the numbers.  I logged my exercise for the first two weeks after I started exercising.  Anyway, I keep it there as a reminder of all the hard work it has taken to get where I am today.

April 1st, 2009 I ran/walked 2.7 miles on the treadmill at a 16:40/mile pace and thought I was going to die. Surprisingly, I didn't.  I came back the next day and the next day.......and yes it was worth it.

Practice and Postage

"There is no glory in practice, but without practice, there is no glory..." ~Anonymous

This is what leads me to get out of bed on a Thursday morning at 5am in January.  Everyday is a small builiding block towards reaching your ultimate goal. 

"Be like a postage stamp. Stick to one thing until you get there." ~Anonymous

Luck

"Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity"~Seneca, 1st Century Roman Philosopher

This has been one of my favorite sayings for a while.  I have heard it a number of times over the years but never really saw its true meaning until last year when we were heading down to Utah for the marathon. 

I was so nervous before the Dry Creek Half in April last year I had a hard time settling down.  This uneasy feeling was due to lack of preparation and not knowing how I might perform.  In contrast, on the way to St. George I felt like like I had done everything within my power to prepare myself to be successful.  All I needed was the opportunity to prove it.  That confidence gave me the calm state of mind I needed to trust my training and not get caught up in the excitement of the race.

Whatever your goal is, prepare in a way that gives you that extra confidence and you will be successful.

Motivation Required?

Too funny, I had to share.  This came from someone's desktop wallpaper at work!

Limitations - Runner's World Quote of the Day

"Man imposes his own limitations, don't set any." ~Anthony Bailey

 When I started all this it was all just a big dream. I figured if I am going to dream, DREAM BIG! You seriously can do whatever you set your mind to.

Ryan

Self Evaluation

I am always nagging Michelle (ironic I know) to write down what she eats everyday and what she does for exercise so that at the end of the week when we weigh in she can evaluate what worked and what didn't.

I never do that and feel a little hippocritical. So here it goes.

I lost 4.5 pounds this week, which feels monumental and is why I am writing this. I have been bouncing around for the last 3 1/2 months and am back to what I weighed in the beginning of October.

Here's what I think worked:
a) I mixed up my exercise. Instead of running everyday I ran 3 days, biked 2, did weights for one, and took one day off.

b) I ate more protein at breakfast and did a better job in general of mixing protein, carb, and fats. I increased my fat intake with almonds, walnuts, and fish oil (lame I know). I also cut back on carbs at dinner.

c) I made my best efforts to stay out of the kitchen after dinner and didn't snack on junk.

d) I got in bed earlier and got an adequate amount of sleep.

e) Most importantly, behind mixing up the exercise, was watching portions and not overeating. Lord knows I exercise enough so it has to be my diet. When I was craving I took my own advice and ate a ziploc bag of veggies. Usually a mix of carrots, peas, cauliflower, broccoli, celery, and mushrooms.

NOW, the trick it to do this all the time. Michelle joined the Humphreys Diabetes Weight Loss Challenge and I told her I would follow her plan to support her. Looks like it might be good for me too!!

Ryan

Leon's FAT A** after the Holidays 50K run

I have been terrible about keeping this up but did want to share that I ran a 50K (31 mile) race last Sunday. It wasn't really a race, more like people who love running getting together to freeze their butts off in the mountains with snow everywhere!!

Juliet, Randy, Me, Otto, Billie, Sparkle, Leon - at the rock pile at the top of Corrals

I ran most of the way with my friend Billie.  She was amazing.  31 miles is a long way to go no matter what, but when you add a 14 degree start, snow to our knees is places and 5000 feet of elevation gain and drop it makes for an interesting day. 

I had fun and look forward to joining most of these crazy people for the Pocatello 50 mile race in May.  http://www.pocatello50.com/

We ended up going a different way back which lenghtened the course and we had to hitchhike 2 miles back to our cars! This is a cool aerial video of the course if you have Google Earth installed on your computer. Click the link and then when the map comes up click the 3D box in the upper right hand corner.

http://www.mapmyrun.com/routes/view/26565342

Me at the half way point




Billie at mile 31.17 after we hitchhiked!!