0-5K and Beyond

Welcome to everyone reading this blog about my journey to become a runner. I will be training with The American Boot Camp Company over the next year and running in tons of races. Come train with me or join me in my next race! Let's get moving!
- "Boot Camp Hunter"

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Hey there bootcampers! Sorry for the long time away from posting, bear with me as I bring you up to date on my boot camp related activities over the past couple of months.

I ran the St. Marten's Episcopal School 5K on September 20th. I finished it in 27:45. Not my target time, but it was my first race since July 4th. It was a nice course with a few hills that made for an enjoyable run. Thanks to Chris and Mari Garner for helping me keep pace the last mile of the race. It was also an opportunity to reconnect with some fellow bootcampers from my old West Midtown location.

The last race that I ran was the MMRF Race for Research on October 26th. I finished this race in 25:13. I was very pleased with the time, but the course was a little short. It was only 2.9 miles long instead of the 3.1 miles of a full 5K. The course was a nice, fairly flat course along Freedom Parkway. It was a fun course. This was also another reunion race of sorts. I ran this race with my old boot camp instructor Collette and a couple of fellow bootcampers, John and Renee. It was good to see all of them and spend some time with them over a cup of coffee after the race. It was just like old times at the West Midtown boot camp location.

Alot of things have changed for me with boot camp since I last updated the blog. I survived the month of September at the Chastain Park boot camp location with no problems. Fortunately, I learned how to tackle the hills around the park and was able to bring my mile time back down to the 7:30 range. I must admit, that the long run course around Chastain Park is much more enjoyable than the course through Atlantic Station at my old West Midtown location. I have really enjoyed getting used to the new location and terrain. Plus the increased number of bootcampers and instructors has really made boot camp more enjoyable for me. In fact, I have been enjoying boot camp so much that I was asked to become an instructor. Can you believe it? Me, a boot camp instructor?!?!

The month of October was my first full month as a boot camp instructor. What a difference from being a regular bootcamper! I'm actually one of the people leading and assisting the bootcampers now. The transition has been interesting to say the least. The biggest change has been having to "lead" all of my fellow bootcampers. As one bootcamper friend stated, I've "gone over to the dark side." Don't get me wrong, being an instructor is alot of fun, but very different than being a boot camper. I'm really glad that they asked me to become an instructor. It has really renewed my excitement in and dedication to boot camp.

Although it has been a little strange being an instructor to some of my fellow bootcampers, I have really enjoyed meeting some of the new bootcampers. They know me as an instructor and it has been much easier for me to lead and instruct them as opposed to some of the boot camp veterans. I'm still not that comfortable with barking orders to some of the boot camp vets, but it gets a little easier everyday. I have found that I have a special talent at motivating the new campers. Telling them my story and discussing my boot camp experience with them has really helped me to motivate them and give them hope that they can truly change their lifestyle and help them meet their fitness goals. There are several campers from last month and this current month that I feel that I have really built a strong bond with.

I was unable to run a race during the month of November due to being out of town every weekend. My next 5K is the Jingle Jog on December 13th. This was the first 5K that I ran after starting boot camp last year. My previous time for this race was 31:20. I'm hoping to blow that time out of the water this year! I'll get some more information on the Jingle Jog and post it to my blog so that you can come out and join me. I'll keep you posted.

Friday, September 12, 2008

A Change of Scenery

I started at the Chastain Park boot camp location last week. What a difference from my previous location at West Midtown for the past 11 months! The terrain at Chastain is very hilly, whereas the West Midtown location was very flat. To give you an idea, I ran a 7:33 mile on the last day at the West Midtown location. It took me 8:20 to run a mile the first day at the Chastain Park location. Granted I had a pretty wild Labor Day weekend in between those two mile runs, but I could definitely tell a difference when I was running up and down the many hills. Over the last couple of weeks, I'm slowly getting used to the large hills.

It's been a nice transition to the new boot camp location. I've enjoyed the change of scenery as well as getting to know some of my new boot campers and instructors. Although I'm one of the new campers, I already feel very comfortable with the group. This has been the second biggest issue that I have faced at the new boot camp location...other than the hilly terrain. After being with the same instructors and many of the same campers for almost a year, the first couple of days didn't feel right. I guess I was so entrenched in the everyday routine of the West Midtown location, that I didn't realize how big of a change I would face in changing to Chastain Park. One thing I have enjoyed is the larger group at the Chastain Park location. It's been interesting to see where I stand with the campers at my new location. Plus, it's given me an additional push to work harder with my new boot camp group.

I've hit somewhat of a plateau in my weight loss. I'm still hovering around a weight of 250 lbs. Although I'm down about 50 lbs. since I first started boot camp last October, I still want to continue to lose weight and get closer to my target weight of 200 lbs. I must admit that I've slacked off on my diet. I'm still watching what I eat, but not as strict as I used to. I've been slipping in a slice of pizza or a cheeseburger and fries every now and then lately. I'm planning to get back on a good diet starting next week when I return from a business trip. Hopefully, the strict diet and suggested meal plans will allow me to break through this plateau and continue to lose weight. It's going to be a tough journey, but I've made up my mind that I'm going to do it.

August was the first month of this year that I didn't run a race. I was out of town every weekend and just didn't have time to squeeze a race in one Saturday. I am signed up to run a race next weekend. It's a 5K sponsored by the St. Marten's Episcopal School on Ashford Dunwoody road in Brookhaven. I'm still looking to continue my streak of breaking my previous 5K race time with this one. It'll be tough, considering my last 5K was a totally flat course, but I'm going to strive for it. You can find information about the race on Active.com. Sign up and come out and join me!

I'll continue to keep you posted on my weight loss journey. Sorry for not keeping you more up to date over the last month. I won't let it happen again.

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Back At It Again

Sorry for the extended delay in posting, but I've been gone alot over the past few weeks. Let me catch you up on what's been going on.

I finished last month's boot camp with a mile time of 7:31. That's not my fastest time ever in the mile, but I'm pleased. We had the week of July 4th off and returned to boot camp that Monday, July 7th. My mile time that morning was 7:43. A little slower than what I wanted, but I was still pleased considering that I had been at the beach on vacation for the previous 5 days. I'm very happy with my results so far. I've officially taken over seven minutes off of my original mile time of 14:42. My goal is to get down to a 7 minute mile. It's going to be tough and take some time to do so, but I feel confident that I can do it.

While on vacation, I did participate in a 5K on the morning of July 4th. While some of you were battling the crowds and the hilly course of the Peachtree Road Race, I was running through the flat, shaded neighborhoods of St. Simons Island. And by flat, I mean flat. There was not a hill in sight. I think the only hills on the island are on the golf courses and the sand dunes. I took advantage of this flat course and posted a time of 25:52. That's my best 5K time ever! I was very pleased with my results. I hope I can keep up that pace during my next race.

We're almost done with the second week of the July boot camp session. These past two weeks have really been rough on me. Last week was rough due to coming right off of my vacation. This week has been tough due to a long weekend at the lake as well as having a little summer cold. I actually missed boot camp, as well as went in late to work, on Tuesday due to the cold. I'm feeling better now and hope to get over this cold ASAP. Sadly, this is the last week of boot camp for the month for me. I'm out of town for the next two weeks on business. I'm taking my workout clothes with me and am going to try my best and keep up the exercise while I'm away.

I've been looking into races to run for the month of August. I've got several scheduling conflicts on some of the weekends, but I'll keep you posted as to which one I decide to run. Hope to see you at a race soon.

Monday, June 23, 2008

I ran the Mid-Summer MusicFest 5K at Candler Park this past Saturday. I ran this race by myself, but did run into some fellow boot campers who attend the Mason Mill boot camp location. I finished the race in 28:38. I'm pleased with the time, but I was hoping to be about 2 minutes faster. My previous 5K time was 26:51, and I was hoping to break it during this race. The course through and around Candler Park was very hilly and had a lot of turns. The constant up and down and the curving path that we followed made it difficult for me to get into a good rhythm. Nevertheless, it was a good run and I am still satisfied with my results. I'm going to have to find another race soon to see if I can finish it around 26:30.

I've had a really nice past couple of weeks. As I mentioned in a previous post, I was in St. Simons for a conference the first week of the month and was able to go jogging on the beach. The second week of June took me to Ponte Vedra for another convention. I did workout while I was there and took advantage of the wonderful workout facility at the Ponte Vedra Inn & Club as well as went jogging on the beach. The tide was coming in when I was jogging in Ponte Vedra. This made it extremely difficult jogging in the thick sand, but the broken sea shells on the edge of the water line did provide some stability. Had I jogged at low tide, my experience would have probably been totally different. I must say that my beach jogging experience was better in St. Simons than it was in Ponte Vedra. Considering the fact that I had a lot more fun in Ponte Vedra balances it out in my opinion. I shouldn't complain one bit. Most people I know wish they could take business trips to the beach.

I attended a banquet here in Atlanta on Saturday night and saw a lot of old friends and familiar faces that I had not seen in several months. You should have heard some of their remarks when they saw me. Some of my buddies couldn't believe how great I looked, plus the fact that I've lost almost 50 pounds since I first started boot camp last October. I can't tell you how much motivation hearing their comments gives me to keep working hard and pushing myself. Hopefully, next time I see some of them, they will notice even more of a difference in me. I'm going to keep up the boot camp routine and watching what I'm eating so that I can continue to drop the weight. My target is 200 pounds, I've got about 50 more to drop before I get there.

Today was the first day of the last week of boot camp for the June session. We'll have our final mile run on Friday. I'm hoping to finish strong and take some more time off of my mile time. I started the month at 7:43 which is 7 minutes off of my first mile time back in October. I ran the mile in 7:28 at the midpoint of boot camp last Monday. I'm hoping to possibly even beat that time this Friday. I'll keep you posted on how I do.

We've got next week off from boot camp for the 4th of July holiday. I'm looking forward to a week off from boot camp, plus the possbility of a little vacation time. If I am able to make it to St. Simons for the 4th, I'm going to run in a 5K down there being held the morning of the 4th. I must be honest, though, I will miss boot camp. I know it sounds crazy, but it's true. It's become such a huge part of my life and daily routine that I don't feel right if I don't get up and go to boot camp. That feeling plus the fact that along with the instructors and other campers, we've become such a tight knit group of people that motivate each other during the exercises. It's almost like we've become a pseudo family at the West Midtown/Atlantic Station boot camp location.

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

It's the second week of the June session of boot camp. We've had a couple of great workouts this week. Today, we used the tension bands. Once again, I completed the workout with the black bands. It was very tough using the strongest bands, but I could feel the burn in my muscles throughout the workout. I'm sure that's not the only time I'll be feeling pain in my arms and upper body. I'll probably be a little sore for the next couple of days.

I tried something new this past weekend. I attended one of the kickboxing classes at The Boot Camp Company studio in Brookhaven on Saturday morning. What a workout! The 45 minute class was awesome. I got a much better workout than I would have had I just gone for a jog. Needless to say, I'm still a little sore from the kickboxing class. The new workout forced me to use muscles that I normally don't use that often in boot camp. My calves and my arms have been extremely sore. I'm still feeling the pain in my calves. It's made these two workouts this week really interesting to say the least. I enjoyed the kickboxing class so much that I think I'm going to make it a regular routine in my weekly workouts.

I had a new experience last week and I'm looking forward to the same experience this week. I was in St. Simons Island last week for a conference. I got up each morning while I was down there and went for a jog on the beach. What an incredible experience of jogging on the beach as the sun was rising. The moment was almost magical. Taking the normal sounds of traffic and the hard pavement here in Atlanta that I usually experience while jogging and replacing it with sand and crashing waves was incredible. The runs seemed so much more relaxing and really helped me get my days started on the right foot. I'm heading to Ponte Vedra this week for another convention, and am looking forward to another couple of early morning runs on the beach. I hope the experience will be the same this week as it was last week.

I've got a few good friends of mine that have started boot camp this month. Unfortunately, they're doing it a different location than me, but it has been fun discussing our boot camp experiences together. I actually ran into a couple of them at the kickboxing class on Saturday morning. It was really exciting to run into them at the studio. I've also had a couple of other people contact me about signing up for boot camp. Many of them have heard me talk about it ever since I started back in October. I guess my constant discussion of my boot camp experience is helping to motivate some of my friends. Or it could be that there is a link to my blog on The American Boot Camp Company website...

I still haven't found a race to participate in for this month. I'm out of town this coming weekend, but am going to try to do one in the next couple of weeks. I'll keep you posted on what I decide to do. I'm planning on being in St. Simons again for the 4th of July this year. I actually found a 5K down there that is being held the morning of the 4th. I'm planning to run in that race to try something different. I thought about staying in Atlanta to run the Peachtree Road Race, but I decided to skip it and go to the beach for a nice little vacation. I'll let you know what I decide to do and keep you posted on my race results.

Tuesday, June 3, 2008

We started the June session of boot camp yesterday morning. My mile time was 7:43. That's the same time that I posted at the end of the May session. Considering that we had the week of Memorial Day off and I only ran once that week, I was very happy with my mile time. I really had to push myself yesterday to make that time, and I could definitely feel the results of not running the previous week. With two workouts down this week, I can definitely feel some soreness in a few of my muscles as well. Probably attributed to me being totally lazy last week, only running once, not working out at all, and not watching what I was eating like I should.

Our boot camp class at the West Midtown location is growing. We've had several people return from last month as well as a few new faces show up. It's interesting to see how the group is growing. It's hard to believe that when I first started boot camp last October, we had less than a dozen people in the group. Given the success of the Chastain Park and Blackburn Park locations, I can only imagine what the group might be like in a couple of years. This morning's workout is one of my favorites...cone sprints. For the first time ever, we had the group divided into four different lines as we all ran the cone sprints. I remember when we only had two. It was really something to see all of us out there. I reminded me of that day when I was at Blackburn and we ran cone sprints. I think they had about eight or nine lines that morning.

I've really been trying to watch what I eat lately. For the past three weeks, I've been eating Fresh N Fit meals. I found out about them one night at the boot camp studio in Brookhaven. You sign up for the meal plan and pick up your prepared meals twice a week. The food is excellent! Every meal is individually packaged and most of them you can just nuke in the microwave for a couple of minutes. They offer a couple of different calorie levels and I've been on the 1200 calorie diet. I figured getting 1200 calories from three meals a day, and another couple of hundred calories from my other meals easily keeps me under 2000 calories a day. This is under my daily minimum calorie level and has been helping me to shave off the excess weight. You can get more information about Fresh N Fit at http://www.freshnfitcuisine.com/.

Speaking of losing weight, I've hit somewhat of a plateau. I've easily dropped over 40 pounds since I first started boot camp, but the last few pounds that I've lost have been really tough. I also must admit that I've been letting my eating habits slip a little. I've decided to get back on the boot camp recommended meal plan and stick to it the best I can. I know I can continue to drop the weight, it's just going to take longer to do so and I'm going to have to work hard in order to accomplish my goal. I still have about 50 more pounds to lose to get down to my target weight of 200. Considering that I was a shade under 300 when I first started, I'm about half way there.

With June now hear, I need to find a race to run. I'll look into see what's out there and let you know which one I pick. Stay tuned to find out and maybe even you could join me...

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

"Go Speed Racer Go": 5/13/08

I'm getting faster. We ran a timed mile on Monday morning and I finished it in 7:39. I couldn't believe it! Officially, I have taken over 7:00 off of my original mile time back in October. Can you believe it? My first mile time was 14:42, and now it's taking me 7:39 to run the same distance! My best time before that had been 7:53, and I really had to push myself hard to make that time. Monday's run seemed easier, and yet, my time was much faster. While running, I didn't feel like I was really straining myself too terribly much. I guess it's the additional weight loss as well as the everyday training that's adding to my increased speediness...

Speaking of speed, we had an old speedster show up this morning at boot camp. John came out today for the first time in a couple of months. He's been doing boot camp for awhile now, but has not been able to do it the past couple of months. He's always been fast and can run a consistent 6:30 mile or so. He was very surprised at how fast I have gotten when it comes to sprinting. There were a couple of times when I beat him when we were sprinting. Granted, I started out in front of him, but he never did catch me. It felt good to hear him comment about my speed. I might have gotten lucky by beating John in a couple of sprints this morning, but I am totally confident that he would wax me in any distance race. Maybe I could take him one day...

I ran the Big Peach 5K a couple of weeks ago. Finished it in 26:51! I was aiming to beat 27:00, and I did it! This was a huge boost considering that my finish time for the last race, the Sprint for Cancer 10K, was actually slower than my previous time. I've been pushing myself hard between each race so that I can continue to shave time off. The American Boot Camp Company helped sponsor the race and we had a large number of campers from different locations around town show up in Brookhaven for the race. I also saw quite a few friends of mine at the race as well. My buddy JJ ran the race with me. We started the race together; then I got out in front of him; then he passed me; then I caught back up with him. We finally finished the race together as we sprinted in to the finish line.