Michael & Liz are Bloggable

So I realize this blog is reserved for the lives of Liz and I and what we do on a daily basis. But I have taken on another project at work that I just couldn't resist sharing. I personally don't think it falls into the scope of the blog but oh well...

So I'm sure most people don't know what I do and while everyone has their main job role at work, they also understand that they are constantly thrown other projects that keep you very busy. Well one outside project of mine is that I manage the websites for our department and a few others. And recently I took on another project that is somewhat related to the website but has nothing to do with work. Let me explain:

A week before Thanksgiving I was talking to a friend of mine at work named Charlie and he was telling me about how he just started his own weight loss program. He was really excited about it and said he would really love to work out with me because he knows I am really into exercise (not so much into the eating healthy though). I told him since we were members at different gyms it couldn't happen but I offered him some motivation. I told him that in order to do any more marathons, I would have to drop 20 pounds because this recent marathon would have gone better if I was lighter. So I made a bet with him, the first person to drop 20 pounds wins. The loser would pay for the movie tickets on a double date between Liz and I and him and his fiance. Or at least that was the origin of this story.

So we tell my boss and a few other people in our department about it and we very soon are getting a lot of interest from them to participate. After some braintstorming we came up with a biggest loser competition that involved around 6 or so departments in our area. So far we have about 20 people participating with people trying to lose anywhere from 20 pounds to 150 pounds. There are no winners or losers, we are just equal motivation for each other to make changes. It's an amazing thing what we've started and even though we are just a week into it, it has been crazy enjoyable.

So why do I mention the website I manage? Well I have set up individual pages for everyone participating that only they can see. This keeps their weight secret in case weight privacy is a big issue for someone. That is the place where they log their starting weight, weight loss and weight goals. I then created a common page that everyone can see where it has a table that shows the percent that everyone wishes to lose and the current percent that they've lost. This common page is dynamic too so anytime anyone joins the competition or anytime someone updates their individual pages, the common page shows the update immediately. I have to be honest, I'm very proud of the pages I've created in order to track the competition. I have gotten a lot of great comments about it, how everyone enjoys seeing the goals and status of the other participants.

Another feature of the competition is that the first Tuesday of every month, everyone participating is going to go to lunch together to talk and discuss strategy and accomplishments. We are also setting up daily lunch walks in small groups to keep exercise motivation up.

Every Tuesday Liz and I sit in front of the TV and with cold and sweaty palms we squirm over the stress and anticipation of what is going to happen on our favorite show, The Biggest Loser. There are a ton of narrow-minded people who hate reality TV and would refuse to watch it for that reason. But this is not a drama-filled popularity contest, these are real people changing their lives right in front of your eyes while advertising a healthy lifestyle of eating right and exercising hard. What more could an American want out of a TV show? And hey, if it rubs off a little motivation, then fantastic. I always thought it would be cool to be a part of it, from the perspective that your life revolves around being healthy and exercising with a trainer. If my full time job would be to lift weights, run, and exercise, I'd be the happiest person on earth. So even though we don't have a Bob or Jillian or an awesome biggety scale, it would be cool to see some people at work change their lives and I can only hope I played a part in it.

So it's about time that you blogged, I mean jeez, come on Michael, you even put a date on when you would blog next and you didn't do it. Or at least that's what I'm thinking anyone who read the last blog would say. So the experiment I would say was a tremendous success relative to where she was before the experiment.

Results:
Daisy is a much better walker now. I followed the advice from Jon Chase and put some food in my pocket on walks and whenever Daisy would lag behind, I would say "Daisy Come" with some food and she would start to run so that's fantastic. She is not lagging behind as much. She knows the amount of time she has at each mailbox now so whenever I pass her and tug slightly and say "Daisy Come", she starts running again. She still isn't great about running ahead, she runs as far as we let her though so whether the leash is long or short, she tugs the same so I guess that's good. If we keep the leash short she is always walking with us. One thing we are doing now is anytime she is running out ahead, we'll stop and she'll sit immediately (which has become voluntary now) and then we'll make her come so she runs back to us. It's working really well. I think the next goal is teaching her to "heel", which I realize will be a bear of a task. So overall Daisy is a much better walker. One thing she loves to do is just run in the grass between the sidewalk and the street with her nose down smelling everything. That way she gets to smell and we're not held up. It's great.

As far as waking up early, it's totally not happening, or at least all the time. I still have trouble getting out of bed. I do think I will take Daisy on walks more often then she had been before but I am just far too tired to be hopping out of bed like I'm happy about it.

Conclusions:
This dog is smarter than we give her credit for. After not taking her on walks in the morning for a few days now she is starting to beg for it. She'll get to our driveway and tug and then turn around and look at us like "let's go". And if I start walking towards her, she'll start walking away with her head slightly turned to make sure we're following. I don't think there is a trick we can't teach her or an action we can't get her to stop, it just takes patience and time, something we are willing to give.

Well this week should be fantastic because we are driving to Cincinnati for Thanksgiving. We are really anxious for my parents to meet her and for her to get a lot of attention throughout the week. But for now I'm gonna take her to the dog park so she's all tired out for the trip!

Marathon:

So I wanted to update everyone on how my marathon went this past weekend. I don't know if everyone knew, but I ran the City of Oaks Marathon here in Raleigh this past Sunday. I ran it with one of my groomsmen named John. We had been training all year although within the last few months we've somewhat fallen off. I can honestly say that I didn't prepare for this one as well as I did for my first one back in 2005 but going into it, I still felt like I could do it. This race however was much more difficult than my first one. It was much more hilly and part of the race was on a gravel/dirt trail so that made it tough as well. For anyone interested in seeing the course, here it is:

http://cityofoaksmarathon.com/course_info/

We started off rocky. John has had knee problems in the last few months and within the first .5 mile he said it started to hurt. Although as we went on, it didn't get worse so he continued. We made it through the first half in 2:08 which is a great pace and exactly where we wanted to be. Around mile 15 we started to alternate between walking and running. And somewhere between there and the finish line my left foot started hurting. It's known as plantar fasciitis. It's basically pain in the ligament or tendon that connects to your heel from the balls of your feet. We finally hobbled in, finishing the race in 4 hours and 47 minutes (27 minutes slower than my first marathon).

Now 3 days later the pain in my foot is still there but it's healing up. The marathon is a funny race. I realize this is going to sound ridiculous because not everyone can run 26, 13 or even 3 miles, so stick with me when I say this. The first 13 miles feel fantastic... I don't feel tired and I don't feel winded. If I stopped, my muscles would be sore but it wouldn't be a big deal. But that second half is when the muscle pain really comes. It's a feeling you just won't forget. It's a feeling you never want but you have to have in order to finish such a grueling race. I can't imagine ever being in good enough shape to ever not feel tired during the second half of the race. Although I trained really hard for my first race, around mile 20 I completely hit the wall. My muscles would not function and running was an impossibility. This race however I never hit "the wall" however my muscles still were in pain but not enough that I couldn't easily keep going. So it's interesting to me that even though I didn't train as hard, I never hit the wall. So will I do another one? Probably but whether that's sooner or later, I don't know. It's such a commitment to train for that I don't know if that's something I want to put myself through again anytime soon.

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Dog Experiment:

So there are a few behaviors in our family that have become readily apparent to me in the past few days and I am on a mission to fix them, or at least run an experiment for one full week to see if I can fix them. These few things are as follows:

• I do not like getting out of bed in the morning.
• Liz does not like getting out of bed in the morning.
• Daisy loves getting out of her crate in the morning.
• Because of our work schedules, Daisy only spends an hour or two between getting up and getting in her crate for the day, so she's understandably wound up when we get home.
  
• Daisy is not great on walks. She smells things too much, will not keep walking when I tug on her, and she also likes to run ahead, pulling on the leash.
• I do not eat any breakfast in the morning.
  

So because of these things I have decided to run an experiment with Daisy. Here it is, and probably far too structured for a blog:

Purpose:
To change my view of getting up in the morning from being tired to being awake and ready for the day. This is also to see how Daisy's behavior changes not only towards me as her Dad but also towards Liz and the day in general as she gets a little more exercise in the morning. It is also to change her behavior on our walks. See procedure below.

Hypothesis:
Daisy will not be as wild and wound up when we get home from work. She will also become very pleasant to go for a walk with. I will have a reason for getting up in the morning and getting a small breakfast and it will not be as hard to start the day. Liz will be happier to not have to get out of bed on the mornings she usually takes Daisy out.

Materials:
Ms. Daisington and her leash as well as very warm cloths.

Procedure:
Every morning at 6:30AM I will get up and take Daisy downstairs. I will get a glass of water and a snack before doing anything. I will then take Daisy out on a leash and walk at least the small loop around our neighborhood with her. Whenever she starts to sniff or smell I'll try using our "Daisy come" command and when she does, I'll praise her. Whenever she runs out ahead I will stop in my tracks and will not keep going until she sits, stays and stops tugging. When we get back, I will not get back in bed.

So that is the extent of my experiment. In exactly one week, that being next Wednesday night, I will let everyone know how this experiment goes. I will include the Results, Conclusions and Acknowledgments.

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By the way, during this post, Daisy wanted to help, so she laid her head on my laptop. Check it out(too cute, Liz came over and said, "I had to take a picture"):