3 Miles isn't that far

I feel great this morning!! Got out for a quick 3 mile run. I am hoping to make this my regular morning route now that the 1.5 mile route was getting a little easy. Plus, I am still working on getting up to 7 miles for the Falmouth Road Race. I figure that by the time I reach the end of June or early July that I will graduate to a 5 mile route as my regular route. Shooting for 7 miles by the end of July so that I am ready for the race at the beginning of August. I am a little nervous, but I am going to do it no matter what. It is a good goal for me and will hopefully be a stepping stone to other races and goals that will help keep me fit. I am not trying to lose any more weight, but if it is a product of how I eat and workout then so be it. I looked up online what my suggested weight is for my height and age and it lists it in a range from 180 to 211. Yeah Right!!!!!! I have not been under 200 lbs. since the beginning of my sophomore year in high school. What a joke! I would be psyched if I made it into the 220's never mind being skin and bones, I will leave that to the runway models. Right now I weigh less than I have in over 10 years. While teaching in West Springfield (without children), Christine and I managed to use an awesome gym on a regular basis and I was really fit, not thin, but fit and probably weighed close to what I weigh now. When I ever started teaching high school and eating out all the time and then taking care of children I just really let it go and I am never going to let that happen again. I weigh 243 lbs. right now and feel great. many people around work are noticing my weight loss and it is really motivating to hear all of the compliments. It helps keep me going when I feel like it is getting tough.

Good Weekend

Fishing - Friday, Christine was with her band and chorus at Six Flags so I took the kids to the 99. After dinner I decided to check out South Cape Beach and saw the bluefish mayhem that I have witnessed and heard about. I had told the kids that if it was too crazy we would just watch. As luck would have it it was crazy, but an opening opened up right in front of us and there was a dad with his two kids right beside us so fishing was in the cards. Made a bunch of casts and only managed one bluefish. There must have been 70-80 fisherman all along the beach and most people brought in at least on fish. The bluefish I brought home had a freshly eaten squid inside of it. Sunday, Mike Earley and I went out early in my boat and headed to Middle Ground. It was foggy, but we made it there and back safe and sound. I usually love fishing in foggy conditions, but the bass were not cooperating and we did not manage to see one fish caught by us or any other anglers. Monday, I helped Mike get his boat in the water and on his trip to Quissett he caught a couple bluefish in front of the old hotel. Later, i went fishing with Ed Lott in his 12' aluminum boat out of Poppy Bay. I missed a hit and saw a kayaker land a fish. Pretty sure it was a school of small bass as my Hogy did not show any signs of being bit by a bluefish.

So, the weekend was not that successful on the fishing side of things, but it was relaxing. Had a couple cookouts with the Earley's and Fish/Lott's.

A little better

I went running this morning with a purpose. Needed to redeem myself for not doing that well on Wednesday. I was challenging myself in terms of speed. I was able to run my 1.5 (really 1.4, but who's counting) mile run in 12:45 which comes out to exactly and 8 minute and 30 second mile. I am pretty happy with that. It is incredible how much different one minute can feel. I was really sucking wind by the end, but I was able to push through it. Felt good.

The boat is ready at Edwards. The front fishbox had a crack and they have replaced it under warrantee. I tell you, I am nervous for when the boat is no longer under warrantee, I just can't believe how much stuff comes up. BOAT, Bust Out Another Thousand is not exactly the pneumonic that I want us to aspire to. Hopefully this weekend will allow for some family boating and some fishing.

Not so Fast / Far / Long

Yesterday afternoon Thomas had a soccer practice so I was planning on running for 70 minutes straight. No dice! I did not even come close to what I did last week. I was really hoping that I could build on that experience and prove to myself once and for all that I will be able to do the Falmouth Road Race. Well, I will not be running it tomorrow that is for sure. Probably good to know that still have a lot of work and training to do. I am going to try and start doing my 3 mile run for my morning run instead of the mile and a half I normally do. It will mean getting up a little earlier, but only an extra 10-15 minutes or so. After 38 minutes I was unable to keep myself going last night which was really unfortunate. If 3 miles becomes easy to me then I can open it up to a longer distance from time to time and eventually be ready for 7 miles by August.

"That's Overweight"

Never thought I would be happy to hear those words, but this morning when I weighed in on the Wii Fit this is what it told me. For the passed 4 and a half months it has been telling me, "That's obese." Now I know that I was overweight and at one point obese, but for the passed couple months I think "obese" is stretching it. However, today, "That's overweight" was also accompanied by me reaching 50 lbs. lost since the beginning of January. If I am able to reach 70 lbs. I will be at my college weight.

During MCAS testing at school my schedule gets all messed up. So, on Surf Talk I have had a little more time to browse the forums I normally do not look at much. There is a cooking forum and although it is mainly geared towards cooking fish there are many other recipes. I happened to have a good amount of chicken so for two days in a row I cooked these nice chicken meals at home. Always nice to be able to make a tasty meal and not break the bank. Hoping to stay on a cooking kick, should save money and be healthier too.

Went fishing around 8 last night again at Parker's. A little bit windy. A good amount of bait was present, but I was only able to raise one little dink and even at that I was unable to get him to the dock.

Update

Still hovering around 49 lbs. For whatever reason I can not seam to hit 50.

Caught a nice bluefish last night at Parker's. There was a good amount of bait there and some sizable swirls and slaps slamming it at times. The fish were really hard to reach because they were hanging in between Kingman's and Parker's plus Parker's dock space was packed full of sailboats. I really only had one shot at the school and it paid off. My new rod was great and I was able to really horse that fish in and keep him out from under the boats and docks. The new Boga grip had the bluefish at a little over 7 lbs. Pretty nice size for this time of year. Caught the fish on last year's go to lure, the 7" bone Hogy. The bluefish did not even tear up the bait that much so I was able to keep fishing with it which is pretty rare for a soft plastic.

The cover is off the boat and if not for some whining kids it would be stored at Fiddler's already. As it turns out it will work out fine because I need to get a new front cover for the bow fish box from Edwards' Boat Yard. The boat is covered with pollen which is exactly what I was trying to avoid this year, but it will clean up fine. I will hit it good before I bring it to Fiddler's. Looking to get it dirty with a lot of fish blood soon though. :)

Here is a pic of my new reel. So far, so good. Can't wait to see how it holds up during the course of the entire season. Would post a pic of the rod, but can't find a pic that does it justice. In a nutshell it is very thin and light which allows me to cast soft plastics, but it has a decent amount of backbone to allow me to get a strong fish in quickly.

I am a runner!

Never thought I would say it, but I think I just might be a runner. Christine got me really fired up about running the Falmouth Road Race. I signed up once before and I am not quite sure why I didn't run it, but I chickened out. Christine ran it and I watched her with the kids. Perhaps some old running race wounds. I was pretty quick when I was a kid and my dad brought me to a few running races. Somewhere along the line not winning made me a bit discouraged and I stopped doing the running races. Pretty dumb, but i was maybe in second grade.

Last night during Thomas' soccer practice and doubts of whether or not I would be able to run 7+ miles by August running through my head, I made the choice to start running at the beginning of his practice and see how long I could run for. I have been timing my pace on my normal mile and a half loop that I do around the neighborhood and it has been around the 9 minute mile mark (I am definitely not breaking any land speed records with that i know). I ended up running for 53 minutes. Now I do not want to get too excited and I am sure that I was probably going a bit slower than my normal pace, but let's just say I was doing a 9 minute and 30 second mile (I think I was going faster, but for the sake of erring on the worse side), that would mean I went somewhere between 5 and 6 miles. Considering the longest I had been running up until this point was 3.4 miles once or twice a month I am pretty psyched. In addition, I could have kept going too. One of the drawbacks that I have noticed about running is that my back gets really sore. Usually the night of a morning run or in the morning after I have slept. During this long run I was feeling tightness in my back for the last few laps and I decided to stop, plus I knew I had gone a fair distance and was growing increasingly curious as to how long/far I had run. Definitely could have banged out another mile as far as stamina was concerned. I need to do a bit of research on what I might be doing to cause this back issue, but either way it is not major and is worth me being in shape and healthy. The pain is not in anyway causing me to take pills.

The Skunk is Off!!

I caught my first fish of '09. During lunch today I swung by Trunk River and threw out a 7" amber Hogy a few times. On around my 15th cast or so I got a solid hookup and was a bit surprised when my dragging started sounding. It ended up being a fish close to 30" and had a nice belly to it too. First of many I hope this year.

In other news I am trying to setup a trip with someone I met online while doing TJ's raffle fundraiser on Surf Talk. He has a son that has diabetes and is going to bring him along. We are shooting for sometime towards the end of May. Perhaps early June.

48 lbs. Two pounds away from being down 50 lbs. Crazy!! To be honest I have not been working out that much. An occasional run here and there, but I am really watching what I eat. I have not had a bagel, fast food burger or fries since December. I really think that helps. Plus, I have been able to make good choices at home and I order differently while out to eat. Recently I have stopped drinking which can only help. I stopped for reasons that are a whole blog entry unto itself. Whether it ever gets written or not is a different story.