Middle-Aged-Man

Ok, here is my weight loss numbers…  I started on September 7th at 210 lbs and 30 days later I am 203.2. That is 6.8lbs in one month. You can see some stumbling but, it evened out. Charted, this is how it looks.

I  managed to get out of the house and go for a ride. I left the house in the afternoon in about 80 degrees. There was no wind, but it did picked up a bit and was a good breeze.

Overall, it was about 27 miles and an average speed in the 14 mph. Here is my Garmin data.

I recieved a couple of weeks ago a new jersey and shorts. Dan Dunn from work, designed them. They are retro Northrop Grumman. Way cool. So, I was encouraged to get back on the bike. I have rode a little here and there in the last couple of weeks. About riding once a week. I will start up soon riding to and from work at least a couple of time during the work week.

This morning, I got and rode from my house to 110th west and back for a total of 21 miles with an average speed of 16 MPH. The wind was low in the beginning, but picked up. Also, I have using my GPS Garmin Forerunner 305. I usually upload the data to Motionbase. However, Garmin has been updating a new site connect.garmin.com to replace motionbase. Well, they finally moved my data to Connect. This is the first upload from my device to Connect. Check it out here.

When I turned 50th (June 29th). I finally recommitted to be back on to lose weight and gain fitness. I started on my birthday at 210 lbs. The lowest prior was 185.5 lb. That is about 25 pound gain. Ouch!

Ok, here is the numbers from June 29th to the last weight date. So in 10 days, I have lost five pounds.

Today I got out on a hike with my friend Rich Coulter. He is like me and trying to improve his health and has a goal to hike Mt Whitney later this year.

We got out early and I picked him up at 6:30 at his house. We traveled to to South Fork Camp at the base of the San Gabriels and did a three mile hike up and back to the Devil’s Chair which is at the top of the Devil’s Punch Bowl. For a total of just over six miles.

My dog Chip came with us and he was so excited to get out and get on the trail. Chip loved running around in the streams, while we tried not to fall in.

Devil's Chair inside the Devil's Punchbowl

For the last three months or so, I have been working so much overtime, that I let my fitness slip. Doing so, has allowed me to add so much weight back on. I only weigh in at work, (my official scale), and since I have some time off from work, I do not know my actual weight. I will tomorrow. I expect that I am near 200 pounds again. So, my new goal is to lose weight.

On June 29th, I will be turning 50! yes, that is a big number. I want to drop my weight down to 175 pounds by my birthday. I do not like the weight that I gained, but I love food. So, I need to reduce my eating and get back on a fitness program. I most likely will continue to walk, run, swim and cycle. When it gets warmer, hiking.

I will keep you updated on my plans and progress.

I am back after my cold, it was almost two weeks. It is nice not to be a mucus farm. It was 42 degrees outside and I went for a run. I bundled up with two layers, gloves and a knit ear-muff thing. The ear-muff thing is to keep my ear buds in. It was cold running north, and a bit warm running south, due to the wind. Today’s tunes for the run was to a band called, The Chemical Brother’s. It is techno and upbeat.

My run was short, only two miles. I knew I wanted to run slow, but I did not think I was going that slow. My pace was 10:21 per mile. My left knee and chin were a big ache. My lungs did well, I was surprised.

Here is the motionbased data.

I walked at work and then went to church ( I work with the Freshmen guys) and when I got home at 9:00pm, I knew I had to run.  So I stretched and got on the treadmill and did 1/4 mile walk warmup followed by a run for 2.0 miles total. It started at 6.0 mph pace for the first mile and 6.2 for the next 7/8 of mile and finished the last 1/8 mile at 7.0 mph. I felt pretty good, I am always concern my calf will crap out on me. The key to running on the treadmill is to cover up the display. I stare at it all the time, making the run seem longer.

After returning from a business trip in Orlando, Florida this last week, without a doubt I need to recommit to some level of fitness. I talked to one really nice lady, named Carol Hess, who happens to run. She has fun running marathons and has been running for a few decades. She really inspired me to get back on “track”. What inspired me was her story about over coming cancer. She is a true over comer, and I was impressed.

I want to pattern my fitness after the saying of “12 Days of Christmas Fitness”. Starting tonight December 8th. This does not line up with the actual 12 Days of Christmas, but I feel motivated and did not want to wait.

Each day, I want to commit to doing my walking (1-1/2 hours to 2 hours), followed up by at least 1/2 hour of more strenuous exercise. For example, running a minimum of two miles, swimming, cycling on the trainer (too cold to ride outside and at night). Stair climbing, such as at work, we have 16 flights of stairs in the corner of our building. When I was in better shape that would whip me good, running up those babies.

Tonight, I ran two miles on the treadmill doing it in 19:45 minutes. Because of my bad calf (today, it did not hurt), I like the consistency of the treadmill, plus it does have less impact on this old frame.

Today, my steps are over 23,700. I place my steps on my activity calendar, if you would like to it check it out.

It started in January, when Tracy Whittaker and I were walking at lunch. We thought it was possible with the amount of steps we walk each day, we could sum them up to the entire distance across America. I did some calculations and its seemed like a doable goal. That would be about 16,000 steps a day. So, on January 21st we started at Santa Monica Pier. Each day we would count our steps with our pedometer and report them in www.walkertacker.com. You can see my progress at their site, walkertracker.com/douglas. On November 30th, right before I went on a business trip, I reached the shores at Jacksonville, Florida. Below is the some data and the map of the journey.

• Total Miles 2,458.4

• Total Steps: 5,024,726

• goal: 16,000 goal of steps a day 15,801 actual steps average

Viturally Across America in One Year!