Patience....

Before I start rambling about my training, I just want to remind everyone who reads this that I really need your help in reaching my fundraising goals. I have made a good bit of progress in reaching my goals for both charities thanks to everyone's generous donations so far. If you know anyone who might be interested in donating to either of these great charities, please let them know about my blog and fundraising pages. Feel free to copy and paste the links below to an email, message board, your Facebook or Myspace, etc. Also, if you haven't donated and are interested in doing so, you can click the firstgiving links the the right side of this blog page.

Children's Heart Foundation http://www.firstgiving.com/scottmckenziechf
Special Operations Warrior Foundation http://www.firstgiving.com/scottmckenziesowf

When it comes to training, my new best friend is patience. I was getting impatient and have decided that if I'm training alone, then I have to stay aerobic! I'll be keeping my HR less than 145 no matter what. Up to now, it has gotten frustrating because part of me wants to go out and run at a higher heart rate because staying aerobic requires that I run slowly or even walk- and sometimes I just don't feel like I am working very hard. I assume this is mostly a result of never having participated in any type of endurance sport...and of course about 10 years of doing a whole lot of nothing when it comes to cardiovascular fitness. But, since the point of my training is going farther, not faster, I have come to the conclusion (with the help of some knowledgeable people around me) that being patient is the only option.

Concerning my weight loss and my goal of getting back to 175 pounds. I had a setback last week. I'm not sure what the culprit was, but I actually gained 2 pounds back. According to my calorie calculator, this should not have happened. I don't know if this is muscle growth or a big miscalculation when it comes to calories burned during workouts. I guess in the grand scheme of things this doesn't really matter because the weight will come off eventually as my mileage increases.

I had a really great bike ride on the Natchez Trace last Friday- 19 miles. It was awesome getting out on the road since most of my rides have been on the trainer because I'm having to ride before the sun comes up. It also makes a huge difference to ride with someone else....very motivating! I did have a deer run across the road about 20 feet in front of my bike. That added a bit of excitement to the ride. I'm excited about my ride tonight. I think I am going back out on the Natchez Trace for about 20 miles.

I also did two 1000 yard swim workouts in the last week. These are my first 1000 yard workouts, so my endurance in the water is definitely improving. However, I do wonder if there is going to be some limitation in my endurance due to some stroke mechanics issues that I am having trouble correcting. Maybe some more swimming lessons are on the horizon for me.

I even had a decent run/walk last week and a great treadmill run last night. I found a really cool program on the treadmills at the gym that is compatible with my heart rate monitor. All I do is set the target heart rate and the treadmill automatically adjusts the speed and incline of the treadmill to keep my heart rate at the target. It's a very cool feature that really helps me keep myself in check.

Well, that's the last week or so in a nutshell. No really interesting thoughts or experiences this time around (except almost hitting a deer on my bicycle), but I did achieve a couple of milestones. The milestones don't really seem to be that interesting to blog about, but it's those milestones that are really the ultimate motivators from where I sit, especially considering the fact that I started and continue to be so out of shape.

"Anything worth doing is worth starting poorly." --G. K. Chesterton