Justin Ward's Fitness Jam

Lazy Sunday with Lucas, originally uploaded by Justin Ward.

Sent from my iPhone

It's been quite a while since Vox was launched and I've been giving it a shot here and there over the past couple months.  Much more recently, the folks at Six Apart announced that Movable Type 4 beta is now out.  I went ahead and installed it on my server -- and I've upgraded my crappy personal blog, Ward-o-blog, so that it's now running MT4.  I love it; it takes a lot of the nicer features in Vox and it brings them a little more professional looking environment.  And considering the fact that I hardly have any time to devote to bloggin' in general, I'm going to take any updates to my fitness and running routines over to Ward-o-blog where it'll pick up a bit more traction.

So bye bye, Vox.  You've been good to me.

I got in a run this morning at about 5:45am, which is definitely a great time to be at one with the road and the outdoors in general.  The rest of the world is usually still sleeping, so crossing streets at stoplights tends to be a little bit easier all around.  It allows me to focus on the run and not just the act of "working out," which tends to be a negative mind trigger for me.

When I run, I try to find a perfect mix of music that I'm hugely familiar with.  I don't want to be listening to new stuff when I'm running because I tend to think that it distracts me more than listening to an old fav'.  I was in a good zone today and I hope to continue a good run after that great bike ride yesterday.

I went for a fantastic bike ride this afternoon and it was a pretty far distance for me.  I'm making some good progress there, mostly because I'm having a lot of fun riding a bike.  I never really got into it but now I can see why it's so fun.  And I feel that I'm helping the environment because I'm not adding carbon emissions to the atmosphere.

Riding a bike is fun.  'Nuff said.

Bros

Last night after work was a nice leisurely bike ride on my new Trek 7.2 FX.  I went back and forth from our Metra stop and was there and back in about twenty-five minutes.  It was fun.  A lot of fun, to be exact.  My butt muscles a hurting pretty good right now, too -- man, it's been forever since I've been on a bike.

I was always a skateboarder in my younger years, and I've even thought about re-incorporating that into some of my day-to-day.  As I see it, I'd probably need to lose about 20 pounds to make that even close to a reality.

This morning at 6am was the start of a nice leisurely jog along my 5K training route, and I'm feeling much better progress-wise.  I think the music helped me out -- this new Panda Bear album is unbelievably good, and it was a nice start to the day for me.

Training-wise, I'll be increasing distance each day this week to try and be back at two miles of unstopped running at a good pace.  Looking ahead at the calendar, I'm going to try and convince a few friends that we need to run a 5K in the next month or so.

My New Bike: Trek 7.2 FX, originally uploaded by Justin Ward.

I went out and bought myself a bike yesterday -- and wow, it felt great. I can't believe I've been putting this off after living in the city for as long as I have. I think I'm just uber-scared that I'm going to pay some money for something that'll get stolen right away. It's all in the locking. And it's all in the understanding that it's Chicago and there's a stolen bike trade here and if someone wants that bike, they're going to get it.

I spent most of last week just getting my feet used to the pavement again.  I did a lot of walking that wasn't normally part of daily routine, and of course, it's fairly easy to work in some extra mileage when the weather is as beautiful as it's been in Chicago.  It felt good to get moving again and I probably put in a good 10 miles above and beyond what I would normally walk.  That's a good start.

Last night, I went out for a straight run to see how far I could make it before I felt weak in the knees.  I'm happy that I made it out to run, but man, I had nothing leftover from my training last year.  I really need to learn my lesson on this latest effort -- the work you put in now can dramatically disappear if you don't stay in practice.  I didn't even make it a full mile before my legs started aching bad.  It could have been heat-related as it was nice, warm and humid yesterday.  Still, I'm not making any excuses other than -- "I blew it."  Hoping to not continue down the path of making the same mistakes twice.

My goal is to get in at least five miles of running this week and I'm sure I'll have plenty of time this weekend given that it's Memorial Day.  Hopefully the running weather holds out.