Day 193: Caffeine, My Good Friend...

I love caffeine! There I have said it.  I don’t care who knows.  As far as I am concerned caffeine is good for you.  I have believed that for a long time and my belief was reaffirmed some years ago with a National Geographic story on all the good things that caffeine does for you. 

A few of the point that remember off the top of my head:

1.       It helps you think.  Caffeine increased blood flow to the brain enriching your brain cells with oxygen. 

2.       Because of this it is believed that caffeine can help battle Alzheimer’s and other brain disorders. 

3.       It is a stimulate, it can alleviate fatigue, increase your energy, and improve your physical stamina. 

4.       As a result of it being a stimulate it can help you burn fat.

The list went on and on.  It even credited the caffeine as a direct cause of the industrial revolution.  Why am I going on and on about caffeine?  Well, even though I love it and start my every day with and energy drink that is the equivalent of two cups of coffee sometimes I overdo it. 

Today when I got home I was dragging a little so I had a cup of coffee as a pick me up before I went to the gym.  The problem was less than an hour before I had an energy drink that I am so fond of  (it’s a mix that I get from the grocery store that you mix with 16 oz of water and comes in different flavors.)

I felt a little sick by the end of the workout.  I knew that I had over done the caffeine.  Not to worry.  I don’t blame my good friend Caffeine instead I blame myself.  I should have known better.  I can’t say it won’t happen again but I will try not to. 

Daily Recap:

Matt: full body weight workout

Kelly: Treadmill workout routine

Day 192: Fat and Health?

Over the last couple of months I have seen multiple articles on “healthy obese” people and how it is baffling “scientist” as to how and why these people who are overweight can maintain their weight and not fall prey to all the dangers that come with obesity. 

From some accounts it is believed that as much as 1/3 of all obese people can fall into this category.  I find it odd that this should baffle scientist.  Who are these scientists that just accept the normal parameter about health and don’t bother to question anything on nutrition or the human body.  If science should teach us one thing it should be that we don’t know anything. 

Within human DNA the instructions on building the human race can be found.  Take a look around you because these instructions vary greatly from person to person.  There is no one set of instruction set in concrete. 

I find it hard to believe that there isn’t a scientist out there that is not baffled by these findings.  It stands to reason that just as there are people who grow to over seven feet tall there will be people who are designed to weigh 300 pounds.  It seems reasonable to me that if you can grow up you can grow out. 

How many of you have had an overweight friend who lost a lot of weight and now they look terrible?  I have had a few.  Look at Al Roker for goodness sakes.  After losing all his weight he looks terrible and he admitted that while he was overweight he had no real health problems, BUT he knew they were on the way.  Why?  Because one of these baffled buffoon scientist or doctors told him so. 

I lose my mind when I read about scientist being baffled. Have they lost all sense of wonder?  Isn’t science supposed to be about asking questions and finding answers?  Instead I find that sadly today too many scientific endeavors demand that the scientists/doctors find a predetermined outcome that there is no original thought allowed in today scientific community. 

There is my rant. 

Daily Recap:

Matt: Jogged around the neighborhood

Kelly: 1 hour personal trainer/jogged around the neighborhood

Day 191: Countdown to Winter

Today was another nice day and I know we don’t have too many more of them left.  The leaves have all changed and so far there have only been a couple of mornings with frost.  I know there are many, many more coming.

Those of you who have already gotten snow have to be saying, “Come on Matt, it can’t be that bad.”

I assure you it is.  See, I live in the south for a reason: I hate cold weather.  Our winters, in particular can be nasty since we live in a swampy region of the world.  Imagine freezing cold and damp all the time.  The wetness penetrates into your bones. 

With that in mind, and the weather in the low 60s I hit the pavement for some outdoor action.  I run the same route over and over again.  Some people may consider this boring for me, however, it allows me to mark my times and memorize my path.  I know what land marks I should be passing in order to make my time.  I know exactly when I have hit a mile and when I have hit two miles.  No questions.  Also on days like to day, running with towering pine trees on both side of you, you can smell the forest. 

All and all it was a good run I kept up a better than 13 minute pace for the first half and slowed for the second to just enjoy being outdoors.

Daily Recap:

Matt: Jogging outside for my exercise

Kelly: 1 hour with her personal trainer

Day 190: Feeling Beat

Today was not one of my finest days.  It started with me getting out the door about 15 minutes later than normal.  There was not one, but two accidents on the way to work. I had a good day at work, but honestly I almost always have a good day at work, I am one of those weirdos who loves his job.  I hate traffic though.  My morning commute usually 45 minutes was an hour and twenty.  Home wasn’t much better. 

Now, I am not feeling well and I just spent more time in the car that usual.  I was feeling run down and just plain tired.   It’s days like this where the Blog makes me workout whether I want to or not.  I suited up and we hit the gym.  By now you know my weight lifting total body routine. 

I slogged through it like it was a prison sentence.  I didn’t want to do it, but had to.  I go to the leg press and kept it light today.  I didn’t see any reason to go much beyond 500lbs.  I stayed slow and steady though out the whole of the routine.  In the end I was just glad to be done. 

Exhaustion plus aggravation equals going to bed early and hoping tomorrow will be much, much better.

Daily Recap:

Matt: Full body weight lifting routine

Kelly: Treadmill workout. 

Day 189: Turn It Up at the Gym

Typical lazy Sunday except it wasn’t lazy.  First we attacked our house giving it a good scrubbing from top to bottom, not that it was dirty we always keep it picked up, but you need to sweep and mop floors, clean ceiling fans, wipe down walls, all stuff you normally don’t do during a regular cleaning. 

It takes a while to knock all that out, we don’t have a massive house but a deeper cleaning and we also rearranged our bedroom, it took some time.  The last thing we do is mop so while the floors were drying we hit the gym. 

I decided to attack the treadmill and really turn it up today.  I started on a one incline and 4.5 mph and only increased from there upping the speed and the incline every 5 minutes until I finished at 6 mph at a 3.5 incline.  My legs were burning. 

I has sweat dripping from my elbows as I ran.  It was a good thing I had a gym towel with me.  After all the lifting / pulling I did I was warmed up for a work out like this. 

Daily Recap:

Matt:  setting a treadmill on FIRE

Kelly: Treadmill workout routine

Day 188: A Stroll around the Lake

It turned out to be a beautiful day.  After a nasty wet Friday we needed one.  We spent most of the day at Kelly’s parent’s house, they had bought a new flat screen and I was hanging it for them.  Off on a tangent…

I have hung a lot of TV’s and have used multiple mounting brackets.  For this TV the particual mount was by US Brown Bear (I am sure it’s a Chinese company) and the box assured me that I was going to “love this mount.”  It was true to a point.  It was the easiest TV mount I have ever hung.  Literally there were two lag screws that hold the thing to the wall. It came with a preferated template that punched out with no problems and that was that.  It took longer to hook all the cables to the TV than it did to hang it. 

Afterwards we were debating on going to the gym but, again, it was so nice out we decied to walk/jog around the lake.   Fall is beautiful along the path with a multitude of trees all with different fall colors there were shades of brown and orange along with several that were almost blood red.  There was on tree whose leaves appeared to have been dipped in gold.  All them reflecting off the surface of the lake. 

We split out time jogging some and walking some. 

Daily Recap:

Matt: hung a TV

Kelly and Matt: walk/jog around the lake (just over 3 miles) 

Day 187: Game Day

As I may have mentioned before, every Friday is game day with the family.  We all get together have dinner of some sort (usually takeout) and play games like cards, board games, etc.  I go to work earlier than usual so I can leave earlier thus making it home in time to work out without impeding the flow of game night.

It was cold, wet, and rainy all day today so when I got home I knew that I wasn’t going to run outside.  I changed and headed to the gym.  Simply enough I hit the treadmill, but that is not what I want to talk about.  I also went with a secondary purpose in mind: To identify the crazy gym people at my new gym. 

I guess because, as I have said before, out new gym is way more family oriented I haven’t really found any of the crazies that were at our last gym.  There doesn’t seem to be that element of psycho that permeated Atlanta Fitness. 

I was discussing it with Kelly and she had a sound theory.  Our last gym was surrounded with several huge apartment complexes.  These complexes attract single people in droves who are out to impress others in their peer group. Bodyplex, on the other hand, is surrounded by upper middle class subdivisions, a different type of people all together.  Makes sense to me. 

Daily Recap:

Matt: Running on the Treadmill

Kelly: Treadmill workout

Day 186: Running... Out of Topics...

A cold front is moving in and the temperature is starting to drop.  I suited up with a sweat shirt and hit the pavement.  It was a good day for a jog.

Even though it was cool outside I still worked up a good sweat.  Got past the first mile in just under 13 minutes.  Started feeling tired on the way home and had to slow down some.  Running up the final hill I could feel my hamstring muscles tightening but they didn’t cramp. 

That was it really.  Not much else to talk about since most of my days are automatic like the showtime rotisserie I just set it and forget it. 

I really thought it would be easy to come up with a daily topic to complain about or throw my two cents out there but when it comes to exercise you either do it or don’t .  It is challenging getting the exerecise in every day, believe me but at this point I know it has to be done and mentally although there are days were I really don’t feel like doing a thing I push myself to do something.

By now I am a little over half way through and I have discussed everything from crazy gym people to vitamins to diets.   I am down to just the recaps now so without further ado…

Daily Recap:

Matt: 30 minute jog in the chilly evening air with the sun setting

Kelly: TBD

Day 185: Day 185: Kept the Train a ’Rollin

I realize how I have been slipping in keeping up with the blog.  I have been exercising everyday it’s just that I don’t always have time to type up my blog.  If you are wondering I keep notes of what I do every day and I still force myself some days to bang out my exercise.

Today was a tough slog.  As I have written before there are days where I seem to hit a wall.  I don’t quite understand how it works but it goes like this:  A good night’s sleep, stick to my diet, go to exercise and I have no energy.

Other days I will have maybe 5 hours of sleep, eat like crap, and kill it in a mile like it’s nothing.  I don’t get it.  I wish there was some rhyme or reason to my energy waves, since that is what they are like. 

Today was one of those bottom of the wave type days.  My legs had a hard time getting going.  I tried to increase my speed and was greeted with a side stitch.  Afterwards instead of feeling energized I felt run down and beat up. 

Daily Recap:

Matt: Jog outside in decent weather, kinda chilly

Kelly: Gym workout

Day 184: 720lbs Leg Press

Wake, Traffic, Work, Traffic, Workout.

My day in 5 easy words.  They have fixed the leg press machine at the gym.  I went in put on some tunes blasting in my head phones and went heavy. 

There are always twice as many people on the cardio machines than lifting weights.  Some people it seems that is all they go to the gym for.  They drift from one cardio machine to another never bothering to pick up a weight or test out a weight machine.  One of the best things you get from weight lifting is lower blood pressure. 

It’s true.  Lifting weights helps your heart.  See, as you gain muscle mass and muscle fibers you gain strength, meaning it takes less work to make your muscles contract.  This means that your heart doesn’t have to work as hard.  I personally believe that the vast majority of people on blood pressure meds are there because they don’t exercise. 

Everyone I know on some sort of medication couldn’t jog a mile if their life depended on it.  Having to pick up anything over about 20lbs is out of the question.  I know people in active jobs who think that they get plenty of exercise throughout the day.  While they may walk several miles a day and carry things with a hand truck they are not exercising. 

In addition to helping blood pressure in both men and women, lifting weights can help with bone strength.  Especially in women.  Weight lifting has been proven to help increase bone density and can help slow and even reverse the effect of osteoporosis. 

Next time you’re in the gym think about pushing some plates.  I guarantee you that after you have thrown 720lbs on the leg press machine you will feel like you just ran 5 miles.  Trust me.

Daily Recap:

Matt: Hit the weights hard (next I am going to 800lbs on the leg press)

Kelly: Gym workout

Day 183: Monday, Monday, Monday

Winter is creeping in already with the temperatures dropping and the cold wet rain coming in.  It is my least favorite time of year.  When you combine all the leaves falling off the trees, it getting dark at 5PM and constant gray skies what is there to like about winter. 

This winter I may have a secret weapon.  Our new Gym.  It is so close and convenient that it should help those winter blues. 

I ran outside and I can’t say I enjoyed it.  It’s was cold.  Have I mentioned I hate running in cold weather. That is all I have for today.  I must have a case of the Monday’s.

Daily Recap:

Matt: 30 Minute jog outside (Hated it)

Kelly:  Gym routine. 

Day 182: Broken Leg Press Machine

Sunday’s in the our gym are nice there is hardly anyone in there.  Kelly headed upstairs for ye ole’ cardio machines.  I stayed downstairs and hit the weights.

I ran though my usual routine full body, you should know it by now.  Today, though, I made it a light weight day since I didn’t want to hurt as bad as I did last week.  Everything was going great until I got to the leg press machine.  It was out of order.  No problem.  I searched the gym and the only other leg press had an old lady on it. 

I decided to do one of my favorite exercises while I waited for her to finish up.  The Dead Lift.  These are great because they hit every major muscle group in you lower body. I didn’t have a spotter.  When I don’t have a spotter I don’t go over 100lbs unless I am on a machine, it’s just a rule I have. 

Three sets of 10 dead lifts with 100lbs and I was feeling it, especially in my inner thighs and gluts.  The key to a proper dead lift is form.  If you do them wrong you could mess up your back.  You have to keep your back straight and knees shoulder length apart.

After that I was finally able to get to the leg press.  Surprise the machine maxes out at 390lbs.  No problem.  Another three sets and I was spent.  My legs felt like jello in a good way. 

Daily Recap:

Matt: Weight Lifting Full Body Work Out

Kelly: 30 Minute Cardio Routine

Day 181: Brooks Adrenaline GTS 14

It has been six months and I would estimate a little over 400 miles since I started in my Asics.  It was time for new shoes.  We set out to explore several stores and see what they have and then check out the review to see what was worth buying. 

After not really finding what we were looking for we ventured into the big shiny new sports store that just opened called Academy Sports.  It’s one of those massive sports stores that carry everything from Kayaks to Shot Guns, Golf Shirts to Running Shoes.

We did a run through of the shoe department and took pictures of the ones we were interested in and went to lunch to compare them.  I had decided on two pairs of shoes: The Saucony Kinvara 4 and the Brooks Adrenaline GTS 14.  Both got good review and both were good looking shoes.

It came down to feel.  The Saucony felt narrower than the Brooks.  Inside the shoe felt like it supported my foot in all the wrong places.  I was disappointed, after all cheap Matt knew buying the Sauconys would save $15. 

The Brooks felt perfect.  It felt softer under foot than my current pare of Asics.  They felt stable but had a little heel slippage which I figured would go away when properly laced and tied.  I got them.  Kelly got a new pair of Asics and I got a reflective vest for night jogging.

After we got home the sun had already gone down.  I laced up my new shoes put on my reflective vest grabbed a small flash light and set out.  Even after securely lacing them there was still a tiny bit of heel slippage.  The cushioning was great giving me a soft ride and stable control running both up and down the steep hill. 

I must say I am very pleased with my new shoes and would recommend the Adrenaline series to any runner. 

Daily Recap:

Matt: Jog / Testing out my new shoes

Kelly: TBD 

Day 180: Philly Cheese Steak

Kelly came home from Philly today. 

I left work early so I could get a good jog in before I had to pick her up from the airport.  I guess you could say that driving to work this morning was my first mistake.  Here I am sitting in my new car as I past one of the first exits on my way home when the traffic report comes on the radio and the announcer says, I quote, “I wouldn’t wish what is happening on 285 south bound on my worst enemy right now. All traffic is at a stand still.”  Great. 

A major pot hole opened on 285 and they had to fix it during the day since, one, it was dangerous, and two, they had to do it while it was warm enough for the concrete to cure.  I took the next exit and continued to listen to the traffic report. 

Taking the back way was a nightmare as well but at least traffic was moving, even if it was only at 2 miles an hour. 

Meanwhile in Philly:

Kelly had managed to get on an early flight.  That was her mistake.  They had major problems with the plane’s de-icer and after loading and making everyone wait they finally made the call to unload the plane.  She had to de-plane and find another flight. 

Amazingly we were both delayed trying to get home Friday.  After a two hour ride home I finally made it just in time to go for a run, shower, throw the dogs in the car, and head for the airport.  That is how our day went.

Daily Recap:

Matt:  Run after work from daylight to twilight

Kelly: Exercise routine at the hotel gym

Day 179: Dinner with the In-Laws

This evening I have dinner scheduled with my in-laws.  I had hoped to get a jog in before dinner but ran out of time. There were several things that had to get done and all of them were important. 

Bottom line is I wound up wasting a portion of my evening because Best Buy changed a policy about getting your phone fixed.  We have the service through them that if anything happens to our phones we take it to them and they fix it.  Well now that has changed.  My mother-in-law’s phone keep freezing.  It does it randomly and since the protection plan we have is in my name I needed to take it in. 

After playing with the phone for 30 minutes the kid behind the counter tells me he can’t fix the phone because he can’t get it to freeze.  Okay what am I supposed to do with at phone that works when it wants too.   He actually told me to drop it and bring it back in when his manager wasn’t there that way he could send it all.  Utter nonsense. 

Anyway I had a great dinner and on my way home I remembered I still needed to work out.  Now it is completely dark out and I would prefer not to get hit by a car I decided to lift weights. 

I did my complete body workout with my dumbbells and a medium weight.  Typical three sets with a minimum of 10 reps. 

Daily Recap:

Matt: Full body weight workout

Kelly: TBD

Day 178: Jogging in the Dark

Today I went for a walk after lunch at work. Not a long one about 10 minutes but long enough to walk around the “Galleria Gardens” as it is called outside my building.  It was a beautiful day and I was surprised at how quite it is.  Although there is a hotel and a mall right across the street there was only a hand full of people out and half those were maintenance men working on cleaning out the fountain.

The “Galleria Gardens” are a strip between the cluster of 5 building simply called the Galleria where I work.  The company I work for is located in the 300 building so we our 2^nd floor lobby opens out into the middle of the gardens.  It is also where all the food trucks park for “Food Truck Tuesdays.”

After work I wanted to try my legs at jogging again. This time was much better.  Again I wasn’t going to set a speed record but I was able to keep a steady pace.  I was surprised at how fast the sun went down and the last quarter of my jog was spent in almost dark.  I am going to have to get one of those reflecting vests.

Daily Recap:

Matt:  Both a walk and a jog

Kelly: TBD

Day 177: I Did Hurt Myself

As I stated yesterday I set out to hurt myself. I succeeded somewhat.  I am nowhere near as sore as I have been when I have stopped lifting heavy and then went back at it.  I guess some of this can be attributed to the fact that I am making an effort to do some sort of physical activity every day. 

Then again it does hurt to raise my hands above my head but not so bad I can’t stand it.  My legs hurt too.  I was going to jog it out but it hurts to walk at least until I warm up some.  So for exercise and because he can drag me if need be I took Chloe for a speed walk around the neighborhood.  The thing is now with the time change it is getting dark quickly and I hate that.

Why can’t day light savings time be in the winter?  I would vote to make it daylight out side everyday until 7pm.  Think how great it would be to get off work in the winter and still have enough light left in the day to actually do something outside. 

After the walk my legs felt better until I sat down for the night then getting back up was a painful process.

Daily Recap:

Matt: 30 Minute Speed Walk

Day 176: I Plan On Hurting Myself

No, the title is not a plea for help more like an actual statement.  It has been a few weeks since I lifted weights and a little longer than that since I have gone really heavy so I know that I was going to hurt myself when I returned to the gym to push some plates.

Today was the first day evening that I would be going to our new gym.  I was not shocked when I pulled into the parking lot and it was full.  I expected it.  Our last gym was packed from about 4pm to 7pm.  Supposed you wanted to lift free weights during that time, well more often than not you were S.O.L. as every horded various weights to themselves.  You couldn’t find a dumbbell between 10 and 35lbs if your life depended on it.  They disbursed throughout the gym. 

Worse still people would horde the machines as well.  Multiple times at our old gym I would share a machine (not that I am against sharing) with someone else getting in my reps while they rested and vice versa.  This meant having to change out grips and readjust the machines and so on.  No, it’s not the end of the world but it is a pain in the butt. 

Back to the new gym.  So there I was parking in a crowed parking lot already dreading going in and thinking “how bad could it be?”  I was shocked at how empty it looked inside.  Seriously, most people were up stairs on the cardio machines or in the big dance/step class they had going on.  There were no meat heads (you know, guys that are obviously shooting steroids) at the free weights. In fact I counted a total of 5 people in the free weight section.  This I could dig. Plenty of room and no having to share.

I stuck to my full body work out doing a 12, 10,8,6 set/rep workout cycling through the major muscle groups and increasing the weight each set.  I upped my game when I got to the leg press.

When I last left off on the leg press I was at 540lbs and felt that there was room to grow.  Today I jacked that way up.  I put 720 pounds on the press and for the first time I felt like I am starting to hit my max weight.  I could still push 720lbs for 10 reps but that was pushing it.  When I climbed out of the leg press I my legs felt like jelly. 

I finished my work out without having to stop once or share weights at five in the afternoon.  The new gym, I like it. 

Daily Recap:

Matt: Full body heavy weight workout.  Shoulders, Chest, Back, Triceps, Biceps, and Legs.

Kelly: TBD

Day 175: Destination: Dallas, Texas

This morning was a bit hectic.  Kelly had an early afternoon flight to Dallas and, as usual, there seemed to be a ton of things that needed to get done and not enough time to get them done in.  After breakfast which consisted of a “Green Monster” (more on that later)  we hit our new gym again.

This time we jumped on the regular treadmills.  I was determined to pick up my speed and burn some calories. I started at a 4.5 mile an hour jog and increased the speed and incline ever few minutes.  Soon I had a pace at 5.8 miles an hour and a 3.5 incline.  This I found challenging.  I dialed down the incline and held 6.1 miles an hour for two minutes before running out of gas.  I consistently held my heart rate way above what the recommended values on the treadmill peaking at 169 beats a minutes and holding it there during the 6 mile and hour run.

I dialed down the speed and ramped up the incline and was able to hold my heart rate to a consistent 148 a minute walking at 3.8 on a 10 incline.  I don’t hold on to the treadmill either. It always cracks me up when you see these people who have a 10 or 12 incline and they are holding on to the side handles for dear life.  You are not getting the benefit of that full incline so what is the point.

Now we move back to the “Green Monster.”  Kelly found a smoothie recipe that includes Spinach, Kale, Coco nut milk, and a frozen banana.  I was shocked at how not bad it tasted as a long time ago I had tried several smoothie recipes that I could not stand.  We sweeten it up a little with some honey and you hardly notice the veggies in it.  However the white coconut milk turns to pale green in the blender.  Thus the name. 

Daily Recap:

Matt: Killed it on the treadmill at our new gym

Kelly: Treadmill work out prescribed by her trainer

Day 174: A New Car, A New Gym

Well, we got up this morning and after breakfast headed to the dealership to get our first look at our new car.  It’s a black Rio 5 hatchback with a tan interior.  I took it for a quick test drive then all we had to do was sign some paperwork and presto like magic we drove away in a new vehicle.

I must say I am looking forward to driving a car with an ability to hook my iPod to the radio.  Previously I had a tape deck and adaptor in the Honda until the tape deck ceased working.  I used the cd changer for audio books from the library but you don’t realize how spoiled you get.  Changing out CDs was a pain especially since the changer was mounted in the trunk. 

Although I got decent gas mileage in the Honda I should get 11+ miles better in the new Kia.  It’s a comfortable ride with no flash.  Hey, it is what it is a purely commuter car.  I have the 4 Runner with moon roof and all power everything as the family vehicle.

This afternoon we hit the new gym for the first time together. It’s not bad either, like I previously said, no pool but then again I never used it.  They did have these machines with preprogrammed running paths that let you choose to jog in several major cities and different countries.

For our workout we chose jogging through northern Italy.  While the screen shows you running through various parts of the North Country it also scrolls facts about where you are running.  You get a work out and an education.  How awesome is that?

Daily Recap:

Matt and Kelly: Bought a new car and jogged through northern Italy.  What a day

Day 173: Every Buy A Car Over The Phone?

My Pops buys cars like this.  He does the research, finds the vehicle, then calls up all the dealerships gives them exactly what he wants and what he wants to pay for it and the first ones that say yes to all his demands he buys from.  I had set an appointment at a dealership when my wife reminded me of this.  I followed his example.

I am looking at the Kia Rio. It’s a small compact car that gets really great gas mileage which is a must for me since I will put over 20,000 + miles on it a year.  It got good owner reviews and has a decent crash test rating.  I put in a call to three dealerships including the one I had made a sales appointment with.  I told them specifically what I was looking for and that I wanted to verify that they had it on the lot before I went since I didn’t want to waste my time.

One called me back and they called back in less than 10 minutes.  After a few minutes of conversation with my salesman, his name is Kelvin, he promised to find what I was looking for and let me know if it was even available.

I was looking for the base line model at MSRP.  Another 10 minutes later he called.  They had found the car and could get it down to the price I wanted to pay for it.  I gave him my information for financing.   After lunch he called me again and confirmed everything was exactly as I had wanted it the car would be in tomorrow morning and I could pick it up then. 

Easy as pie. 

I got home and wouldn’t you know it had another good run clocking in the first mile at a little over 12 minutes and the second at a little over 12 and a half.  Ever feel like things are finally going your way?

Daily recap:

Matt: 30 minute really good jog

Kelly: treadmill routine at our new gym which I still have not visited

Day 172: My Car Fell Apart (Happy Halloween)

Picture this.  I leave work.  I get in my car, a 1996 Honda Accord, I turn the key and nothing happens.   So I try again.  Nothing.  Again, and again, and again.  Nothing happens.  Finally all the lights on my dash come on and my driver side window falls.  That’s right it’s a powered window and with the car not even on the window falls.  It’s now half open.

After a few more tries the car finally starts. When I try to roll up the window all I get is a buzz clicking and the window is not moving.  I believe I get the message, with 260,000 + miles on the road the car is as tired as I felt earlier in the week.  Now, in addition to all the other things wrong with it, the window won’t work and it’s a guessing game as to whether it will start regularly or not. 

After I got home Kelly and I check out several cars and made a decision in literally less than an hour as to what our next car would be.  That is how we do it.  I had made an appointment for a local dealership and then changed and was out the door for my run. 

I had gotten a really good night’s sleep and felt really well.  Usually the day after a hard run I feel tired, but not today.  I killed the first mile in under 12 minutes and I kept going.  It’s Halloween and I know I am going to eat some candy so I need to run off those calories.

Daily Recap:

Matt: My car fell apart, I found another car that I would like to buy, I had a good jog, and I ate some candy.  That is a good day. 

Kelly:  1 hour with her personal trainer

Day 171: A New Gym

As you know I have talked about quitting our old gym.  We originally joined it when I worked on the other side of town and it was convenient.  Now there is no reason to head that way unless we are going to the gym.  It’s a pain to go when I get off at 5, when traffic is so bad it can be up to 50 minutes round trip.

Less than 5 minutes from my house is another gym.  It’s not as big or as nice but it is still less than three years old.  Really, the only two things it doesn’t have is a full sized basketball court and a swimming pool.  Neither of which I used I guess I won’t miss them anyway.

Kelly check it out today and signed us both up.  She took the tour and they explained to me the challenge that they offer every new member.  They call it the Bodyplex Challenge.  That is the name of the place, Bodyplex. 

When you complete the challenge you get a fee t-shirt, and something else I don’t remember off hand at the moment.  I am looking forward to checking the place out.

I ran today.  I really ran.  I turned in two miles in 25 minutes and jogged out the last five minutes pretty slow. 

Daily Recap:

Matt: 30 minutes and this time I ran.

Kelly: Gym routine on the treadmill at our new gym. 

Day 170: Try Again

Ever have those days were you just don’t want to do anything?  Yes, this was one of those days.  I think I am still suffering from some jet lag.  I don’t know. 

I tried to jog again and again was not feeling it.  This time however I forced myself through it and all though I kept a painfully slow pace I kept telling myself to put one foot in front of the other.  According to my stop watch, I didn’t have my phone on me with Run Keeper running because the battery was almost dead when I got home, I had jogged the first half mile in a little over 7 minutes. 

You guessed it my first mile was at 14:48 practically walking only I was walk jogging, jalking I guess you could call it.  It’s like a run walk only slower.  I was tired, really, really tired. 

Hopefully after a good night sleep I will be better tomorrow.

Daily Recap:

Matt: 30 minutes a just over walking

Kelly: TBD

Day 169: Returning To Normal

I got up this morning and went to work. Vacation is officially over.  I battled traffic that backed up due to an accident and debris in the road which was not one, but two rolls of carpet.  One would think that one would realize massive rolls of carpet falling off their truck.  Evidently not. 

I was pleasantly surprised to find only 80 emails in my In Box at work.  Then I sat behind my desk all day and worked.  When I got home I wanted to run.

I suited up and hit the pavement.  My body wasn’t really feeling it though.  I don’t know if I was still feeling the effects of jet lag or just plain tired but my legs were not letting me carry my bulk at any real speed no matter how hard I pushed them.  Then came the painful side stitch and I got the hint.  I finished out my 30 minutes. 

I find jet lag can be like muscle soreness sometimes it is the third day that really gets you.  It is rare that I suffer from jet lag since I usually try to set my mind to the time zone I am traveling to. I have had it really bad twice.

The first time was on our first trip to Ireland.  We were there for 16 days and I had a hard time every morning just waking up.  I felt off the whole trip.  The second time I got messed up from jet lag was my first trip to Hawaii.  It was killer for two days I was just exhausted. 

You would think that it would have been terrible in Australia but I had no problems at all.  I believe that it was due to my super power ability to sleep on planes.  I slept for 10 hours out of the 14 hour plane ride.  I felt fine the whole time. 

Daily Recap:

Matt: 30 jogging and walking

Kelly: 1 hour with personal trainer

Day 168: Slow Down Sunday (After Italy)

After such a hectic, I don’t think I would call it a vacation, maybe a trip to check on our house.  While it was fun it was also exhausting.  We decided to take off and spend it sitting on the couch catching up on all of our favorite TV shows.  We are huge fans of The Walking Dead, The Voice, and Revolution. With Kelly being gone for forever we had a lot to catch up on.

Around 3PM I was starting to feel the need to get out.  Too much vegetating and the sun shining right outside my window was making it hard to just stay in.  We were all feeling it.  So we decided to speed walk our neighborhood and take Chloe with us so she could get out of the house too. 

We burned up the neighborhood including tackling the monster hill that always makes you huff and puff by the time you get to the top. It was a good walk that even had Chloe slowing by the end of our thirty minutes.

That was what I needed.  Feeling good from the movement and soaking up some sun I was able to return to the couch.  I don’t know if you are watching this season of The Walking Dead, if not you need to, that show is fantastic!

Daily Recap

Matt, Kelly, and Chloe 30 Minute Speed Walk.

Day 167: Roaming Around Rome and Atlanta Bound

Once again we were planning on being stuck on a plane for over 10 hours so we needed to get in some real exercise to help aid in the stress caused by such a journey.  We set out to try to see both the Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps before returning to our hotel to get ready to leave. 

Not many people are out at 7am in Rome.  The streets were covered in sweepers, both people with brooms and those motorized spray and wash vehicles with the huge circular brushes.  They were doing a good job of cleaning the city. As we walked we also passed shop keepers cleaning windows and preparing to open stores. 

We made it to the Trevi Fountain pretty easily.  The signs, although while there were not enough of them, were adequate in showing the way.  One of my main complaints is when you get to a fork in the path and the last sign you passed said say straight which way is straight?  You have to guess while a simple sign would make it easier.

After the Trevi Fountain we started following the signs to the Spanish Steps but as you can guess these were woefully inadequate.  We got lost and by the time we found out where we were it was time to turn around and hoof it back to the hotel. 

Now I will fast forward just watch…

There we are at the airport…there we are sitting on the plane… there are eating on the plane… there we are watching movies on the plane… there the plane is landing… and…

Now we landed in Atlanta. Here is where I am going to gripe a bit.

The new international terminal is “F” we landed in “E” and had to walk to “F.” That is not short walk.  You have to hoof it through hallway after hallway and corridor after corridor.  It is really ridiculous.  While it wasn’t a big deal for me there were a great many older folks on the plane that took twice as long to make it to immigration.

What I found interesting was how FitBit recorded the whole thing.  Below is the bar chart that FitBit gave me.  The first bars in the green are where we pounded the pavement in Rome.  The second set of orange line is me waking through the airport. 

FitBit Steps Activity Chart

Daily Recap:

Matt and Kelly: Speed Walking Rome

Day 166: Rome, Italy and The Pantheon

Once again all roads lead to Rome.  We set out driving back to Rome early this morning.  It was a long trip that took quite a few hours since the roads in southern Italy all seemed to be under construction.  We finally got the rental car dropped off and checked into our hotel.

From there we pulled double duty on the exercise.  We had some clothes that needed to be washed for the plane ride home the next day.  We threw some clothes in a bag and headed out for the wash and fold hoping they would be able to both wash our clothes and have them back to us in the same evening.

It was a trek there and we did it a speed walk pace.  It was almost a mile from the hotel and after we originally got lost I am sure we did over two miles round trip.  It took a little over 45 minutes and we were both sweating profusely by the time we made it back to the hotel.  Exercise accomplished, but we weren’t done walking.

We stayed in an awesome location this time.  It was right behind the Pantheon and centralized to some of our favorite sites in Rome.  After we got back to the hotel we showered, changed and headed back out for the evening.  It was another two mile plus walk back to the wash and fold for our clothes.  From there we wondered around, did some shopping and finally made it back to one of our favorite restaurants for dinner.

In the end we had walked over six miles that evening in Rome.  Almost half was at our frantic pace to the cleaners. 

Daily Recap:

Matt and Kelly:  Complete total for the day was 8 miles. We burned over 3500 calories.