Weekend update with hammock time, Oliver enjoying sun/dirt, and going to the theater... Yard work the plan for Sunday afternoon... It is a good weekend!

Me in Hammock... Oliver in Sun/Dirt

Busy weekend with events Friday evening and then up early Saturday morning. Still, made time to relax in the hammock outside with Oliver. However, he found a nice spot in the yard with good sunlight and a patch of dirt. I will say, that is the only patch of dirt in the back yard, but he finds it and hangs out there any chance he gets.

Friday night we celebrated Carrie's birthday with her family. Yes, her birthday was a few weeks ago, but this was the first time we had to get together as a family to celebrate. Had a wonderful time at The Weather Room. Good drinks, food, and company was good to celebrate her birthday. A perfect ending to the week which seemed like a long week for some reason. I realized that we did not get any pictures Friday night so again I am trying to improve on taking pictures and capturing moments, but still thinking of it after the fact in most cases.

Saturday morning I was up early to attend an event on the Washburn campus for the new law building. Helped to make sure everything was working properly for the meeting being held in the still being constructed law building. It went off without a hitch.

Carrie went to auditions from 1 - 4 pm on Saturday and should hear on a part by Monday. So excited she is auditioning for plays. Hoping she gets a part so I can see Carrie on the stage again.

Saturday night, we were at Topeka Civic Theater to watch The Crucible. Had a fun time at the theater and the play was good. The last time I saw "The Crucible" was probably twenty years ago with Eddie was in the play. The cast did a good job although at the end it felt like it was anticlimactic as this play just ended and the cast came out on the stage. When Eddie was in the play, the end was intense with the sound of those being accused being hung. I still remember that feeling and we talked about it as we left the play last night. Still, the cast did a good job last night and we had a great time.

Sunday is a day to catch up again in the lawn. Need to mow again today and do some clean up from winter with limbs, leaves, etc. Should be a slow Sunday which is good as we prepare for another week. This week Carrie has her Bonner Event Thursday night that she is getting ready for and I plan to attend with her. 

Until next time, have a great week!

Nothing to Say First Part of February… So Rambling Away I Go…

One of those weeks where I cannot think of anything to write about, so I see this as being a rambling post for this Sunday update. Let’s see where this takes me as I write.

We are already five days into February 2023. Hard to believe that January has come and gone. With Carrie being in the hospital in January (see Not a Fun Start to 2023), that made the month fly by and not in a good way. She finished up her last IV appointment this past weekend, but will be taking antibiotics orally for the next two weeks. She is doing well and I appreciate everything who has asked about her status since I did the update a few weeks ago on her hospital stay. Carrie and I will be happy once she is off of the antibiotics and the infection is completely gone.

Now that we are into the month of February, I find myself starting to wonder about our camping sites for this year. We have not made any plans, but we have begun to think about spots. We have thrown out the idea of visiting a camping site near an away football location for Washburn next Fall, but still discussing to see what would make sense and whether it would work out. I think we want to try some new places for our camping sites, but no decisions made yet. Hoping by March we will have some sites booked and planned out for the summer.

In about a month, we will have March Madness, but still a lot of basketball to play before the madness begins. We continue to enjoy attending home Washburn basketball games. We are 8-2 at home, but 1-8 on the road. We missed a few home games when Carrie was in the hospital, but we have been back to the most recent games. Our next home game is February 11 and only three more home games for the season for Washburn.

Kansas Jayhawks have been frustrating to watch here recently too. We lost three games in a row a week or so ago and we were swept by Iowa State this season. KU is 18-5 on the season but 6-4 in conference play. Frustrating to watch at times, but still a lot of season to play.

Baseball season is right around the corner. Recent news from YouTube TV is that MLB Network is gone from the service. While we have not had Royals broadcasts in a few years, I was able to watch MLB Network or even subscribe to MLB.TV through YouTube TV to watch games, but all of that is gone. Contract disputes between MLB and YouTube TV have the service removed. 

I have read a few thoughts from others that they think it will be renewed as Spring Training begins, but guessing that is not the case and lose it completely. While it makes sense it would be removed around this time as it was added a year ago at this time just before Spring Training was starting. I am surprised that only a one year contract was done between the two entities. Granted, I will be able to watch games that are on ESPN, TBS, etc., but it was nice to have all the games (except my local Royals) to watch.

I would be remiss if I did not share that the Kansas City Chiefs are in the Super Bowl a week from today. I am a bit superstitious, so it will be interesting as we lead up to kickoff next week for the big game. Yes, I realize what I do has no impact on the outcome, but it makes me feel better and connects me to the team. So, get ready for the big game and hoping that two weeks of being off will give time for us to heal and be ready to play.

That is all the rambling I can do for today, so have a great week. 

Short Update with Other Odds and Ends Discussed

Augusta Vin Winery Selfie

Not planning on a long update for today. 2023 has started and already eight days into the New Year. It is hard to believe! Carrie and I traveled to Houston, TX between Christmas and New Years Day where we had a great time. Ate a lot of great food, had some drinks, and able to spend time with friends. Oliver had a fun trip too as he went with us on the trip, but he got a little cranky after being away a week and not getting his full rest sleep like he does around our house. But, I think he had a good time seeing new things, playing with Corrie’s dog, and generally just new things for him. Granted, he likes to have his routine, so I know he missed our normal routines that we do each day.

Short update as this was a busy week starting up the New Year. I still have not started working out and while I think about it, just not motivated to start anything at all. Not great, but I do look forward to starting up biking and running again hopefully soon. I am thinking I will do another February working out, eating right, and no alcohol, but I will see how that goes as we get closer to February. 

That’s about all I have for this week. I will try for a longer update next week. Ready for another week of work and I cannot believe the spring semester is starting here in soon. 

Have a great week and I will talk to you later.

Not Working Out, Gaining Weight, and Lost Motivation Since Before Camping Trip in October

I went on vacation and I have not worked out since our trip back at the beginning of November. I worked out one day while we were on vacation and that has been it. I have also completely stopped doing Weight Watchers which is rather disappointing. Going into Thanksgiving Day I had plans to get back on tracking weight this weekend, but the motivation is completely gone.

For three months I did Weight Watchers every day. It worked as I had lost a little over 20 lbs prior to our vacation. I got all the way down to 237. Just a few weeks after my last work out and tracking weight and I am already up to 248. Tough to take off but goes on quick! 

The last time I rode the bike was almost a month ago. So, going camping, vacation, and then enjoying Thanksgiving disrupted my weight loss. I plan to get back to it but taking a break from tracking for now. I plan to not go crazy with eating, but I am not tracking anything I eat. I plan to start it up again in the next week and I want to start riding the bike again too.

I half thought about waiting to track again after December ends, but I think that is too long and it will make it all that more difficult to start it again in January. My goal is to lose about 40 lbs at this point which will get me down to my target weight. To get to my target weight, I need to adjust how I eat. During vacation, and a few times since vacation, I can think of a few times when I ate so much I was full. If I could adjust and keep food to eat later or the next day, this would help a lot. I am happy that prior to going on vacation I lost 20 lbs but now the work needs to start again to continue to my target weight.

Hopefully next week I will have an update of at least getting back on the bike. No plans currently to track food this week, but going to try for moderation of what I eat which can be tough at times.

Until next time, have a great week.

Exercise, Weight Watchers, and Journey to Healthy Weight After Two Months of Weight Watchers

I started Weight Watchers back on August 14, 2022. I have been consistently tracking what I eat each week even when I knew it was going to be well over my points for that day. I have had a few days where I have gone way beyond the points for the day. I laughed because when I started Weight Watchers my daily points was around 42. After the first week, that dropped to 32 a day. I am enjoying the process and I think it is going well.

Here is history of my initial week through this weekend.

Date	Weight	Change	Since Start
10/28/22	236.8	-.6	-20.4
10/21/22	237.4	-1.2	-19.8
10/14/22	238.6	-4.2	18.6
10/7/22
10/1/22	242.8	-4	-14.4
9/25/22	246.8	+.4	-10.4
9/18/22	246.4	-5.4	-13
9/4/22	249.6	-1.2	-7.6
8/28/22	250.8	-2.4	-6.4
8/21/22	253.2	-4	-4
8/14/22	257.2	0	0

Overall, I have lost 20.4 lbs since my start. I am happy with the progress but still a long way to go. The only week I did not weigh in was the week of October 7. We had just returned from being out of town and did not get weight tracked that week. I am happy overall with how I have done after two months. Only one week where I gained week at weigh-in time, so not bad. I want to lose about another 30 - 35 lbs.

I was doing my day to weigh-in on Sunday morings, but realized if I moved my day to weigh-in to Friday morning, that might look a little better. Actually, this is a recent change where I started to do my weigh-in on Friday morning. The largest weeks to lose weight were August 21, September 18, September 25, October 1, and October 14. I am not sure why those days I lost more weight than other weeks. I know at some point I will have a period where I will gain weight or not lose anything at all. I am prepared mentally for those to occur and will not be discouraged.

I like how my clothes are fitting and I feel great! It is amazing what losing double digit pounds can do for my own internal image. It makes me feel great and I do not want to go back to the weight I was previously or how I felt when I was larger. I told someone recently that the largest I have been in my life was during 2020/2021 as I did nothing at all during that time except work, eat, drink, and sleep. I knew I had to do something when we started going back into work and my work clothes did not fit. Things had to change!

 So, I am off to a good start and a long way to go. I am enjoying exercising and I have things that keep me motivated. For me, that’s what it takes to keep me working out is to have motivation for the workout. For me, I like having an Apple Watch that tracks my workouts, heart rate, etc., so I can see that mapped out on my progress. The Weight Watchers app that tracks my weekly weight and let’s me know how I am doing also helps to keep me motivated. As I mentioned, I know that at some point I will have gains but hoping the losses are larger than the gains. I have to keep the motivation and encouragement to myself to keep this going.

As we move into winter months and it continues to get colder, I want to make sure I can run at least once a week. I am thinking about joining the Student Rec at Washburn again, but then I feel bad when I go months without using the gym. So, I am still thinking about it on whether I would want to join the gym just to be able to use the treadmill or weights. It is making sense to me and the cost is low, so I might do it at some point.

I will post another update around December/January, so hoping to still be positive and good news about my weight loss the next time. Until then, I will keep my bike riding, running, and walking to stay active.

Enjoy your workout and until next time, keep the workout going…

A Busy Week in Review from Dinner with Cousins, Meetings, Chiefs Football, Dinner, Tailgating, and Volleyball… What’s Next?

What a week! It was a busy week at work and at home. We went to Kansas City for dinner, I attended meetings downtown on Wednesday and Thursday, Kansas City Chiefs played Thursday night, Friday we met with family at Shirrons’, and then Saturday was Washburn football with Washburn volleyball in the evening. Busy and fun weekend…

Tuesday night Carrie and I traveled into Kansas City to meet up with some of my siblings and cousins. I know my sister, Betsy, has many more pictures, but I was able to take a few pictures of others at the dinner. We met at YaYa’s Euro Bistro in Kansas City. This was the first time for non-Kansas City cousins to attend. We had a fun time and it was great to see everyone. Catch up and hear stories. Our cousin, Mike, had reserved a private dining space for us which worked out great! I hope we are able to do this again in the future and maybe on a weekend.

On Wednesday, I attended meetings in downtown Topeka for the Kansas Board of Regents. Other CIO’s at the regent institutions were attending the meeting to be available for discussion and comment on funding from the state. Happy to report that the funding was approved. I attended to show support and show that Washburn University is involved and needs support. On Thursday, I went back to the Kansas Board of Regents full board meeting where the proposal was approved. Happy to report that Washburn was approved to get funding, so we will be working over the next few weeks to develop a plan for allocation of funds.

This was my first time attending a Kansas Board of Regents meeting and I found it very interesting. It was good to catch up with fellow CIO’s from other institutions. We went out to lunch on Wednesday following the meeting and made plans for Thursday on who would return and how we would proceed. I have been meeting with other CIO’s the past year and this was only our second time to meet in-person as our regular monthly meetings are on-line. It was good to see everyone and share stories over lunch.

Thursday night was Kansas City Chiefs football. We were invited to watch the game at our friend Chris’s house. It was our “lucky” place to watch last year, so he invited us back to watch the game. The Kansas City Chiefs did not look great to start the game, but came to live and we were able to win the game 27 - 24. The Chiefs are 2 - 0 to start the season, so sitting good so far. 

Friday night, Carrie and I went to her parents to have dinner and visit with friends from Arkansas. Nancy and Jack were up for a golf tournament Jack was playing in with Eddie. Such a fun couple! We at dinner and then sat around listening to stories, some of which we have heard a few times, but some new stories too. I love sitting around and hearing stories be told. I will see Nancy and Jack in early October when I am down in Helena, AR for King Biscuit Blues Festival. 

Saturday took us out to Washburn University for tailgating and football. It was a hot Saturday with the sun beating down for most of the first half. I saw a number of friends and it was good to catch up with them. I saw some friends we had not seen in a few years, so it was good to talk to them. One has their daughter attending Washburn, so it sounds like our friends will be out for more games in the future. 

Washburn football did not start off well and could never recover against University of Nebraska at Kearney. We lost the game 21 - 13, so that was disappointing to lose a game and to lose at home. We play at Missouri Western State University on September 24.

Saturday evening, Carrie, Greg, Erin, and I attended Washburn volleyball. We lost against Northwest Missouri State 3 - 1. We got behind to start 2 - 0, won the third set, and then could not get it going in the fourth set. A rare loss for Washburn volleyball.

A busy week also means that I did not eat too great. Football, tailgating, and seeing family and friends had me eating well over my points for the week. So, at my weigh-in Sunday morning, I gained two pounds over last week. Disappointed, but I am not surprised based on how I ate this past week. 

This week will likely not be much better with our first Royals game of the season on Friday and then Saturday a fancy dinner to celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary. I will continue to stay focused and hope to get back to working out too. That was the other part I did not get in this past week with everything happening was that I only worked out twice. So, a lot of room for improvement for this week. 

Posting this update mid-day on Sunday as I did not have a chance to write or think about a post during the week. Hoping to get back on target this next week. Have a great week and I hope the weather stays cool.

Started Weight Watchers on August 14 and Finishing One Week… Feeling Good and Ready to Keep Going!

I have officially started Weight Watchers. I started last Sunday, so I am finishing up my first week watching what I eat. I have enjoyed the process so far as I use the app to count points and track what I eat. It is all done on-line now and no need to go into the physical location. This is my first time trying Weight Watchers, or really any type of weight management program, so I am excited to see how it works. 

Tomorrow marks my first weigh-in since starting last week. It was a descent start to the program although on Monday, I used up all of my daily points and tapped into weekly points. Friday night was also not a good night for me as I ate more than my daily points, had a few glasses of wine, and a delicious peach cobbler to celebrate Greg’s birthday. I am not expecting to lose a lot of weight this first week, but I do feel really good! It is amazing how much better I feel when eating well, not drinking (as much) alcohol and I am excited to be doing this program.

I have been staying on my bike this week and I am feeling good when I ride. I rode last Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday. I plan to start the new week riding on Sunday too. I know I have said it a few times the past few months, but I still want to get some jogging in at least once a week before it gets cold. I keep thinking I will start it up on a Saturday, but so far it has not started.

A little more about my experience with Weight Watchers and the app… Easy to use. I can search for foods, or I like it best when I can scan and have it added. I have free foods which include popcorn, fruits, eggs, and poultry. Even though I have items that are free, I have been entering them to track what I am eating. The app works well although it would be nice if I could copy foods from one day to the current day. It seems like this would be an easy process, but the times I have tried to do this step, it moves the food from the day it was entered to the current day instead. I did find that I can connect with others through the app although not sure what it does exactly. I thought maybe I could encourage others, or they could encourage me, but so far it only appears to show anything if a post is written and shared. Still working through the app and what options are available.

We are approaching tailgate season, so I hope to stay on track even when tailgating this fall for Washburn football. Ready to cheer on the Ichabods and do some tailgating now that we have a tailgate parking spot. Excited to get out there for the first game which is September 1.

Watch for future updates on my Weight Watchers status and hoping to have some updates about jogging soon too.

Short Update for this Week About Time Flying

Just a short update for this week as I am working on an update to outline what we did on our vacation to celebrate my 50th birthday the later part of July. More on that in a later post in August. 

I believe I say it every year, but I cannot believe that July is over. The month, summer, and year are flying by and it only seems to get faster the older I get. The fall semester is getting ready to start as we are preparing the campus for students to return. Seriously, it seems as though the fall semester just started from 2021, but yet, here we are and 2022 fall term is starting. It feels a bit crazy!

Until next time, enjoy the start of August and hopefully the month does not fly by too fast.

YouTube TV Guide Finally Updated

After I had almost given up on having my YouTube TV guide update it finally updated. I now have the new guide and it is so much better on the Roku device. I can see what shows we have set to record, information about the show, and overall general improvement with how the guide operates. It took a few months for the update to finally arrive on my YouTube TV guide where Carrie has had it on her profile for a few months. A slow roll out from YouTube TV to users it would appear.

I like the new update and happy to finally have it on my account. It might just be me and my eyes, but the font seems to be a little smaller. I did not find a spot to increase the font, but I think it will be fine the way it works. The guide is not bad in the picture I snapped of it today although it is on a larger TV so it looks good.

Short update for this week and mainly calling out that I finally got the new update. Hopefully we will see more updates and changes from YouTube TV in the future. This was a much needed update just to be able to see what is playing, recording, and read the description without going to the show. 

Progress Report for February 2022 Working Out... Did Better on Quantity but Dipped on Length

Another month down in 2022 and here is my status update for working out or more specifically riding my bike. February 2022 was really good for me with consistency of working out. I worked out twelve times throughout the month. I am still targeting Ally Love for my live events on Sunday mornings at 11 am CDT. I met every single Sunday with Love event for February with at least one going as long as one hour. It felt great and I love the energy Ally brings to the rides, so that helps to keep the process fun and new each week. Plus, she likes to change up the music and what we are doing each week, so that makes the rides fun and something I look forward to each week. Each time I have done one of her live classes that is an hour, I never look forward to the ride as it starts the hour long ride, but so grateful once I am finished. She helps to motivate and keep us focused on what we need to do during the ride.

During one such ride I hit a high of 337 for my for best output. This happened to be the 60 minute ride, so no wonder it beat all of my other outputs for February. Still, I had a good time and look forward to continuing the live rides in March too.

As I mentioned, I worked out consistently for 12 days through the month of February. I kept on my target days as planned except for the last week of the month, but sometimes it is needed to modify workout days if something else is happening on that particular day. I have had prior months where I had to change my target date for working out every day, so it was good to get my target dates in for workouts and not have to modify.

I still have plans that once the weather improves (i.e. no snow) that I will start running at least once a week to increase the workouts per week to four. I have not run in over a year, so I am looking forward to including that into my routine. The current plan is to introduce running on Saturday mornings which would mean I would be working out back-to-back days, but I think it will be good to do and help with my overall workout process.

One thing I did during February was to cut out all alcohol. I did not post about this previously or hint that I was going to do this during the month. It was primarily to see how much weight I would lose by not drinking beer or any liquor. Granted, I did without any beer through February, but I did not necessarily change what I ate. Which is to say that I was not eating great for most of February.  I went from 264 on February 1 to 258.2 on February 28. Not bad for only giving up beer, but I was hoping to be more. Carrie and I plan to further target our eating habits in the next week or so where I will once again limit what I drink, but more importantly what I put in my belly each week. I could tell I had lost a few pounds as clothes started fitting a little better, but still a long way to go for my health.

Reviewing my monthly stats are not too bad. I was hoping my average ride time was going to be higher for February, but it is right around 17 minutes per ride. I was hoping to be up around 30 minutes per ride, but while I got workouts in each time, I had some that were shorter than I had hoped as we were heading to places, other plans, etc., where I had to notify my planned ride. As I mentioned last month, I also usually do a cool down after each ride, so that helps to skew the numbers. 

I like that Peloton sends out these notices after the month is over to give a break down of how I did the prior month. To think that I biked 106.7 miles during February is a good feeling, but I think I can continue to increase these numbers as I continue my biking experience. Calories burned is interesting too int his monthly stats report. Of course that is offset by what I eat outside of cycling. During February, I did not do beer, or alcohol, but as I mentioned, I continued to not eat very well, so while I had 5,737 calories burned from bike riding calorie intake was not great during the month.

Something I keep saying I am going to try is to do portion control. I have a bad habit of eating everything on my plate when we go out to eat. I remember my parents when they would go out to eat, they would always split their plate or immediately do half and take the other half home. Good examples for me moving forward on my path to getting older and not able to lose weight as fast I did when I was younger.

Until next time, enjoy your bike rides and workouts…

Progress Report for January 2022 Working Out... Dipped a Little with Holidays... Reading and Biking

A pat on my back... I have been sticking to my regular workouts the past few weeks. In fact, in January, I worked out every week for my three workouts as I had planned. I did have to adjust days, but I was able to stick to my days and get the workouts done. I have no issue moving my workout days, so it worked out well. So far in February, I am off to a great start for this month.

I worked out a total of 13 days during January. I am feeling good on the bike and can ride for almost an hour without any discomfort. As the weather begins to change, I do intend to start walking/jogging at least once a week too. Hoping to start this new process in March or April. I really enjoyed jogging when I was doing so much of it not too many years ago. It felt good and I enjoyed the process. My dog, Oliver, enjoyed it too as he knew that the days I would run, he would get a walk. 

My best workout for January was a "Ally with Love" Feel Good Ride on January 23. I achieved my best output during the ride. I felt good throughout and did another workout following the 30 minute ride. The Sunday rides are almost always live rides for me while the other two days that I ride are typically recorded, scenic, or just ride sessions. I look forward to the live rides on Sunday and rode in the largest live group I have been a member of in early February with almost 10,000 people in the ride. It was fun and a lot of high fives throughout the ride to me and from me as I did my ride. It was fun!

You will usually find me on the bike on Sunday mornings at 11 am doing my live ride. Almost always with Ally Love although sometimes another instructor does the 11 am session, it usually is Ally Love. So fun and she keeps the energy of the workout, so it makes the whole process fun.

A further look at my monthly stats from January see I did a total of 22 workouts during January. I worked out for a total of 391 minutes in January for an average of 17.78 minute workout of my 22 workouts. Typically following a ride, I will do a five minute cool down, so the average is skewed a little with those extra workouts. If I take the days I worked out (13) and the 391, that comes out to an average of 30 minutes each workout... which is correct. As I have started February workouts, I have started to extend my workouts to 45 - 60 minutes although this sometimes depends on time or when I start the ride.

I like the total miles traveled of 98.3 and calories burned of 5,395 during January. I use my Apple Watch to monitor heart rate, so I think the calories burned are as accurate as possible. I feel good looking back on my stats from January and feel confident in my progress eleven days into February.

I continue to read while I bike which has been enjoyable. The main point is that I can read for 30 - 60 minutes and the riding of the bike while reading keeps me awake so I do not fall asleep while I ride. Reading while I bike has been a new task I started back in early January and I really enjoy the process. I typically read on the Tuesday/Thursday workout days leaving the live ride to focus on the instructor instructions.

On a side note, if you have not been watching the news, the Peloton brand is struggling. The brand has been struggling the past few months and it looks like they will be purchased by another company. So far the companies in the hunt of buying Peloton include Apple, Amazon, and Nike. It will be interesting to where Peloton is at in another few months. Peloton has a large following of customers and fans, so I do not think the brand will be broken but hopefully if it is purchased it will include new features or benefits.

Keep riding and see you in the bike routes...

Progress Report for December 2021 Working Out... Dipped a Little with Holidays... Reading and Biking

December 2021 working out was a little less than I had expected, but only one day fewer than I had done in November 2021. So, overall, not bad, but I could have used a few more days of working out. When I went back to work on January 3, I noticed some of my work pants fit a little more snug than they had prior to the holiday season. So, I am still working on getting back into the swing of things. I only worked out 9 days during December as indicated to the right. I plan to increase my workout to the three times a week and stick to it moving forward. If I need to adjust my days, that is not an issue, but I need to make sure to stay with my plan of working out three days a week. Taking more than three days off from riding is almost like starting over when I ride again. 

My plan for February 2022 is to completely remove alcohol. I know from past experience when I do this removal, I lose all kinds of weight and really feel a lot better. So, come February 1, 2022, I will be going the month not drinking beer or any alcohol. Yes, I know the Super Bowl is in there, but it seems like a good time to go without and try to get my body feeling better. More on this as February approaches and my status.

Overall for December, I did well with working out. I spent 189 minutes working out during December and traveled 43.7 miles as tracked through Peloton. While the calories burned looks really good, it does not help that I also would eat whatever I wanted and have beers. So, I am hoping that February will help get me back into better exercise with better results and also eating better too. Doing so for a month will help me and I am hope that during that month I will get to the point where I like it and continue to eating trend into March.

Carrie and I have both done this type monitoring with our food intake and alcohol removed from diet, but it has been a few years. We both plan to eat better and remove fast food from our routine when working. Most of it comes from it being so easy to pick up something to eat instead of spending time to prepare lunch or dinner which is healthier than Quarter Pounder with Cheese from McDonalds.

In regards to my bike riding, I am starting to feel better on the bike. I enjoy my rides and look forward to riding the bike. My backside still gets sore, but it is getting better. I am riding regularly 30 minutes on my rides. I will plan to continue 30 minute rides through January and then increase to 45 minute rides for February. I am taking the slow approach and gradually moving back into where I was at back in early July 2021 with riding. I still have issues with sore knees or stiff legs the day after riding, but I do feel much better than I do when I was jogging on a regular basis. Yes, I still have plans to start jogging at least one day a week although at this point, that will likely not occur until probably May or June.

One thing I have started as of about two weeks ago is to read while I bike. I have started reading again and reading a lot. I find it helpful to read while I am biking as it completely takes me out of my head and I can focus on the content of the book instead of my journey of riding. More on this later in another post later this month as I continue my reading journey. I do enjoy reading and riding whether I am doing instructor led or solo bike rides, it has been a good journey and makes the process fun.

Watch for another update on my exercise status in early February. Enjoy your biking, jogging, or whatever exercise you are doing.

Progress Update for One Month Mark of Bike Riding and Exercise... A Starting Over Approach

When I posted back on October 31 that I was starting my exercise routine again (see post), I posted the total workouts I had done as I started that process. I plan to do monthly updates each month to show my progress. At the end of October as I was starting a regular routine, I was at 275 total workouts. I planned to ride three times a week. I did not meet that goal exactly, but I did manage to get a workout in at least once a week and usually more than once a week, but it depended on what was happening that particular week.

As of today, December 5, 2021, I have 290 workouts. I averaged about ten minute rides for my workouts during this time. I am still battling the fatigue of getting back into biking and struggling with my backside hurting from the seat, but it is getting better. I know the more I ride the better it will get. For the first month, I was keeping my rides anywhere from 10 - 15 minutes. This past week, I have started doing longer rides at 20 minute workouts. I plan to stay in 20 minute range for a few weeks before expanding out to longer rides.

Started November at 275 workouts... A month later, I am at 290 workouts.

It feels good to be back on the bike and getting some type of routine going in terms of exercise. My plan for early morning workouts did not go very well as I struggled to get up those extra 30 - 40 minutes early to get on the bike, so I decided for now, as long as I am riding, doing so after work will be enough for me. I make sure that during the week when I get home from work, I do not do anything else, but go straight to change and get on the bike. That helps to not cause loss of focus on doing the ride. Sometimes other evening events interfere, but I am working through trying to plan for those so I can change days or get up early and workout.

My long-term goal is to work in a jog for my workouts giving me four days a week to exercise. That will likely not happen again until sometime in the spring at this point. I am happy to report that after a year of owning the Peloton Bike (see post from November 15, 2020) I am back to using the bike and plan to make it my routine moving forward. Regardless of whether we are traveling, tired, etc., I plan to keep some form of exercise in my weekly habit. Once the habit stops, it is so difficult to get it started again and I do not want to restart this process of becoming accustom to the bike in the future.

Until next month with another update from my exercise, have a great workout and see you on the virtual trails of Peloton!

New CIO for Washburn University as of October 2021

Many of you already know, but I have a new job at Washburn University. As of October 2021, I am the Chief Information Officer (CIO). In July 2021, our CIO announced he would be leaving Washburn to return to the east coast to work. I asked about being interim CIO and in the middle of July it was announced that I would be the interim CIO for Information Technology Services (ITS). 

I learned a lot in the few months while I was interim CIO. I wanted to make sure that by being interim CIO that I could still apply for the CIO position and I was told that was not an issue. So, I started working on updating my resume. Carrie put me in touch with a company she had heard great things from others about helping with their resume, so I reached out to Grammar Chic, Inc to start the process.

I already had some vacation scheduled at the end of July, so by the time I was able to connect with Grammar Chic to discuss my resume, I was on vacation and already doing the interim CIO stent. I had sent them copies of my resume which I had been using for for whole career and I thought it was good. After going through the process with Grammar Chic, my resume was completely reformed and it is so much better! I would highly recommend Grammar Chic to help with your resume and cover letter.

I could not be more excited then to be the CIO for Washburn University. I am learning new things everyday and dealing with new challenges each day too. On October 5, 2021, I was announced to the campus as the new CIO.

While I do not post a lot about work on my blog, I wanted to post an update to document and share the news with those I have not been able to talk to about my recent career change. I want to thank my family and friends who helped me with this change along with the encouragement. I would also like to thank the ITS staff I work with and those that gave me advice on the process. 

Yesterday, Carrie helped me clean out my old office in Bennett Computer Center to throw out old items and move paperwork to my new office. While I had been working out of Morgan Hall room 215B since the first part of August, I am now completely out of Bennett Computer Center and it feels good to be done with the move. Carrie is encouraging me to have my new office painted, we are buying pictures for the new office, and once it is painted, we will go back to hang the newly acquired art work. 

I do plan to keep at least an annual update to this space on my job and progress. I look forward to providing my expertise and passion for Washburn University in this new role. I could not be more grateful for the opportunity.

Where Has October Gone and What is Next?

Is it hard for others to believe we are in the middle of October? It seems like a blur the past year and half and it only keeps going faster through the days and months. Before long it will be 2022 and I will be talking about it being hard to believe we are half-way through 2022. Wow! I know time seems to speed up as I get older, but I could use it slowing down just a little. 

Speaking of things going by fast, baseball season is nearing an end. The regular season ended just two weeks ago and we are into the playoffs. I am having fun watching the games although I really do not have a dog in the fight, but enjoy watching the games. Of course football season is chugging right along. Not anywhere near where I thought the Chiefs would be at this point in the season (2 - 3) so we need to be careful or we might end up missing out on the playoffs. The start of practices started for college basketball and here before long we will have the first games of the 2021-2022 season. I cannot wait!

We are preparing for another camping trip. Like our first time we went back in April, this will be a chilly camping trip. We are excited and looking forward to a few days outside. We are planning to take Oliver, but with it being 39 degrees on Saturday morning when I am writing this update, I am a little concerned it might be too cold for Oliver. We will have him in a sweater and fires going every night, but he has been shivering just about every time we let him outside here the past week or so and today is the coldest it has been thus far. So, we will see how he does on our camping adventure. Carrie and I cannot wait to get out there to camp and relax. We are taking lawn games to play during the day and look forward to just relaxing for a few days. 

Overall, a relaxing weekend and I am looking forward to a lazy Sunday with football, naps, and grilling in the evening for dinner. Oh, I do have to mow Sunday morning. Our yard is doing great after over seeding a few weeks ago. The bare spots in our yard are now covered with nice green grass. Keeping the watering going and hopefully through the winter months and the grass will still be in the yard. In the spring, I plan to work on the flower beds in our front yard to get them looking presentable. There is always something to be done.

The end of October, Carrie and I are hoping to connect with a friend for dinner and then pop into Lawrence another weekend to meet my Uncle and Aunt for dinner that we have not seen in a long-time. We are also trying to line up a time for Javier to come visit us in November for Washburn football and hanging out, so hopefully a lot more to write about as October ends and November gets started. There I go again putting us into November and making the months fly by…

Until the next time, have a great week!

How Do You Automate Your Blog to FaceBook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Others?

 

Like most everyone else on the internet, I have social media sites on a variety of platforms. I use Twitter almost exclusively but for various reasons I also have accounts on FaceBook, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Flickr. As I get back into posting regularly to my blog, I am trying to work through the processes of automatically posting to various sites. The sites I have focused on include Twitter, FaceBook, and LinkedIn.

When I was blogging on a regular basis a few years ago, there were different options for auto posting to Twitter and FaceBook, but the services I used before either stopped those options or services such as FaceBook no longer allows for posting to profile but only to a page. So, I created a page on FaceBook and still not really sure what I am doing, but it seems odd as people have to subscribe to the page in order to see the posts. I am simply trying to reach my contacts on FaceBook so they can see my posts that may not normally check other social media sites or following my blog. FaceBook has made the process of sharing content to your own profile a little complicated. It seems odd to me that in order to automate sharing content to FaceBook that I have to do so to a page and not my profile. 

I did find some services that allow for sharing that cost money, but this is a personal blog for fun and I am not interested in paying for any services. I am using IFTTT to post to my FaceBook Page as well as to my LinkedIn profile. I also use dlvr.it for posting to Twitter and just realized I have it set up to post to LinkedIn too. I will probably leave it for this post to see how it works as I set it up earlier this week and had not posted anything to see how it works.

So, with this post, I am checking how various automated postings work that I have tried to change. I am looking to increase followers on various platforms. Finally, I am looking for feedback from various bloggers I follow to get their input on auto sharing to various social media sites. How do you share your content and automate that process?

I look forward to seeing how this works to my social media sites. I am also interested to hear from other bloggers on how they share and automate their site sharing. Please feel free to comment directly on this blog post or on the various social media sites where this is posted.

Update on Riding Peloton Bike, Working Out, and Struggles Have Gone Through to this Point in my 23 Day Riding Streak

 

After getting our Peloton bike on Friday, November 13 (see post), I have been working out daily with a streak of 23 days. I have biked everyday since getting the bike. Some long rides (45 minutes), a few medium length rides, and then a few short rides too. Overall, I have felt great during all of my rides. The first week, or week and half, my behind hurt from the seat (saddle). That eventually went away and do not notice sitting in the saddle much any more. 

What is hurting right now are my legs. Even during a 20 minute ride, my legs start burning and doubts start cropping into my head that I am not going to be able to finish the ride. I can barely push the peddles which made me wonder if maybe I am riding too much or too long of rides each time I ride. So, Friday, I did an easy ride of only about 15 minutes. It worked! Saturday, I did a 45 minute (see stats) ride and felt great! It was a tough 45 minute workout that was intense, but I felt really good throughout the ride. Later in the day my legs did hurt, but it was a good kind of hurt letting me know I had done a good workout.

One thing I have been battling is that my left foot becomes sore during a ride. Almost as though it falls asleep. I have looked for answers and might have found what is happening, but I have not done anything yet to fix the issue. For my bike rides, I wear special shoes with cleats that snap into the bike peddles. I think on my left foot the cleats might be up too far on the sole of my feet. I have no issues with my right foot, but left foot becomes uncomfortable on longer rides. So, I am going to try and move the cleat up, or down, to see if that resolves the issue.

I plan to keep my daily streak going. As we get back to "normal" later in 2021 (hopefully) I know it will take planning on my part to either make sure I get up early and ride or ride after getting back from an event. But, I think I can keep it going and keep the streak going. 

The picture on the left is my new profile picture on the Peloton site. Snapped it Saturday, December 5 prior to my 45 minute ride. I figured I had my previous picture as posted in my November 15 post since Carrie took that picture that it was time to post a new picture. 

Happy riding and be sure to connect with me if you are a Peloton member. As of today, I am following 15 and have 14 followers. It is fun to connect with others giving high fives in rides and receiving high fives as I ride.

On another note, today is my mom's birthday so wishing a big Happy Birthday Mom!

A Lot of Happenings and Updates... From September 2019 to October 2020

Intro

Busy time the past few months... which means no updates from me on here. I will see if I can catch up as I think through what has happened from 2019 to now. My last update was following a trip Carrie and I made to Minnesota to see the Royals play. While a lot has happened since that trip, I will cover some of the happenings briefly. Of course now we are all trying to do the best we can with COVID-19 affecting all aspects of our lives.

The fall semester had me finishing up my second to last class for the Masters of Communication and Leadership. A busy semester in the fall as I started my class after getting back from our trip to Minnesota which required a group project. Overall, the process went well and I enjoyed the course plus it put me one step closer to my final semester and Capstone project to be decided, researched, and written. Ultimately I finished my coursework and graduated spring 2020. However, like everyone else, we did not have a formal graduation and really not much of a celebration. Still planning to hold a party at some point to celebrate my accomplishment.

Tap That Topeka and Sports at Washburn 2019

At the end of September after returning from Minnesota, we attended the 2019 Tap That Topeka. Always a good time, in 2019 we had another wonderful time. Sampled so many great beers and made some wonderful memories. This was our forth time to the beer festival and it is so fun. They moved it to be the evening which is much better so we do not roast in the summer sun. With COVID-19, the event was canceled. It was planned to be July 2020, but the whole event was canceled for safety concerns which was the right choice. Hoping they will have Tap That Topeka in the summer of 2021 and all of this is behind us. More information is available at the Tap That Topeka web site.

Throughout the fall and (part of) spring semester, we were attending sporting events at Washburn. Again this year we had season tickets to Washburn Football. We had a fun time at the games and always fun seeing family and friends at the game. Last year Greg and I decided to split tickets for Washburn basketball games. We made it to a lot of the home games although my class during the fall semester took me away from some games. No football for Washburn of course for the fall 2020 season. We have had some beautiful weather and sitting outside in my back yard, I think of all our great times at Washburn tailgates and football games. Again, hoping fall 2021 is much different and we are back at sporting events. I cannot image being an athlete and not being able to play.

King Biscuit Blues Festival 2019

Thinking back to King Biscuit Blues Festival (KBBF) 2019 seems so long ago. Really missed not going this year and had fun sharing pictures, memories with friends and family when it would normally have occurred which would have been October 8 - 10, 2020. So, instead, I will review our time at the KBBF 2019 event.

Javier, Corrie, and Carrie were all able to join this year. We had a large time listening to great music, hanging out with family, and friends. As I recall, the weather was great for the KBBF 2019. 

Thur Set List KBBF 2019

I managed to take pictures and keep them of the set lists for two of the days. The first day had fun artists performing. My favorite from the first day (Thursday) was Ruthie Foster. Much better now that we start a little later (noon) instead of 11 am which we did for a number of years and then finish a little earlier too. We used to get done around midnight each night, but now it is usually 10:30 or 11 depending on how late the last act performs.

I sure hope we can go back next year. I did spend the time it would have been this year (October 8 - 10) listening to lots of blues music. I listened to KBBF playlists I had created in previous years for acts playing each of the previous four years. Made for good memories and spent some time on the patio one nice day listening to songs and remembering the previous years.

The other set list I have is from the Saturday, October 12 list. Kate Brothers are always good and did not disappoint this time either. A good day spent all three days listening to music. Again, hard to believe that we did not have KBBF 2020 this year.

Maple Leaf Festival

As I was reviewing events we did in the end of 2019, I remembered we went to Maple Leaf Festival in Baldwin, KS. We always enjoy our time to the Maple Leaf Festival. We went with Greg, Erin, and Brenda. The weather was perfect although we did not buy a lot, we looked around at a lot of items and enjoyed the outdoors. Another even that because of COVID-19, we were unable to attend Maple Leaf Festival 2020 as it was canceled. Hoping this one will be back in 2021.

Chiefs Football and Champs!

Jack, Tim, and John at Chiefs Game

What a year to be a Chiefs fan! I had the opportunity to go to a Chiefs game on December 1, 2019 with my brother Tim. Of course, he got perfect seats for us right on the 50 yard line and would not take any money for them... I did buy beers for us during the game though. 

It is still hard to believe that the Chiefs won the Super Bowl but it feels so good when I remember! We were 12 - 4 during the regular season 5 - 3 at home and then 7 - 1 on the road! Wow! Hard to believe that we watched on February 2, 2020. Had little idea what the rest of 2020 would look like for us with a huge SB win for our Chiefs.

I watched the Super Bowl on February 2, 2020 at Greg and Erin's with family and friends. Carrie was sick this day and unable to attend. You might recall that in 2014 when the Kansas City Royals went to the playoffs, Carrie was sick that first day and we had one of the most epic games in Royals baseball to come back, win, and go on to play in the World Series. So, it was probably an omen for Carrie to be sick for the Super Bowl as we did need a miracle to come back and win that game. I recall going into the fourth quarter and we were all pretty sad bunch watching the game. That all quickly changed and game over with Chiefs winning it all. Fun memory to remember and it seems like so long ago with everything going on.

New Years Eve off the Hook

Brenda, Carrie, and I New Years Eve 2019

For the first time in I do not recall how long, we decided to have a New Years Eve party to finish out 2019. Who knew that it would be the last party we could have for a while. We invited a number of our friends and family to attend. We had a lot of fun to bring in the New Year. 

We did all the normal things on a New Years Eve celebration. Drinks (lots of drinks), food, conversation, and games. We played games with small groups and games with everyone attending. A few of us played games until almost 3 am. I did finally have to stop drinking and say I was going to go to bed... I might have received a little grief from my brother-in-law, Greg, but he did not want the night to end as we were all having so much fun. 

See all the pictures from our New Years Eve 2019 celebration on Flickr.

Wine and Friends Trip to Fredericksburg, TX 2020

During the summer of 2019, Corrie, Javier, Chuck, Melissa, Carrie, and I all had the idea of meeting up in Fredericksburg, Texas in January 2020. We picked out a VRBO place to stay. Had a wonderful time. So much so that we are planning to do so again this year pending any restrictions that might be in place come January 2021. We took a lot of memories from our trip with 111 pictures during our trip. Some great pictures in the group and wonderful memories of spending time with friends in Texas.

We are planning another trip now for January 2021 by going through to make our selections for where to stay. We think we want to stay some place different than we did last time. I expect a lot more pictures and a lot more stories... I will try to record where we go this time around so I can write it here and note our favorites. 

Oh, I did forget to mention that we did sign up for two wine clubs which has been fun getting wine in the mail about every three months. This is the first time we have ever signed up for a wine club and we did two of them while in Texas. We had wine shipped back years ago from California when we visited wine country, but had never signed up for a wine club. So fun! It is obvious we need to drink more wine though as it is starting to collect in our dining room wine cabinets.

Quick Trip to Lincoln, NE

Took a quick weekend trip to Lincoln, Nebraska to see a band with Greg and Erin. This happened on a weekend about a week after we had returned from Texas. A friend of Erin and Greg was the stage manager for Blue Man Group, so we went up to see them and enjoy the town. I had never seen the Blue Man Group and had a really good time. I think we hit just about every brewery and drank a lot of delicious beers. For a quick get away, and again not knowing this would be one of our last get a ways for a few months, it was a lot of fun.

More on Sports, Kansas Basketball, Washburn, and March

When I started this post back in early February, I thought we would be enjoying sports, like usual, throughout the spring season. March Madness was about to begin, Chiefs had won the Super Bowl, and baseball was about to start. Greg and I had our season tickets for Washburn basketball games and still had a few games to attend. The first part of March looked to be a regular start of March Madness with basketball starting.... and then just about the time all the tournaments were starting, everything was canceled. Some games resumed, but eventually all games were canceled and the difficult decision was made by the NCAA to cancel all tournaments including the NCAA Tournament. 

I cannot image what it was like to be an athlete during this past year and then having the season canceled. Essentially going the rest of the spring season without sports and then student athletes, and professional athletes, not knowing what the summer or fall season would look like for sports. We all went about five months without any sports at all. It was difficult for a spectator, but again, I cannot imagine how it felt for athletes not being able to play. 

Here we are now in October and closing fast on the end of 2020... which we are all ready to have end... Sports are happening now but with limited fans, or in the case of baseball, no fans at all. We started seeing sports again in July as cases of COVID-19 began to decline, but now we are seeing cases increase again with our highest single day totals since the pandemic began. We will see where we go from here with sports and hope we can continue to have sports in our lives and everyone one of us stays healthy and safe during these trying times.

COVID-19, Working from Home, and Lack of Exercise

No doubt that COVID-19 rocked all of our lives. It has changed how we live forever and no where is this seen more than in our work lives. We were very busy at work getting everyone ready to work remote for our faculty, staff, and students and eventually everyone in ITS was working from home. We did this for for about three solid months. In June, I started going back full-time with only one other person from my office going in with me. Everyone else and much of the campus was working from home. 

Working from home was fun the first few weeks. Get out of bed, put on a nice shirt, brush my hair, and get ready for the day. No travel time needed and had everything I needed because I was at home. After a about a month of this setup, it started to get old for me. First of all, the first few weeks I sat at our table in our family room basically all day long and my back started hurting so bad I could barely walk. I had to make sure I took breaks in order to get up from the table and at least walk around, go outside to play with Oliver, or basically get away from work. 

I found myself working more at home because I could get up in the morning, start working, and then go into the evening hours continuing to work because it was all right there on-line and ready for me to do any time of the day. We had a lot happening between about end of March to the beginning of June, so there was always something that could be done and always something that needed to be done.

For most of the time working at home, Carrie and I would have an adult beverage at exactly 5 pm every night of the week. It got to the point where I could not wait for 5 pm to happen so we could have our drink. This happened during the week and weekends and often times would not only have a drink but continue to work while I had a beverage. We were eating in a lot with Carrie doing the cooking so things were good. 

Slowly, I noticed that after the first month when I would join an on-line meeting my neck was thicker, rolls in my throat were starting to really show. In June when I finally started going back to work and had to start wearing pants appropriate for work, I found that my regular work pants no longer fit. Yes, I had been eating and drinking with no exercise for so long that I had outgrown my regular work pants. I was left wearing jeans which were a little too big when I first started wearing them back in February and now were a little snug.

As the months progressed through the summer months, Carrie and I started to order more on-line for delivery. Again, not much exercise happening but we had slowed down on having beverages every night starting a 5. We agreed that we would only have beverages on the weekends and not every night of the week. This helped a little as I could get back into my work pants again and did not have to throw them all out and buy new. 

I also started running during this time which was good. I ran for about eight weeks and then I got lazy and basically stopped completely. I have not run in so long at this point, I would have to start over. I could start again as I truly enjoy running, but I have found that my knees are very painful. Hurts to go down the stairs when I get up in the morning and lately my right knee hurts if I kneel and put any weight on my right knee with sharp pains going through my knee. So, not ideal, but I think it is from running. So, I do not plan to run any more. More on this on a future post about exercise plans.

Now in October, we are fully back in the office at least for my area. Other areas of IT are working remotely, but for our area, we need to be on site to install computers, meet with our customers, and keep the campus going as there is on site instruction and work to be done.

Graduation

Virtual Graduation from Washburn University 2020

I did it! I graduated! Not the ending I, or anyone who graduated in 2020, expected, but it is where we were at at the time. I saw my name scroll across on a virtual graduation. Shared some pictures, texts, and emails with friends who graduated with me. Still hoping to have a party eventually in our back yard to celebrate my accomplishment, but that will wait for another time and might just be a party to have a party.

I graduated with a Masters in Communication and Leadership from Washburn University in May 2020. It took me four years to complete taking only one course each semester. The first year, we were not offered any summer classes, but I believe the other summers we did have summer classes we were able to take which helped speed up the process to graduation. Overall, I really enjoyed the process and the courses. Being all on-line means lots of writing in forums for thoughts and discussions with fellow students; it also meant lots of papers with papers being required in every one of the classes. Sometimes with multiple papers required for one class. 

I think the discussions and papers helped me to understand the content and made some lasting connections with students in my classes. With others being in the classes from Washburn I knew some of them already, but this was not only discussing with them in discussion posts, but often times doing group projects with them too.

I am happy to be done. After I graduated in 1999, I never thought I would go back to school. I am so happy that Washburn University created and approved the Masters of Communication and Leadership as it was exactly what I needed and fit perfectly with my expectations for the program and career. 

Wrap It All Up to End this Post

A lot has happened since my last post as outlined above. I was sidetracked in doing posts to my blog with finishing school, work, and then COVID-19 affecting our lives. I post this to catch up with some of the things that have happened since my last post, as I mentioned, but also to help get me back into the swing of posting on a regular basis. My goal is to post at least once a week from this point forward... might not be long posts, like this one, but at least once a week is my goal. See how it works out and looking forward to regular posts again.

Be safe and connect with your friends and family as often as possible.

Middle of October and Only a Few Months Left in 2020

Where has 2020 gone and where have I been? I look out at my blog as see the last time I posted was September 28, 2019. Wow! Time has flown! I admit, February 2020 through about August 2020 seems like a blur. COVID-19 started and caused a lot of issues with all of our lives. 

Well, this is a short post to say I am going to start posting to my blog again. I am going to set aside time to write mainly because I enjoy doing the updates. Watch for new posts in the coming week and I am planning to be posting on a regular basis on a variety of issues. Who knows, I might even get back to posting about grilling again as that has not been happening much either.

I hope you are staying safe! More posts later and I look forward to hearing from you.

 

Workout Six Days Past Week Including Running and Jazzercise... Feeling Great!

For the first time I worked out everyday this past week except for Friday. I started Jazzercise a few weeks ago and love it! It is a good mix between runs to do something different. I wear a Garmin Forerunner 210 that uses a heart band to monitor the heart. This works great for running and I have used it for a few years now and love it! Using it for Jazzercise was not working too well as it only monitored my heart rate but not overall exercise.  So, this past week I purchased a foot pod for the Garmin. I have really enjoyed using it not only with my runs as it shows cadence and stride, but it is also working well for Jazzercise workouts too.

The above report is from a run I did today. It was very warm out for the run. I am closing in on the end of the Couch to 5K training. I am now doing a five minute walking warm up, running for about 20 minutes (varying each day), and then a five minute cool down. I have one more day for week 7 and then just three days left in the training finishing up with day three of week 3 hopefully next weekend.

Below is a Garmin Connect record from Jazzercise using the foot pod. It looks a little odd because it says distance is .75 miles and then average pace is 0.8. Not sure how accurate it is in terms of calories burned during training, but I like it better than having nothing at all.
I know that using the foot pod will work very well the next time I have to train indoors. Unless I was on equipment that could sync with the Garmin (such as the cycling bikes at the gym), there would be no record of distance, pace, etc. Now, I will be able to get that data even when training indoors without satellite. I am excited to give that a try too.

Overall, the running is still very enjoyable. I usually run with headphones listening to either new music, Royals games, or from my music library. I look forward to running and feel great following the run. During these longer runs, I do not always look forward to it in the middle of the run. I can hardly wait for it to end or sometimes question whether I will be able to finish the run. Those are the times that usually when I begin to question, I find that I am almost done and the timer goes off to stop.

The best part about running on a weekly basis is the joy that it brings our dog, Oliver, who gets excited when I begin to put on my running gear. Carrie tells me that while I am running he is running from the windows in the back to the door crying because he cannot wait for me to get back so we can go on a run. Truthfully, this is part of the drive for me to run multiple times each week. I love how excited Oliver gets for me to go running and then when we finally go walking following the run. I did try taking Oliver one or twice previously on the run and while he did well, it is now way too hot for him to go along with me. Today, I only took him on a short walk around the block as it was already warm by mid-morning.

The best part about running on a weekly basis is the joy it brings our dog Oliver.

I have not been doing great with eating although. I still eat basically what I want and continue to enjoy beers from time-to-time. That said, I have managed to lose about five pounds since I started this process. If I can keep up working out six days a week, I think I will continue to lose weight. I do eat alright through the week as Carrie is watching what she eats and that follows through to what I eat too. It simply has not been a focus or goal of my workout each week.

A few years ago, I was heavily into using MyFitnessPal which worked great! I used it religiously for three or four years. It worked well and I enjoyed it. Now, I only let it track my calories when synced with running. I am not using it to track calories consumed. Carrie is using this to track her calories and I know I have a number of friends currently using it too. It does a great job and I highly recommend the web site and/or app.

Until next time, happy training....