Half of Phil

2919 is closing fast!  It's been 3.5 years since I started this journey to get in better health.  I've kept up with exercise this year, but haven't lost any weight this year.  This is the first year of the journey I've finished at a net 0 but considering I've been up 5-10 lbs several times this year to get back to net 0. I finished the Jingle Bull Run with a pace of 11:08 min/mile which should have gotten me my under 35 min finish, but I guess the course was a bit longer than 3.1.  At any rate I finished nearly 5 min under my time for the same race last year. I got the guard installed on my table saw which was the last thing I wanted to do to consider my shop complete for the year.  I'm hoping to get to work out there some more over the holidays. This has been a challenging year at work, but we did get some recognition for a big project I've been working on the last 18 months so that was nice. I'm not set on what goals I

I'm struggling to accept the fact that this year is nearly over.  Christmas will be here in less than 20 days.  Just doesn't seem right to me. This week we've had nothing but celebrations of sorts all week long.  Tuesday we had a ugly sweater pizza party, Wednesday we got to go curling, which was actually a lot of fun and yesterday we had a 2019 celebration luncheon.  We used to have the luncheons quarterly, but as of late we've been lucky to have one a year. At the luncheon a team I've let this year won an award for excellence in engineering for pioneering our company moving services to the cloud.  It's cool to get recognized. I've struggled to control my intake the last couple weeks with Turkey day and all the free food at work.  That's probably a cop out, it's not Turkey Day or free food that's to blame it's me.  I get that.  Here's to the next few weeks being better. We have a 5k on the 14th which isn't far away, not sure

So when I set my goal to run a 5k under 35 min for this year I did it based on some basic math.  I had run the Jingle Bull Run at around 13 min pace.  I calculated that to run 35 min 5k I'd need to run a pace of 11:29.  And I've been pushing myself to hit that pace.  Well guess what I did the damn math wrong!!!!.  35 min/3.1 miles is 11.29 min/mile which is a pace of 11:17.4 min/mile. Well I keep getting closer and closer to the 35 min mark on the timer, and my pace is well under what I thought I needed to be to make my goal but still can't quite get there.  New PR though of 35 min 12 seconds which is 31 seconds off my PR in October. I am planning to do one more race in a couple weeks, I don't know that I'll get there though, but I'll give it a shot. Next committed update 12/5

Well I didn't break my PR and get under 35 min for the race in Concord, but I did place 3rd in my age group!!! Yep that's me giving the thumbs up after winning a 3rd place medal.  They awarded based on 5 year brackets so I had good odds but I'll take it!!  I'm proud my time was not quite a full minute over my PR from the weekend before.  My son and his friend took 1st and 2nd overall for the 5 k, both of their times were more than a minute off their PRs.  It was a tough course with the last mile mostly straight up hill.  I went fast to start off downhill but struggled to keep the pace on the way up.  I was still faster than I've been before.  We are doing another race in Concord on 11/23 and it is supposed to be 'flat and fast' so hoping to get under 35 min there. If you want to sign up for that race please consider joining the Hickory Ridge High School team the school with the most gets $ 1,000. Santa Scramble 5K Next committed update

We finished our 5k this past weekend.  The boy took 2nd overall and in his age group, the guy that beat him is apparently the top cross country runner at his HS, so no shame in losing to him. I didn't make it in under 35 min, but I got ever closer and I shaved almost 20 seconds off my PR from May.  So I'll take a new PR as win. I'll admit I was out of gas at the end.  I did manage to finish strong though despite seeing the clock was well past 35 min when I rounded the corner. I've been working on getting faster throughout a run versus slowing down as I had been doing in the spring and summer.  I was able to do that this Sat, but I had to walk a couple times to be able to keep up the pace.  Hopefully if I keep pushing myself on my Tue & Thur runs I'll get there.  2 More races are on my schedule for 2019! This week is BBQ week, so it's been a struggle to keep up with steps and exercise, but I'm sure I'll get back in the swing of things

We had a good camping trip with the CAD brethren!  It was crazy hot, mid to high 90s during the days.  Record breaking heat for whatever reason.  Anyway I was glad to get together with our friends.  We've been doing this now for over 10 years, how the hell does that happen?  Time flies when you're having fun I reckon. We did some fishing but I didn't catch a thing, the boys each caught some small bait fish. I've been running some, this week it cooled off a bit and this morning I was able to get my time creeping back down. We have races planned out for the rest of year. Cara's Purpose 5K  on Oct 19th at Frank Liske Park. Veterans Salute 5k/10k  on Nov 2 in downtown Concord NC Jingle Bull Run 5K  on Dec 14th to raise money for HRHS Booster Club So I got 3 shots lined up to make my 35 min time.  Hoping to make it. Next committed update 10/22

We had 2 days of fall weather last week, but we are back to the 90s this week.  At least the mornings are cooling off to the 60s. We have our CAD Camping trip this weekend.  I'm hopeful the weather won't be too hot.  When I book the trip I literally worried it would be turning too cool by late Sept for the group that generally goes.  Alas best laid plans as they say. I've stalled in weight loss, but I'm keeping up with my exercise and diet plan.  Work and life in general has be hella stressful the last few months.  I'm told that likely has something to do with it. We signed up for a family membership at the HFFA club where my daughter is now on the synchronized swimming team.  I've been doing their boot camp class the last week.  It's just a couple days a week, but it's something new to add to my routine.  They have a great work out room so the boy is enjoying that.  There's a contraption there to minimize your body weight to help you do pull u

We're starting to have some cool mornings and some cool evenings.  Fall seems to be coming, but not before we go through hurricane season.  We have one churning on the coast right now, looks like it won't bring anything to us more than some wind. It's been a rough few weeks for me personally, I'm not really looking forward to going into another fall and holiday season.  I'm not really sure why, but I do miss my Mom more the last month and have some dread about another set of milestones without her.  Could be because I recently learned her house was sold and a buddy sent me some photos of the folks cutting down some trees and starting to make it theirs.  It's what should happen, but it's bothered me more than I've realized I guess until I started writing this. The election season seems to already be in full swing for 2020 and I can already sense it is going to be a brutal one. I've probably already written about it here, but it weighs on me and I

Well our much anticipated Mud Run was kind of a bust.  It was crazy crowded the weather wasn't that great, but the worst thing is the course was no where near 5k.  We heard as we were leaving they were telling folks if you want 5k just run again.  Geez.  Anyway we had a pretty good time despite the obstacles not being that great and there being no real slide like the promo has been touting all year.  And the weather wasn't too hot so it's all good in the end and we got a medal. A lady at work approached me about the Living Well Champion feature at work last year.  She wanted to do a follow up article for a newsletter, but it ended up being feature on our main company intranet.  That was pretty cool. The response has been positive from folks at work.  Just gotta stay the course and hopefully the weight will start coming off again at some point. Next committed update is 9/6

The heat is definitely not winding down but summer is for sure.  my son made the JV soccer team where he'll start as a freshman in the fall.  I'm very proud of  him.  They cut nearly 40 kids and only kept 36! Their first game is next Monday.  Should be a hectic few months.  I've kept going to 9Round and trying to run some.  I was able to 3 miles in with a pace under 13 minutes for the first time in months.  I've read the summer heat hurts times, but I'm sure some of it has been the time I took off in the spring and early summer for a variety of reasons. I'm still hoping to make my goal of completing a 5k in under 35 minutes before the end of the year.  I need to settle on a race in Oct.  Our next race is the Mud run coming up 8/24. Next committed update 8/28

I was recently added to a facebook group for folks looking to lose weight.  It's got a huge following and was started by a guy who lost a bunch of weight and is promoting disney land or world one as his motivating factor. It's interesting to me to see all the posts about what works for this person or the other.  I gotta say though that I believe Tommy Tomlinson was right in his book .  I've seen variations of this meme a lot lately: The only sure fire way to lose weight is to set a target calorie goal that is realistic, track your intake and keep it at the target or under. Adding exercise helps with overall health but to lose weight it is all about what goes in. My best advice to anyone looking to start a health journey is to KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid).  Set the calorie goal, track food and exercise 30 minutes a day. It really is a lifestyle change and only you can decide if you want to start the journey.

We went to the coast for the week of the 4th.  It was a good trip.  We didn't do very well fishing, maybe we can schedule a fall fishing trip, but we got a busy fall lined up already. We did our 5k at the beach.  It was a slow run for us we were both about 5 min off our PR paces.  The boy did win for his age group though!  I was just thankful to finish, luckily it wasn't nearly as hot as I'd expected but it was still plenty warm. We did our now annual swim accross Tubb's Inlet.  I couldn't keep up with the kids they are both in much better shape than me and much faster swimmers but we all did well. We've decided to do another 5k this Friday.  It was pretty cheap and will give us a chance to maybe improve on our bad race times a couple weeks ago. This is a tough stretch for me with my both my mom and grandfathers bday's being close together.  It's been easier this year than last but still a pretty tough week. Last week Jared Lorenzen passed a

I've kept up running and steps mostly for the last couple weeks.  I missed a few June 6-23  at 9Round due to having a mole removed from my back.  The extra week was due to being out of town back home in Murphy for the kids to go to Folk School.  It was good to visit with family and friends. Before we left last Saturday we took the drone out to my mom's house and the barn by grandfather built. The House that built me! This barn didn't have enclosed walls or the rolling doors when I was a kid.  I have so many memories from the barn.  We briefly met the man that now owns it.  He seemed nice and was pretty patient given we were definitely trespassing!  This side was where we fed the cows the lean too and trough are long gone.  The manure here was always at least ankle deep back then.    Sunday afternoon we went to the Gold Cup games in Charlotte again.  Below is a picture of us from July 2016 at an ICC game and then this past weekend.  Amazing the

Not too much to update this week.  I am excited to that I've booked a CAD Camping trip in Sept.  It should be an awesome trip.  Hoping for good weather. I went back and looked at my goals for the year, that was one of them.  The other was to get the garage shop in order.  I've gotten some of that done, but I'd definitely like to get more done.  I've done good with going to 9Round for the most part and I'm on track with running.  I'm going to miss a few weeks because I had another skin cancer cut out last week, but I'm planning to run more often to help mitigate that loss of activity.  Summer is always a hectic time. We have our 18th wedding anniversary tomorrow, looks like we'll spend it at an outdoor swim meet with a 90% forecast for rain.  Lovely right? Next committed update 6/27

The summer heat is here with a vengeance lately!!  Last weekend we were in the upper 90s and man it was hot.  The kids wanted to go to the pool so I spent several hours holed up under some shade while they played around in the water.  We did get some work done around the house.  I'm working mortaring in our rock edging around the house.  Hopefully I can get finished this next weekend. We got an invite to do a 5k for free a couple weekends ago and I got a new PR. I'm confident I can make my goal for under 35 min before the end of the year.  This run was tough with the hills and the heat, so if I can keep up the running I'll get there for sure.  I placed 4th in my age group, the boy was 2nd overall and first for his age group. The mergers for our kids sports clubs are evening out and look like they will be fine.  My son ended up on a different team this year, but is very excited about the possibility of a winning season.  I'm excited about significantly less fee

This weekend we are supposed to be in the mid-90s all weekend which is more typical of May weather than what we've had lately.  We've had a nice spring this year. I've been hitting up 9round more consistently and running a couple times a week.  Weight loss is still stalled for the last several months.  I met with my health coach this week, she said stay the course and not to worry too much. It's been hella stressful at work the last few months and crazy with the kids and schedules.  We are in somewhat sports limbo for both kiddos this year, both of the kids clubs are merging with others in the area.  This of course could merely mean different colors for their competitions or completely different experiences and team assignments.  We don't know and won't until it all shakes down over the next month or so.  It's crazy and frustrating.  At times I want to pull the kids from the programs and not buy into the crazy money scheme that is kids athletics these da

Photos help a lot to show progress and keep up the motivation.  When you see yourself in the mirror every morning and generally naked you don't always notice the vast difference a few years makes.  Which I'm sure is why these types of memes are so popular: A few weeks ago scrolling through facebook I came across this photo and thought wow!!!  I've posted the photo below along with one in a similar sized 5x shirt I still have.  Apparently I purged the original one which in and of itself is shocking. I also took another 8th grade basketaball shorts picture.  I'm down about 30 lbs between the 2017 pic and the 2019 one. I'd say I'm down close to 100 from the original in 2016.  Overall my weight loss is stalled around 155 lbs overall loss.  I've been hanging around 275 for quite a while. I have to keep a couple things in mind with the weight loss stall, overall I'm in the best shape of my life.  I walked my 3.3 mile loop this morning in less

I finished our April 5k.  I'd set a goal to 'run', well at least for me, the entire distance and I met that goal.  My pace time by the timer is off from the Cupid 5k in Feb, but I really think I went faster, the distance on my fitbit tracker was 3.25 miles versus just at 3 for the Cupid track. The next race we are signed up for is toward the end of June.  So I've got some time to keep getting better prior to it. We are headed to the beach and DC over the next couple weeks.  Spring Break is next week.  It's almost been 3 years since I began this journey so I'm hoping to do a bigger update for my next entry.  We'll see how work and life in general work for that.  For now I'm just happy to check in that I've kept the course and I'm keeping on even if additional weight isn't coming off. Next committed update 4/30

Spring is in full swing for our family.  2 Soccer seasons in progress, short course swim season winding down and long course starting.  Spring Dance recital is right around the corner. And I've got a big BBQ comp coming up this weekend!  I'm looking forward to the BBQ comp to hopefully have some fun and relax some.  It's been stressful at work, it's layoff season but so far I've been safe and our group has as well.  Will be the theme of this year though apparently so time will tell.  It's a rough weekend for me since it's the anniversary of my friend Dan passing away.  Last weekend another guy I knew through coaching passed away from a heart attack.  Yesterday I went to his visitation and ended up getting a speeding ticket on the way from the funeral home to get the boy from one practice to go to the next. Seems the end of March is a tough time.  Hoping for a fun diversion and distraction. I did vest on the 14th of March though so that is a huge relief! 

I've been running more in the mornings I don't make it to 9round and some on the weekends.  I've been able to run/jog (ok brisk walk for lots of folks) the full 3.3 mile loop.  Most mornings I"m around 14ish min miles.  My hope and plan is that by doing this I can in the long run better my times for 5ks this year since I'll hopefully be able to go at a consistent pace rather than stopping to walk some.  Time will tell.  There's definitely an endorphine high from running.  I don't know that I'll get addicted to it, but you do feel better for a bit until you start to get sore at least.  It is a great sense of accomplishment though.  Weight loss is pretty much stalled, but that is to be expected, still staying the course tracking the food, more good decisions, less bad ones.  Keeping up the exercises and celebrating the weight I've lost and progress I've made.  Can't lose sight of the fact that I'm wearing smaller pants than I did in high

 My wife got me tickets to see Tommy Tomlinson's talk for WFAE and the Charlotte Library Foundation.  My trainer and friend from 9Round went with me.  We had a great time.  Got my book signed another brief moment of fame! I am doing the Harrisburg Bar Ba Brew  again this year with some CAD Brethren and soccer friends.  We are looking forward to a fun time.  I got a new smoker last week.  It's a huge gravity feed charcoal unit.  I am hoping to try it out next weekend prior to the competition. I've been running a couple days a week.  Our next 5k is a little over a month away. Weight loss is stalled I put on a few pounds the last few weeks but my clothes are fitting better, I bought some 42" pants from a lady a few months ago.  I started wearing those this week, they are still a little snug but fit pretty well.  Crazy to think about losing 18" in the waist! Next committed update is 3/14

A couple dates getting this posted but we ended up with a great day for our run last weekend.  I finished in just over 37 minutes so I'm on track with one of my goals for 2019.  Just need to save a couple more minutes off my time. I'm hoping over the long weekend to get some more work done in my garage shop.  I think there's going to be a lot of rain though. Weight loss wise I'm not doing so well, too many sweets and treats around, but at least I'm maintaining.  I've been pretty good at making it to 9round and have keep up my step counts. Next committed update 2/28.

I've started a new book, Elephant In the Room , by FB buddy and local columnist Tommy Tomlinson . I've been following his journey of writing it for several years and read lots of excerpts.  All of the reviews on his website are great and what I've read of it so far is great.  In college I had a buddy, Matt, and we'd routinely tell each other to get out of my head because one or the other of us would be saying something the other thought or knew already.  I've experienced that at lot in the book.  His thoughts and experiences are very similar to mine. One thing that caught my attention in the book and I just confirmed it with the CDC, but I'm now just severely obese, which may not sound like much but when you figure I started beyond morbidly obese in the 'super' obese category I'll take it. I've gotten signed up for a 5K in Feb , April and August .  Just need to find one for June and October then I'll have one lined up for every 2 months

Our new year is gearing up!  Soccer season starts back Monday.  I'm hoping to get the lights on the house down this afternoon.  We've had some fairly warm weather but it's been pretty rainy. My son wants to do more 5ks so we've been looking at those for this year.  We are thinking of doing one every other month.  We have one to target for Feb, Apr and Aug so far.  In August we are signed up for a mud run Should be an interesting experience. Next committed update 1/24