Wednesday BS(T) - Bad News Edition

I've really loved writing this blog and the process of thinking about things to write, writing them, and reading and responding to comments from the five or so of you who have read and commented.  Unfortunately I'm hanging up the keyboard for a while.  I've been feeling that I'm lacking balance in my life and in the absence of knowing for sure what it is that's causing that feeling, I'm cutting out unnecessary things, and although this has been fun it's definitely not necessary.  Hopefully I'll be back later and hopefully by then I'll be lighter and faster and funnier.  For now, farewell and here's a few small notes:

• I tried to run up BST starting from 800 East Orem today.  I got eaten alive by the mountain.  I'll conquer.
• I weighed 236.0 this morning - that's awesome.
• I was blindsided by a free team lunch at Five Guys today.  Literally my absolute favorite burger joint.  Ever.  It was not pretty.  Hopefully my otherwise healthy eating combined with my run and the digging I did will neutralize it.
• Amber now has the same amazing shoes that I do.  Awesome.

Thanks for reading, commenting, and making me feel funny.  Catch you later.

I was going to put up a good long post on here today, I really was.  Instead, I watched fireworks with my boy.  I think I chose the better part.  Here's a few tidbits that I may or may not write more about later:

• Last night I ate like a slob
• I also dug and ran last night and was actually down in weight this morning, so at least I made up for it
• I'm tired of posting what I eat and may not do it anymore, so there
• I still like posting my weight because it motivates me
• I absolutely love my running shoes and will almost certainly blog more about them later
• I wear a headband when I run and do other workouts.  Apparently I look silly with it because I've been mocked by teenagers and my coworker jokingly said today, "I didn't recognize you without the headband..."
• The trampoline hole is almost finished and I"m very proud of how it's gone
• Tomorrow is Wednesday.  I'll have a full BS(T) about either hill repeats or running a longer hill than I have been - we'll see which I decide on in the morning
• Newton running shoes are super weird

That's all for now.

Today's Weight:

236.8 (Finally broke under 237!!)

An Open Letter to Men's Restroom Users

First, I realize this could have been titled, "An Open Letter to Men", but then it would be ambiguous what it was about, besides the fact that there's really nothing stopping women from using men's restrooms, aside from a sign and social norms.  Also, no this post isn't about running or losing weight.  Don't try and tell me what I can and can't write about on my blog, OK?  I'll cut you.  But enough about that.

I've got a few things I'd like to get off my chest in regards to how men use public restrooms.  If you don't like potty humor, what's wrong with you?  No, seriously if you are easily offended by words like "urinal" or "pee", you're excused.  Any women left?  Fine by me, come on a journey to learn about the worst (and strangest) in men's restroom behavior.

I've a few bones to pick with other men in regards to how we use restrooms.  I'll try to list them in order of importance.  Here we go!

Dear Men Who Use Public Restrooms:

There are restrooms everywhere - gas stations, restaurants, in our places of work - that we share with each other.  Certainly a restroom is meant to be a quiet and peaceful place of solace where we are alone with our thoughts (and sometimes some reading).  Public restrooms, however, are something of an exception to this and as such require us to be considerate of each other.  Please consider these few points of advice in your public restroom patronage:

First and foremost, men - wash your hands, please!  No, let me rephrase that - men, wash your hands or I will cut you.  The kinds of things that may or may not end up on your hands - germs and...other...things... - when using the restroom are not to be shared!  This rule, of course, does not apply if you are using a restroom that has one of those cloth roll towels for drying your hands (they actually have a name, who knew?  Also, I think they're trying a smidge hard to sell us on them, no?).  In that case, you're likely to have cleaner hands if you wash them in the toilet before leaving, no matter what Darman Manufacturing Company tries to tell us.  No, don't actually wash your hands in the toilet (you catch on slow, don't you?) - just do your business, leave, and look for somewhere to get your hands clean ASAP.  In short, flee from cloth roll towels and wash your hands or I will cut you.  And maybe punch you in the neck.

Second and related - if you must use the sit-down toilet to stand and pee, lift the seat first!  Remember what we said about not sharing?  It applies here too.  If the mothers and wives of the world saw some of the things I've seen upon entering a restroom stall, they would cut you.  If you're worried about touching the seat remember you'll be washing your hands afterwards.  If you're extra worried, get a grip - er, I mean, use some toilet paper to shield your hand from the seat.  Above all, teach your sons to lift the seat when going pee - your wives and the rest of us men will thank you.  Thank you.

When you're using the urinal, "keep both hands and arms inside the ride at all times".  Don't one-hand it - it's just creepy.  What else does your other hand have to do during that time?  I won't even get started on the no-hands guys - those dudes are too far out there for me to reach.  You're disposing of your body's waste in a porcelain receptacle.  Please use both hands so as to ensure the tidiest disposal possible.  And you guys who lean a hand or an arm against the wall while using the urinal - really?  If standing to pee is that taxing, why not use the sit-downs?  Besides, if you're leaning with your forearm consider this - how clean do you think that wall actually is, and do you actually want to wash that high up before leaving the restroom?  Because if you don't, remember - I will cut you.

Don't write things on the stall walls.  There are several reasons for this, the first being that it's vandalism and thus against the law.  Even without that, however, the others are quite compelling:

• It makes you look like a moron
• Your grammar and spelling add to your moronic image
• The quality and subject matter of artwork you might add only reinforces your moronicity
• Even if you are a serious artist, is this really the medium you want to use?
• It will likely either be removed by the restroom owners or defaced by some other moron
• Would you like it if I came and started writing and drawing on your bathroom walls?  Yeah.
• I'll cut you.

Enough said.  If you're still compelled to do so, at least put something funny or interesting.  Most of what you're likely thinking of putting up has already been done.  At least a bajillion times.

Finally, don't talk on the phone while sitting on the toilet.  It just weirds the rest of us out, not to mention the person on the other end once they notice how echo-y you're sounding and the strange noises going on in the background.  How do you explain your way out of it?  "Are you in a public restroom?"  "No, I'm...uh...NOT in a restroom!" - I mean, c'mon...  The bathroom is for going potty, not having lively conversations or conducting important business.  Let it go to voicemail, man!  I won't cut you for talking the phone, but the person on the other end might cut you.  So wise up.

In short, my fellow men, let's be good restroom guests.  Let's all be courteous and clean and not do creepy things, and we'll all have a good public restroom experience.  That, or I'll cut you.

Sincerely,
Zann

Thursday's Food:

• Oatmeal with sugar
• Almonds and craisins
• Salad with chicken, almonds, craisins, roasted red pepper dressing
• A mango
• An orange
• A little more oatmeal (the afternoon was really dragging)
• Spaghetti with meat sauce (homemade - my wife rocks)
• Milk
• 1/2 lame Pillsbury breadstick
• 2 of the best breadsticks ever
• Egg whites with salsa
• More milk

Thursday's Exercise:
A good solid hour or more of digging the trampoline hole.  It's really coming along nicely.  I'm really enjoying the increased energy and stamina that's coming with all the running I'm doing.  More on that another time.

Today's Weight:
237.8

I'm OK with my weight see-sawing as long as it seems to be trending down, which it does...so...yay.

PS - Nobody was cut during the writing of this blog post, nor will any cutting actually take place within or without any restrooms.  I'm not actually violent, I just think it's funny to joke about, because I'm sick.

Wednesday BS(T) - Holy Crap Edition

So, a week after my brutal defeat at the hands of the mountain, I won.  I did it.  I ran up the portion of Bonneville Shoreline Trail that completely owned me last week - all the way to the top.  Truth be told, it was slightly anticlimactic.  I had expected to do maybe slightly better than last week, or maybe even worse, but to get it on the second try?  I guess I expected a few weeks of battling it out before finally succeeding.  Am I being a spoiled sport about it?  Maybe.  Am I still happy that I did it?  Very much so.  Here's a brief recap:

I was really excited to do this run again.  The excitement and anticipation had pretty much been building from the time I found out I'd be doing "The El Diablo", so by Tuesday night I was ready to go right then and run it.  Strangely, by the time Wednesday morning came I had lost most of that excitement and drive.  In retrospect, I think I was just tired.  Either way, I was still determined and excited, just not off-the-wall, get-me-out-there-now stoked.

When the time came, I changed and rode my scooter to the trailhead.  No braggadocio or, "Bring it on!" this time, just determination and some small amount of fear for what I thought I was about to do to myself.  My intention was to go and not stop until my body forced me to.  I wasn't sure what that would mean - barf, pass out, bonk, ?? but I was committed.

In spite of having lost for some reason the killer instinct I had the night before and trying to remain humble in the face of what I knew was a formidable challenge, as I hit the trailhead and started out, I had a brief thrill while I thought something like "It's on!"  You know, one of those awesome things you say to yourself in your head that pumps you up but would sound ridiculously silly if you said it out loud.  Other people do that, right?

My determination was tested pretty early on as there's a decently steep and decently long section right up front.  I was really suffering and fighting to keep moving but I told myself I had to at least make it past the point where I had first walked last week, which I did, then I made it to the tree I had stopped and stretched under, then I kept going, just like I told myself I would.

As I kept going I realized a few things.  For one, trail running is hard.  Harder than road running.  Specifically, it's hard on your ankles and feet.  The surface is not smooth, and it makes your ankles and feet work extra hard to keep you balanced and moving forward.  The other thing I realized was that looking up the hill was not a good way to do what I was doing.  The best way, I found, to slog out a difficult climb like that is to just put your head down and go, and don't stop going until you reach the top.  Looking to see how far I was from the top just made me discouraged.

And slog I did.  A couple of times the trail would mercifully ease to a much less steep, or even nearly flat incline.  This was fantastic.  My lungs and legs were very happy every time this happened, but alas the joy never lasted as long as I wished.  Another discovery during this slogging was that although I was suffering mightily, the suffering hovered pretty steadily at a "this really sucks" level, and never really progressed to the "I think I might barf/pass out/bonk" stage I expected.  This was awesome because it let me finish the climb, but secretly I must have been somewhat hoping for a better story to tell, because I didn't feel the elation at the top that I had expected.

At long last, 11 minutes and 20 seconds after my "It's on!" moment, I stood atop the hill.  If I was more hardcore I would have kept right on going, but as is I stopped my watch and took a minute to breathe really really really really really really (yeah, it was pretty dang hard, OK?) hard until things calmed down some.  After a minute or two, I kept going.  I ran to the point where the trail takes a sharp turn and decides to head up again, and that was plenty for me.  I turned around and headed down.

I wish I could say I ran the whole way down and made it in some crazy fast time.  Alas, this was not the case.  I actually walked several times on the way down, mostly because I was worried about the aforementioned bumpiness and its effect on my ankle, and because I actually began to feel a slight twinge in my left ankle, which I was anxious to keep at twinge level rather than moving it up to something more serious.  All in all, I finished in 31:23 - 2.8 miles including nearly a mile of brutally difficult climbing and the same amount of serious descending (how the heck do you run down a hill like that without feeling like you might break something?  Or without getting sideaches?  Help!).  A very good effort and a very pleasing result.  We'll see what next week brings.  I may add in the climb from 800 E to the parking lot, which could make things even more interesting (painful, but it hurts so good...).  I'll post what happens.

Just as an aside, thanks for nothing to those of you who read about my blog renaming and chose not to vote.  At all.  Seriously, you guys have no opinion on these things?  Yeesh.  Luckily for you guys I pretty much already had the one chosen that I wanted by the time I finished writing that post.  So, welcome, readers of my blog, "That Looks Like It Hurts".  I'm hoping shortly to be able to post about something exciting that gives the title a dual meaning, so keep checking back.

Wednesday Food:

• Oatmeal with sugar and craisins
• 1/4 cup chip mates with 1/2 cup skim milk
• Salad - tuna, 1/2 avocado, Craisins, almonds, kraft roasted red pepper dressing
• 1/3 cup Craisins
• 1/3 cup almonds
• 5 egg whites with salsa
• Sweet and Sour meatballs - 4 meatballs with sauce
• 1 very small baked potato
• ~1/4 cup bean casserole
• 1 slice of bread
• 6 egg whites, salsa
• 1/4 cup ice cream

Wednesday Exercise:

Umm, really you need me to say it again?  I guess I also did some more trampoline hole digging.

Today's Weight:

239.0

I was a little suspicious about yesterday's weight, as fun as it was to see it go so low so fast, but it would appear that it was indeed not completely accurate.  I suspect that my actual weight is somewhere between 237 and 239 and the differences up or down are due to water.  True, I didn't eat as well yesterday as I have been, but between my run and the digging those calories should be amply covered.  I think.  At least it feels better to tell myself that, so don't anybody go and pop my bubble of self-deception, OK?

Wednesday BS(T) Preview

I've never been so excited to go and beat the crap out of myself with a workout in my life.  I can hardly wait to get out there and tackle that wicked climb again.  I'm going into it this time with a bit more respect for the mountain and the steepness of the climb, but I'm also feeling pretty determined to push myself past what I think I can do.  We'll see how it goes.

Tuesday Food:

• Oatmeal with sugar
• 1/3 cup almonds
• 1/3 cup Craisins
• 1 banana
• 1/2 avocado
• Salad with canned chicken breast, Craisins, almonds, fat free Italian dressing
• Buncha watermelon (seriously, a lot...I love that stuff!)
• Little bit of oatmeal
• Sweet and Sour meatballs with rice (4 1/2 meatballs)
• 5 egg whites with salsa

Seems like there should be more but I can't remember...

Tuesday Exercise:

I've started digging a hole for our trampoline in the back yard (everybody says I'm crazy not having it done), and I find it to be pretty decent cross training to hit it really hard, so last night I dug my guts out for about 40 minutes.  The "little demon" really sets in when I get out there and get digging hard.  I think the little demon needs a name, and maybe to be called a little coach or something instead.  We'll see.

Today's Weight:

237.0

Pretty sure I won't keep losing this fast, but for now I'll take it.

Monday Food:

• Oatmeal with sugar
• Cherries
• Watermelon
• 1 Polish Sausage (no bun)
• Salad with peppers, chicken, fat free Italian dressing
• 1 slice homemade bread
• 20 oz Coke Zero (a frustration purchase)
• Bean Casserole (1 1/2 C or so)
• 1 1/2 slices homemade bread
• 1 1/2 cups skim milk
• 1 cup Orange Julius
• 5 egg whites with salsa
• 1/2 avocado

Monday Exercise:

 

2.47 miles, 24:55 - Max heart rate 156, average 136.  The jury is still out on the heart rate monitor, but it's cool to have that data after your run.

 

Today's Weight:

238.8

Help Me Name This Blog (and other random notes)

I'm trying to come up with a new name for this blog.  "This is Zann's Blog" was meant to be temporary and I'd like to keep it that way.  Is that a non sequitur?  I kindof like the ring of that..."I'd like to keep this temporary".  Not enough for a blog name though.  These are my ideas:

• Big Sweaty Guy - something I've called myself on and off since my weight woes began, not in a derogatory way but more as a description.
• That Looks Like it Hurts - something I've thought before when seeing people who are overweight and/or look unaccustomed to running out running (and which I've wondered if people have said about me before...).  That's not to say I'm mocking them - merely musing on the pain they look to be enduring.  I often also think, "Way to go, keep it up!", so don't think I'm a jerk, OK?
• You Can't Unsee That - which my boss' boss said one day when he saw me geared up and on my way out to run, and which I've also wondered if other people think when they see me pounding the pavement (Which is, of course, majestic from my waist down due to The Tree Trunks' beauty, and frightening from the waist up because of...yeah...).

So hey, let's make it democratic - vote for your favorite in the comments, and then I'll choose the one I like anyway (I'll spare you the sarcastic remark about any similarities between that and the democratic process in our fine country these days...)

I've also decided to start posting my weight on here along with food and exercise.  Mostly this is for my own chronicling benefit.  Embarrassment about my weight may also help me stay on the straight and narrow with my eating.  Maybe.  By posting my weight on my blog, however, I'm sure I'll begin to draw comparisons to Fat Cyclist.  Before anybody starts throwing around words like "copycat" and "wannabe", let me clarify a few things.  First, similarities between myself and Fat Cyclist:

• We're both charming and handsome
• We are both amazingly engaging and humorous writers
• We both like to eat
• We both breathe air (I don't think I could live without it!  *rimshot*  Feel free to laugh now...)
• We both live in Utah County
• We are, indeed, both male

Second, and more pertinent to my not being a copycat or a wannabe, differences between us:

• I'm much fatter than him.  Really, him calling himself fat is ridiculous in the face of my fatness.  He should change the name of his blog to "Sometimes overweight cyclist who will never be as fat as Zann."  It has a nice ring to it, no?
• His name is Elden.  My name is Zann.  Duh...
• He brags about his quads.  Clearly it's my calves that are the money-makers...
• He blogs about cycling.  I blog (for the time being) about running.  Should I choose to ever blog about cycling, it still won't matter because the biggest difference between me and him is:
• Unlike my blog, people who aren't my wife, dad, and close friends actually read his blog.   Maybe someday he'll read my blog.  Then I will become nearly as awesome as him just by the mere presence of his awesomeness.  But I'll still be fatter.

Sunday Food:

• 1 blueberry pancake with butter and syrup
• 1 pancake with syrup
• 1 cup skim milk
• Salad with avocado, peppers, craisins, fat free italian dressing, canned chicken breast
• More skim milk
• Cheeseburger
• Polish Sausage
• French Fries with fry sauce
• Kettle BBQ potato chips
• Yep, milk again - osteoporosis is scary!!  That or milk just tastes great...
• 2 homemade O Henry bars
• Remains of an ice cream cone (2/3 of a sugar cone and ~1 scoop of Butterfinger ice cream)
• 1 slice homemade bread
• Some cherries and a buncha watermelon somewhere in there 

You can see that I let loose somewhat yesterday, particularly around dinnertime. I intend to reel things in a bit going forward, but I still may make Sunday a treat day, because it's very difficult to not eat any treats ever.  After a while they begin calling to me with their siren song, and then I give in and then I feel guilty.  That or I hold off and then get angry about "not eating what I want" and let go for a while (or several months as I did after last Thanksgiving...).  Any way 'round it, some treats sometimes seems better than none altogether at this point... 

Also, I intend to continue to enjoy a more hearty breakfast on Sunday.  I can honestly say that oatmeal is treating me great, but breakfast food is one of my all-time favorite things, and I can only convince my wife to eat it so often for dinner.

Sunday Exercise:

Not on Sundays, although we did go for a family stroll.

Today's Weight:

240.0

PS - I said I'd say more about my 3.8 miles that should have been four.  It's this simple - I missed a little loop I needed to add on to the run to make it four.  I may or may not have also taken a grandma-type lady's (as opposed to an old lady - much faster) turning onto the same street a block ahead of me for a leisurely stroll as a personal challenge that led me to push much harder for the last 1/4 mile of said run so that I could pass her.  Don't mess with The Tree Trunks, OK?  It was a sore disappointment when I found out that my 38:11, instead of representing a ~9:30/mile pace over four miles, was a ~10:00/mile pace over 3.8.  Not too bad though, because it felt great the whole way, which is more than I can say for the last time I ran that far.  That is all.

So I figure I ought to post about Friday and Saturday's food and exercise.  I'd really like to write something else, but it's late, I'm tired, and it's just going to have to wait.

Friday Food:

• Oatmeal with sugar
• 1 cup skim milk
• Salad with Tuna
• Olive Garden breadstick
• 1 cup skim milk
• 1 cupcake with frosting (I know I said no sweets, but man was it tasty - strawberry lemonade frosting? Genius.)
• Waffle with peanut butter and syrup on one half, butter and syrup on the other
• 1 cup skim milk
• Hash browns with ketchup - more than I should have had
• A few cups of popcorn with butter and seasoning (Kernel's - really good stuff)

Friday exercise:

Company 3on3 tournament.  Played on a cobbled-together team and actually won a couple of games.  Then we ran up against a team that could play, and it was all over.  Altogether, four games to 30 by twos and threes so probably an hour worth of basketball once you take out the subbing in and out.

Today's Food:

• Oatmeal with sugar
• 20 oz Coke Zero (It was a long week and I gave in)
• 2 egg whites and 1 whole egg fried with a little butter, eaten with salsa
• 1 cup skim milk
• Salad with bell peppers, craisins, 1/4 avocado, tomato, honey mustard dressing
• 1/4 or so of a peanut butter and honey on white
• 1 cup skim milk
• Olive Garden Ziti al Forno leftovers - 2/3 cup worth?
• Bunch of watermelon and cherries
• Handful of almonds
• More watermelon
• 1/4 avocado

Today's exercise:

3.8 mile "long" (for me!) run - should have been four.  More on that to come.

I'm feeling pretty lazy and not wanting to write today.  That's fine with me, it's not like there's anybody or anything saying I have to write a bunch every time I post my food on here, but I actually do have something to write about, so I'm a little bugged that I'm not more pumped to do so.  Let's see if I can get some more motivation going ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

Nope.

Well, I'll just bang it out anyway.  So I found out yesterday that I'm doing a different runner position in RRR than I thought I was.  Instead of runner 9 I'm now runner 2.  This means that I get to run, for my first leg, a beastly little climb they like to call "El Diablo".  Or at least they should.  Turns out (I'm just noticing this as I look at the leg listing) they call it "The Diablo".  I'm not quite sure what's with the Spanglish there.  Maybe they just don't know?  Maybe they don't care?  Maybe they're trying to ensure that native English and Spanish speakers alike are terrified by the mere name of this leg of the relay.  I don't know.  I can tell you this though, I'm terrified.  Not by the name, but by the run itself.

This pleasant little jaunt starts out at 9750 feet in the parking lot at Brian Head.  It then proceeds to climb to 10,400 feet over the next 1.8 miles, at which point it levels off somewhat and climbs another 60 or so feet over the last mile (which I'm guessing could either feel like a downhill or painfully slow torture after the nasty 650 feet in 1.8 miles I will have just endured...) - so all in all a very nice, easy run.  Or a kick in the teeth.  Punch in the neck?  Groin shot?  Pick one...or maybe more!

In the face of this disgustingly difficult and dastardly dash (alliteration - I took English!), one might expect many reactions.  In the past, mine might have been something akin to..........sorry, had to catch myself as I ran screaming in the other direction.  Now?  Bring it on!  The page in the race map PDF that details this leg has a little picture of a devil winking and saying, "DO YOU DARE RUN THE MIGHTY DIABLO?  I WILL DESTROY YOU!!!"  Not sure how he winks and smiles at the same time that he's shouting, I guess he's the one with the dark powers...but I digress.  My plan is to print and laminate him or maybe two of him to attach to the laces of my running shoes.  Then while I'm training I can look down at his stupid little grin and think of how I'm going to stomp his face on September 7.  I might even find a way to attach them to the soles of my shoes for the actual run, just for the symbolic stomping-ness of it.

Doesn't this look like it deserves stomping?

"But Zann!" you might say, "You weigh 240 lbs!  It's a wonder you can run at all, let alone run 'El Devil'.  Or wait, is it 'The Diablo'?  Yeah, that one..."  To that I would respond with two things:

First - have you seen the tree trunks I run with?

Yes, that's me recently finishing the Provo Freedom Run.  Yes, that's really my face - I was pushing hard to finish strong up a relatively decent grade, ok?  And yes, I really am holding my hands that way - I have no idea...  And yes, I did jack this picture from Zazoosh's site (I had to take a screen capture 'cause they disabled the right-click and save...).  For all I know they'll get angry at me and make me take it down, but for now, take a look - a close look - at my leg there.  Do you see it?  Isn't it majestic?  Like a mighty sequoia.  How did I come about having legs the size of a large sapling?  I don't know, but aren't they beautiful?  Now do you see how I plan on stomping on The El Diablo Devil's face in a couple of months?  That's right, one tree trunk at a time.

TIMBER!!!

An artist's rendering of Mr. The El Devil Diablo, post-stompage.  Somehow, the grin just never goes away...

Ok, so in truth I really am excited for this challenge, and terrified is maybe too strong of a word to describe the other side of my feelings about it.  Healthy respect would be better.  After my attempt at BST on Wednesday, I have something of an idea what I'm up against, although BST doesn't quite match the altitude of El The Diablo.

And that's where this blog gets a glimmer of hope that it might survive.  I'm going to continue to detail what I eat each day, which will (hopefully) be oatmeal for breakfast, a salad with some protein (tuna or egg whites?) for lunch, and whatever normal dinner we have, along with fruits and veggies for snacks, almost no sweets (I have to make exceptions for special occasions or especially special treats) and trying to drink only milk and water.  We'll see if I can keep it up.  I'll try to keep El The Diablo's cheesy grin in mind when temptation strikes.

The other part of this plan is to add another wrinkle to my training.  From now on, every Wednesday is when I hit the BST again,  hopefully with increasingly successful results.  That also means that I'll be posting Wednesday BS(T) on the blog.  There should be at least 7 installments of said chronicles, so I hope you're looking forward to it!











Anybody?  Bueller?  That's right, I just referenced Ferris Bueller's Day Off.  Don't hate on my tired 80's movie reference, ok?

In honor of my newly aggressive-ized training and weight loss goals, I had one last fling with my old flame Overeating before the impending finalization of our break-up last night.  My wife and I got a babysitter for the older two kids and brought baby with us to Olive Garden, where I proceeded to eat like an absolute pig (details below).  Later that night, I was grumpy and had heartburn, and my stomach was upset this morning.  I think this will be an easier break-up than I thought.  Goodbye, Overeating!  I'll let you know how it goes.  I'm out of things to say now.

Here's the food:

• Oatmeal with sugar
• 1 cup Cherries
•  12" Subway BLT with provolone, lettuce, tomato, pickles, olives, banana peppers, green peppers, southwest chipotle sauce
• 1 slice Grandma Sycamore bread
• Olive Garden:
• 4 or 5 breadsticks
• Ravioli di Portobello
• Coke
• Salad
• Zeppoli (These might be the most delicious thing I've ever put in my mouth...seriously!)

Sadly, no exercise.  I'll be better, I promise.

My Inner Demon (the good kind (does that exist?))

I'm going to attempt to describe something that's hard to understand unless you've experienced it.  It is a big part of the reason I'm trying to get into blogging more, because it is something that brings may large smiles to my face and the main driving force behind my hoping that blogging what I eat will help me lose weight.  I'll begin with a story.

I mentioned that I'm training for RRR Zion.  Yesterday, I was feeling ambitious with my training and decided to try doing some trail running.  "I need the uphill practice, and the extra stress on my joints and muscles will make me a stronger runner," I thought.  It just so happens that quite convenient to where I work is a portion of the Bonneville Shoreline Trail. I had heard many of my coworkers speak of it and I decided this was the perfect place to try my first trail run.

So come lunch break time I changed into my shorts and laced up my shoes (remind me to post about my shoes sometime - I love them very very much and they deserve some praise), got on my scooter (another topic for a future post - two wheels are where it's at) and headed to the trailhead.  Before leaving though, I told my wife, "I'm going to go run up and back down a big hill".  It was my intention to run about 1.4 miles up this trail and then come back down.  I could see in my head the glorious moment when I reached the apex of my climb and then began my rapid descent.  I began rehearsing my recounting of coming down the mountain to my wife: "I was burning so fast coming down I nearly started a forest fire."  Yeah, in my head I'm pretty awesome.  I even had the audacity to tell the mountain from the seat of my scooter, "I'm coming after you, mountain.  Bring it on."  Again, the me in my head is pretty freakin' amazing.

So I got to the bottom of the trail and started running.  At first, it was going pretty well.  I felt good and strong and super stoked to be tackling this big ol' mountain.  Then I hit a steep spot.  Much steeper than I had anticipated the trail being at all.  I stuck it out and kept going until it mellowed some.  Then it got steep again.  And again.  And then for a good long while.  Not a quitter, I kept going.  Then the worst thing that could have happened did - I had to walk.  I even stopped partway up to take advantage of some shade from a tree and try and stretch my calves, which were the only thing I managed to set fire to during my run.  (On a side note, is there a way to stretch calves without any kind of external object?  I don't know of one, so if you do please let me know...)

After my brief stretch, I kept going.  Oh how it hurt.  Oh how steep the trail was.  And for how long.  Bad enough that I can honestly say I'm not sure how much of the rest of the ascent I actually ran.  Much less than I wish.  I was even fighting just to keep a brisk walking pace toward the top.  I had taunted the mountain, and it had put me in my place.  I reached the top and ran some along a relatively flat portion headed into Provo Canyon, but turned around before too long, realizing that the descent would be pretty hard on my joints and muscles and not wanting to regret doing too much.

On the way down, besides having a few moments where I honestly worried I would get going too fast and roll down a portion of the trail, I began to think about my earlier confidence and the way in which the mountain had beaten me down.  I was thoroughly humbled.  Obviously I had a ways to go before I could say, "Yes I am ready for RRR in September.  Bring it on."  I returned to work, tired and sore but still very pleased with how hard I had worked.  Pay special attention to that last bit - I had the crap beaten out of my by a trail I thought I had in the bag, and yet I was happy about it after.

This is where the story ends and the rest of the post begins.  I told my wife and a couple of friends and coworkers about my attempt and how poorly I had fared.  Then I started thinking (this even began at the top of the trail) about how I should potentially keep trying said trail because it would be good preparation for the race.  I ended the day satisfied with my daily efforts and resolved to hit the trail again sometime, maybe once every other week.

Then this morning I read some posts on FatCyclist, particularly this one, and I realized that my little demon was waking up again inside me, and he wanted more of Bonneville Shoreline Trail.  My little demon is this little guy inside me that began awaking last fall as I was running more than I had before.  We lived in the Cherry Hill neighborhood of Orem, right on the Provo/Orem border, and most of the best (read: least busy) roads to run on included some portion of hills.  On a run with my wife one day, we were climbing Columbia Lane from Provo into Orem, and we were pacing it pretty easy to try and make it to the top (I'm not an amazing runner by any means, I just really like it ok?), and something snapped in me.  In spite of the tired legs and burning lungs, I was bound and determined to make it up this hill.  Not just that, I wanted to push it - I wanted to kick this hill's teeth in.  And I did.  And it felt awesome.

That was the birth of the little demon.  He was a fun little guy.  I'd be out on a regular run and he'd wake up, going, "You've got more in you, go faster!  More!  Keep going!".  He really pushed me, and I liked it.  Then I did an ill-advised (at the time, for me personally) 10k, and I killed him off for a while.  He's been slowly waking back up since I started running again, but I'm convinced now that he's back in full force, and I couldn't be happier.  He wants to go out, NOW, and hit that trail again, tired/sore or not.  He wants to stand at the top of that trail and go, "UUnnghh!  How ya like that, mountain?!"  (Uunnghh! is a guttural grunt, not me barfing, although that could conceivably happen.  Either way, the mountain wouldn't like the results, no?)

And that's what this post is meant to be about - why I like running.  After a very roundabout way of coming at it, here it is:  I like running because it hurts.  Because it's a challenge.  Because there's always a new distance to try or a new pace to shoot for or another hill to climb.  Because it hurts. (yeah, I already said that - it's for emphasis - a literary device if you will.  Don't hate me because I suck at writing...)

There's this somewhat sick love of that pain that begins to grow within you (or at least me?) as you get more excited about running.  I want to run.  I love to run.  I look forward to it.  I wish I had the physical conditioning (and lack of being overweight) to do it every day.  Besides that, I'd also like to do more cycling.  I love bikes and the riding of them, and I'd love to do some road cycling.  I also like swimming.  Heck, maybe I'll do a triathlon sometime.  All I know is, I love that challenge.  I love being able to say, "I took this big heavy body and carried it over ___ miles in ____ minutes!"  I love the...zen?  meditation?  of being alone with my thoughts and the road, the challenge of pushing just a little further or faster.  It's amazing.  I'd like to say it's not for everybody, and it's probably true, but as much as I like it, I'd much rather say, "Give it a try!  Now!  Don't wait!  If you don't like it that's fine, but if you find a little demon within yourself, you'll thank me.  I promise."  Now, go lace up your running shoes and see if you can't wake up that little guy (or gal).

Yesterday's food:

• 1 no-bake cookie
• ~20 oz Dr. Pepper Ten
• 1/2 cup oatmeal with sugar
• 1 golden delicious apple
• ~1/2 a decent-sized pork chop
• Scalloped potatoes (cooked with said pork chop - my wife makes them AMAZING)
• Salad with peppers, tomato, craisins, honey mustard with bacon dressing
• A buncha cherries
• More Dr. Pepper Ten (same amount - I didn't get a lot of sleep the night before.  I should learn to keep myself awake in healthier ways, but for now caffeine still wins once in a while)
• Two slices of french toast, with butter and syrup
• ~2 scrambled eggs with some muenster cheese and salsa
• A Kroger brand otter pop (I usually prefer actual Otter Pops, but Kroger has a couple of flavors that are crazy good - a green apple and a mango-ish one.  Stay away from the pina colada flavor though.  It tastes like they filled it with poor quality coconut milk and froze it.  Not a fan.)
• Some (1/2 cup?  3/4 cup?) Butterfinger ice cream

So I dunno, better than the day before at least.  Cut out the cookie and ice cream and overall pretty good, no?  I have a hard time not eating sweets - I did it for about a month whilst preparing for the aforementioned 10k and hated myself.  I may try it again training for RRR.  We'll see.

Yesterday's exercise:

Did you read the rest of the post?

So I'm going to try and actually blog now, as in posting somewhat regularly and frequently.  Currently, my motivation comes from my desire to run the Red Rock Relay Zion.  I've been training for it for a couple of months now, and aside from some shin splints that caused me to have to change my running stride (which is now much better, many thanks to the people at 26.2 Running in American Fork for being awesome enough to let me exchange a pair of shoes I'd run 10 or so miles in for another pair that better suit a forefoot/midfoot strike, and to my coworker who shall be known as Sven the Free Running Coach), it's been going well.

One of the best things that's been happening is that I've been able to coax myself into eating much MUCH better than I was before.  That's where blogging comes in.  Although I'm eating better, it's not perfect and I find it helps me keep on track to keep track of what I eat.  I've been using MyFitnessPal for this, but I find it tedious to look up everything I eat, and the tedium doesn't really have that "Maybe I won't eat something I know I shouldn't if I know I have to track it" effect.  So instead of tracking it there, I'm going to track it here.  Yes - I'm going to put everything I eat online on a publicly-viewable blog.  That means that, at this point, approximately one or maybe two other people will be seeing what I eat each day.  Big commitment, I know.  There's a good chance this will last all of three days, but I keep thinking if I try and start blogging about something every so often eventually it'll stick.  Maybe.  Anyways, here's my food for yesterday, in roughly chronological order:

• 1 peanut butter cake mix cookie (pick-me-up at 5:30 AM before leaving for work)
• ~1 cup old fashioned oatmeal with sugar and craisins (they taste great in it and the added texture is awesome to keep the oatmeal from feeling so blah)
• ~20 oz Dr. Pepper Ten (don't hate, it was on sale for $0.69 for 2 liters at Maceys and I've got a new baby at home)
• 5 homemade meatballs (smallish ones, not ginormous hunks of calorific meatiness)
• 2 slices Grandma Sycamore white bread
• Some home-canned peaches (not sure how much - a good amount?)
• 1 no-bake cookie
• 1/4 Totino's pizza
•  2 small/medium grilled marinated pork chops
• 1 smallish baked potato with sour cream, chives, and a little ranch
• A bunch of salad with bell peppers, craisins, tomatoes and various dressings (multiple servings, not some dressing suicide mix)
• (This is where it really starts to get ugly)
• One scoop of Butterfinger and one scoop of Baby Ruth ice cream in a bowl
• One small scoop of vanilla ice cream sandwiched in two no-bake cookies
• One scoop of Butterfinger and one of Baby Ruth (again, this time in a sugar cone!)

 Obviously the day didn't end as well as it started (which wasn't all that amazing either?).  Another good thing though is that I get to log what exercise I did:

• Bench press
• Incline press
• Tricep pull-downs
• Lat pull-downs
• Preacher curls
• Squats
• Lunges
• Crunches
• Side Crunches
• Plank
• Boat (if you know what this is, I'm sorry - it hurts!  If not, I'm sorry - you're missing a serious ab-killer)
• Leg lifts (on back, for abs)

Ok so maybe that doesn't sound like much but it was pretty late at night and I did it all pretty quick to keep my heart rate up, so it felt good anyway.

I realize at the end of writing this that my writing is dry.  Painfully so.  Hopefully it will get more interesting/funny/not-painful with practice.  If not, at least there won't ever be that many people looking at what I eat each day.  Yeah, that makes me feel better about my writing.