Tonight I ditched my (br)ipod and used my droid as my music player and a handy little app called “my tracks” to automagically record my run metrics. I know there are other smartphone apps out there that do similar tracking, the nike +, RunKeeper, LogaJog, etc. but this is the first variant I’ve used and I’ve fallen in love with it.

Before I step out the door, I load my tracks, tell it to begin recording and when I return I tell it to stop. Upon completing my recording I’m presented with the option to save my data to google docs. The app plots total time, moving time, average speed, minimum and maximum speed, elevation change, distance and will even create a google map. This is much better than manual tracking and I can see small improvements in my run times by looking at the data collected over the past two weeks.

GREAT SCOT! Has it really been almost three weeks since my last post?

What have I been up to? Let’s see…

• Work – Of course, work takes up a fair portion of my waking hours. I’m not going to ramble on about that here but I’ve been considering some ‘how I get things done’ posts in the near future.
• Sleep … well, not really but I’m fully aware that is an area for improvement. Four hours of sleep per night isn’t cutting it and I continually fall into this bad habit of sleeping less for some reason.
• Parenting – Freya is an amazing little bundle of squiggles. This week she has learned to make a bird-like shriek and sort of freaked us out the other day. Jane was holding her and she started to cry and kick around (typical baby stuff) then buried her face in Jane’s shirt and screamed. This new behavior had us worried for a few minutes until we went through our checklist of baby stuff.
  • Last nap? within the hour
  • Diaper change? just now
  • Last nursing? one hour ago but she only nursed for a few minutes … AHA!

  Sure enough, she was just hungry and nursed like a champ.

  Freya has also been practicing for speech much more often lately. Sometimes I’ll come downstairs for a coffee break and she’ll be laying on Jane’s lap looking up at her and cooing as if telling Jane a story. I wasn’t aware that I could smile so big until this daughter of mine came along.

• Martial arts – My mat time has been limited because trying to be a good parent is a priority. I attend Hapkido classes twice per week (usually Thursday and Saturday) and practice Bujinkan and Hapkido movements at home as part of my solo training. This year, I’ve started drilling down into basic movements and making them solid (again). Once I have more free time I’m planning to gather a Bujinkan group for class twice per week as well as attending and helping with Hapkido classes. I should really start adding my thoughts about martial arts training here because I need to get them out of my head and discuss them with the world.
• Runnning – Kona and I have been out a few times this week and I’m getting ready to don the sweaty running gear that is currently hanging in our guest bathroom shower. More updates on running coming along soon as I start planning for the 1/2 marathon in June. With this much time to prepare I think this is going to be a great experience for me.
• Personal Training – I’ve dusted off the NASM material and have been studying again to take my CPT (certified personal trainer) test. This is another of my great ideas that lost momentum and sort of fell by the wayside. If anyone reading this is interested in a free personal trainer to help me stay motivated and gain experience helping you reach your fitness goals, let me know (contact me here if you don’t have my contact info).

So there it is, a quick and dirty update of my life over the past three weeks. Now, it’s time to lace up and hit the street – puppo is getting antsy.

This weekend I defeated the hill again but one block after the peak I had to slow my pace to a fast walk to allow my breathing and heart rate to normalize. Kona looked back at me, puzzled as if to say “keep pushing, don’t let me down!” But I had to walk for just a bit to catch my breath again, clearly I was excited about the hill climb and had run at a faster pace than normal.

When I got home I felt discouraged by what I considered at the time a failure, the hill had taken just enough out of me that I had to walk part of the route I had chosen to run. However, later in the afternoon I realized that I’m doing myself a favor by pushing a faster pace up the hill and really challenging myself and I started dreaming about doing hill sprints and how the pain involved certainly must be equal to the feeling of accomplishment that comes afterward.

Goal for next week: circle the block twice four double hill climb action.

This past weekend I went running with Kona and I powered through the previously mentioned hill that has been causing me some trouble. At the top my calves were burning so very badly but the endorphin rush at the end was so very worth the little bit of struggle. By the time I made it back to my house and in the door I swear felt like Rocky Balboa or something.

It’s amazing what you can accomplish when you stop listening to the voices that tell you to stop, even though you know you can finish strong. I’m hoping I can make the time to get another good run or two in before 2010 starts so I can hit the ground running … or something like that.

So, one of my renewed personal challenges is to ignore the voices and defeat this hill, it will now be included in all of our run routes. Once I’ve killed this one I’ll move on to other, more intimidating hills in our neighborhood.

Which reminds me – I need to check the elevation map for the 1/2 marathon in June to see what sort of inclines are included.

I’ve just signed up for the Seattle Rock & Roll Half Marathon in an effort to encourage myself to step up my running routine. Over the past 12 months my runs have dropped down to the 2-2.5 mile mark and I realize I’ve fallen into a comfort zone that I need to break out of.

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