Half of Phil

It definitely feels like a season of change. We've had numerous protests throughout the country with calls for Police Reform and calling awareness for systemic racism within the Judicial system in the US.  It's encouraging to see the widespread and varied folks at the protests, but at the same time it's scary as hell because we are in the midst of the a global pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic is still growing in the US and seems to be growing faster here than other parts of the world.  Is some of that appearance because have a more transparent government and press?  Or is just that we've done an incredibly shitty job job of protecting our selves and socially distancing.  I suspect its a combination of the two, but we are definitely doing a shitting job of protecting ourselves.  We are still staying home and minimizing our contacts with others.  We've not let our son start back soccer yet, but field space is getting hard to come by at the parks so we may star...

   I missed my update last week. I've been bad about tracking my food the last month. The COVID-19 crisis seems to be getting worse in NC mostly due to folks tiring of social distancing.  Folks are tired of not living their normal lives and haven't seen mass casualties.  Basically the disease so far isn't killing folks fast enough for folks to warrant such a drastic change in their lives.   We didn't let the boy start soccer training with his team again this week because hospitalizations are steadily rising along with the % positive of tests administered for the disease.  They are practicing in 10 x 10 squares just conditioning and drills I think so I don't know that it warrants the risk of having to get to and off the field with a large group.  We are still taking him to fields for individual workouts anyway.  We are hoping he doesn't get too torqued off about it, he seems to understand. Another black man was killed by a cop in MN last week ...

So far this May has been one long Blackberry Winter!  We've had several lows in the 30s including this am.  I ran with a hoodie on. I did a virtual 5k for work.  The Quranteam 5k last week. I've stayed the course with running.  I did 6 miles the last 2 Saturdays.  I averaged a 13 min/mi pace his last weekend.  On the 2nd I had a pace of 12.33 min/mi.  I think the biggest difference was Saturday was my 4th day in row of running.  I ran Wed for the work 5k, Thursday because I try to always run on Tue & Thur and Friday because I ran for the #irunwithmaud movement.  My feet were killing me.  I had gotten a new pair of shoes, but I don't think they were providing very good arch support.  For this mornings run I used my old shoes.  Not sure if I'll try the new ones again or what. I'm trying to do better about snacking and food consumption.  Weight is back down around 279.  I've got to do better to get down ...

Just realized I passed my 4 year anniversary of this journey last week.  I guess in the fog of COVID19 lock down I hadn't thought about it. I've done well staying on track with my fitness.  I've logged over 90 activities in my FitBit log.  I've run 13 times so far this month for nearly 40 miles. I've kept up running my 5 miles every Saturday this month.  I've cut my average pace down to 12 and half minutes from 13 the first time I ran it.  My plan is to bump my Saturday runs to 6 miles in May.  I've been rewarding myself after the long runs with some Diet Coke.  Not gonna lie I look forward to those soda's all week, the chemicals in that particular poison are definitely an addiction.  Weight loss has kinda stalled the last couple weeks, I'm sure due to candy consumption.  Its hard not to have treats when all else has gone to shit.  School has officially been called off for the rest of the year.  Two of the weeks of ou...

So I've continued to get into better shape but my weight loss has definitely stalled over the the last 18 months.  I've been trying to stay extra active during this COVID19 crisis/life pause.  I'm happy to say that my weight did actually creep down a bit.  So I'm down a whole pound, well its probably more since I'd put on a few pounds over the end of last year and winter. I've been weight lifting with my son 3 days a week and running a few days a week.  Last Saturday I ran 5 miles!!!  I'm going to try to keep doing that each weekend.  My goal is to definitely run Tues and Thursdays and do 9 Round M, W, F.  I slept like crap this Wednesday so I didn't run this Thursday but did on Mon & Tuesday this week.  We've been limiting our activities and trips to the store.  I went to Restaurant Depot again this morning to get some meat.  They were more picked over than they were 3-4 weeks ago, but I was able to get what we needed....

Our spring has been paused due to the Corona Virus.  I've been WFH since 3/12 and the kids have been out of school since 3/16.  WFH will continue for the forseeable future and traditional school is canceled until mid may at the earliest.  Online school should start in earnest maybe next week. Work hasn't slowed down and really is going crazy due to the market panic due to businesses being closed for the virus.  It's not terrible where we are, but in parts of the country they are making plans for 4 people per ventilator and prepping hockey rinks for morgues.   It's most definitely SNAFU! I went the first week school was out and got a weight set for my son since it was clear all gyms were going to close.  Luckily we found a decent set on craigslist.  We've been working out at home, seems I've signed myself up for a HS weightlifting class.  9Round has closed but has started putting workouts online.  I've tried to keep doing them ...

The coronavirus has hit the US now and NC.  I'm working remote for the forseeable future.  No one seems to know exactly what to expect.  For us we are looking at prepping for being home and isolated for a couple weeks.  No idea if schools are going to get canceled but the strong rumor is that it will be.  Already all sports activities after today are canceled throughout the state and county.  I'm excited that my daughter has decided to start going to 9Round with me some in an effort to jump start her fitness for her synchronized swimming goals.  We went last night for the first time.  She did pretty well.  I was surprised she kept up on the parking lot runs where as ya know I lost ground with every step. I have run some in the last couple weeks which is a good step for me since I'd slacked off on running during the winter. We haven't scheduled our next 5k yet and with things being canceled for awhile I don't have any idea when we'll g...