C25K W5D2 today.

I ended up walking the last minute of the 2nd 8 minute run in today's program. A bit of asthma kicked in and I simply felt a need for more air than I was getting.

The stats for today were 4.34 KM @ 8:42 minutes per km for 37:51 minutes.
466 calories

I think I'll repeat Day 2 for my next run before moving on the the 20 minute non stop run of day 3.

Week 5 Day 1 of the C25K is officially now in the books.
With a long post run cool down I went 5.2 KM in 46:06 at a 8:51 pace and burnt 559 calories.

Enough of the facts though, this run was pretty hard. I managed to get through it although I walked about 10 seconds late in my last 5 minute running segment.

The workout consisted of a 5 minute walk followed by 3 5 minute runs separated by 2.5 minute walking breaks. I then follow it with about 15 minutes of walking... which obviously lowers my overall per KM pace.

Today was a pretty hot run. 25 degrees Celsius and 70% humidity therefore felt like 33. (91.5 Faherenheit) Whew!

I'm definitely looking for the moderate temperatures of late September early October.

Very busy PMP study day planned. Less than 2 weeks until the exam now.

I got back to the 100 Push Up plan today doing W3D2... and completing 72 PUs.

I skipped the plan 2 days ago due to some shoulder and back pain. Whereas that pain is not gone, when I tried the PUs today I found that neither shoulder or back seemed to feel any problem so I completed the workout. I'll try it again in 2 days and if all goes well I continue moving forward.

I haven't added an ab workout to my plan yet but keeping planning to do so.

Just a very brief update today as I have quite a few work related activities on the go that I must attend to.

I completed W4D3 today covering 5:19 KM in 45:07.
This was a 8:41 minutes per km and 558 calories expended.

I definitely felt ready to stop the running at the end of the 2nd 5 Minute segment but as was true the last day, I could have done another segment.

The perils of the dreaded week 5 lie ahead. Wish me luck!

I had a little detour on he fitness trail yesterday. It appears I've pulled or strained something both in my left shoulder and back. No doubt it's from the push ups. So I'm going to give the push up plan a couple of days off to see how things feel before I resume. This hopefully doesn't affect the running plan which I resume later today.

I went to BMO Field in Toronto last night to watch the FIFA World Cup Qualifier between Canada and Jamaica. It was a fun evening in Toronto. The stands were sold out and were probably at 80:20 ration cheering for Canada vs. Jamaica.

Canada had a slight edge in play and took a 1-0 lead early in the second half. Jamaica came back however, and scored on a corner kick that somehow eluded Canada's normally stellar keeper Pat Onstad. Onstad felt he was held up (someone had a mitt full of jersey) but his protestations were to no avail.

The event seemed to represent a turning point in support for the Canadian team. In the past, international matches in Canada tended to be somewhat lob sided in their support levels with the majority of fans coming to cheer for their old homeland, or their father or grandfathers homeland for that matter. Last night however, probably based upon the recent success of Toronto FC and the great supporters groups, for the first time ever we had a sea of red. There was a lively Jamaican contingent but Canada now knows they'll be well supported when they play again i Toronto. It was great to see.

I completed W4D2 today. The run is identical to the W4D1 run. I went a similar route to the lake and back. I tacked a iittle extra on to the end so the day exceeded 5k because I wanted to get my congratulations from Paula Radcliffe on my Nike+. (It's funny how we all like a little pat on the back, even if it's from a microchip synced to a little voice clip. The run went very well. No problems, ready to walk after my final 5 minute run, but almost felt like doing another set. My pace was slow, but I'm very conscious of getting ready to run non stop, and I think that is the key versus speed right now. Once I'm doing the 5k non stop I'll start thinking about pace a bit more.

On a completely different note, last night I watched Simon Whitfield in the Olympic Triathlon at the magnificent Mings Tomb Reservoir northwest of Beijing. (I have Simon's blog linked on the right)

What a marvelous race! Whitfield is the Canadian Gold Medal Triathlete from the Sydney games 8 years ago. He's still one of the top 10 in the sport. This race came right down to the finish as Whitfield trailed 4 runners by about 15 meters with about 200 meters left. He put on an amazing kick and quickly took the lead. Two runners dropped off and German Jan Frodeno eventually beat Whitifeld by about 5 meters with an incredible sprint. Still, Whitfield is very pleased with the Gold here, and has shown a tremendous ability to come up big when it count.s Have a look at his blog...he's quite a guy. Well Done Simon. I'm going to need a Simon Whitfield audio Clip for the ipod one of these days!

Earlier I mentioned an October race. I'm happy to say it looks like I'll be having my son in law Mike join me in the event. We'll be running the Run for Hope http://www.5ksmrunforhope.com/?ksm on October 13. That's Thanksgiving Day here in Canada, and it's probably good to get the run in before the annual feast. Mike is pretty long and lean. I'll probably see him at the start and by the time I finish he'll be cooled down and ready hit the road. We also will be tracking that race as part of the Phedippidations World Wide Half Marathon, Zen Run 10K, and "Kick the Couch" 5K road race.

If you have a chance list to the Phedippidations Podcast. www.steverunner.com Steve Runner (actually Walker) has a marvelous podcast that he posts weekly. He's been doing it for about 3 years and it's an incredibly enjoyable, well produced program that includes running interviews, discussion, humour and music, as well as some of Steve's generally philosophy. I'm amazed his podcast hasn't been picked up by NPR or some other public broadcaster. It's that good. Thanks Steve!

On my exercise front, today I competed W3D1 of the one hundred pushup challenge. I did a collective 64. Nice change from my 6 during my test before day 1.

I completed W4D1 of the C25K program this morning. After my excitement in the last run I went into this one with a little trepidation. I addressed all of my mistakes from the last run, in that I took some of the asthma medication about 15 minutes before starting, I wore my MIO Heart rate Watch and above all, I started out slow.

The run went pretty well. It's a big step up from earlier runs in that it has 2 sets of 3 and 5 minute running segments. So, for the first time you are asked to go 5 minutes non stop.

I found the first one OK but I was pretty much done as I was into the 2nd one. I managed to complete it, but that was all that was in the tank. Again, as with past runs I'm walking further than the day's program and this time the entire run ended up being about 4.81 kilometers. I took a total of 41:55 minutes. The overall pace that my Nike + calculated was 8:42 min/km.

It will be interesting to see what the time for a 5k will be when I don't have all the warm up, walk segments and cool downs in my October 11 race.

Boni and I did a 20k bike ride today down to Appleby Line and Lakeshore. We stopped for a break at the Paletto Estate, a beautiful early 20th century estate on the shore of Lake Ontario.

It was a fabulous day here today. Mid 20's and no humidity. We've had a very abnormal summer this year in that although each day has started out clear, eventually most days end up cloudy with some thunderstorms. It's very much like Florida's summer here this season.

Today was an exception however, as the lovely air was dry and clear and a bit of a breeze.

We actually had a headwind against us as we traveled south, and we also had it against us as we came back north. How the hell does that happen?

Today was our first time on our bikes this year, and the butt was really feeling it at the end of the ride.

Following the ride we had a bit of a mini celebration with a few Pina Colada. Mmmm. I have to ride more, if it means I get one of those at the end.

A bit later I did my 1000 pushup challenge, W2 D3. 50 PU in total. All went well.

W3 D3 yesterday.

I made a few strategic errors yesterday. I went for my W3D3 run with a near empty asthma inhaler. I took a puff of the stuff as I went out the door, a bit later than I normally do. I didn't realize it was the last puff in the container! I also didn't take my heart rate watch.

You can see where this is going, can't you?

Anyway, the run proceeded OK to start with, 5 minute walk, 90 second run, walk again, 3 minute run.,walk, 90 second walk, 90 second run, walk, then the 3 minute run again. That's where the problems surfaced.

It was at this point that a touch of asthma kicked in. About 15 seconds into the final run. I reached for my trusty spray... and no luck, ...empty.
I tried to keep running and the breathing passages just got tighter and tighter, constricting by the second. Initially I tried to slow down my run, and it didn't seem to help one bit. Just a bit more to go, it thought. Finally, Ullrey said just one more minute. However, my lunges and brain said "no more minutes". I felt extremely faint and dizzy and decided to stop running before I fell over. I just wasn't getting enough oxygen, and I think my heart was racing extremely fast. Aghh.... I hated doing this as it's the first time in the program that I had to walk early. Oh, the shame.

Anyway, I continued along my route and eventually got home.

I normally walk about 9 minutes longer than the Ullrey podcast in order to do a particular route along Lake Ontario that I enjoy.

When I finally stopped and synced my Nike +I found that I was 1 minute per mile faster than my previous 2 week 3 runs.

So, overall, I did a few things wrong here that I'll have to be more careful about in the future.
1) I took my pre-run puff of asthma inhaler too close to the actual run. It's always recommended to do this about 10 - 15 minutes before the exercise in order to avoid exercise induced asthma.
2) I may have not really taken any of the medicine at all. I believe the last few puffs of spray in an inhaler cartridge are propellant and not medicine. I'm not 100% certain of this, but the stuff seems to taste different.
3) I went out with an empty container.
4) I ran too fast.
5) I didn't have my heart rate watch to see how that was going.
6) Given all of the above, I probably should have stopped running sooner.

Probably you could get away with doing any one of these, but the combination of all did me in to the point of a bit of danger, and also sabotaged the run.
I've had asthma for about 48 of my 54 years and am at the point that it's generally controlled much better than ever. That said, I still am an asthmatic, and asthma can be dangerous. I don't want to sound overly dramatic, however in retrospect I really must be careful of this. I can't recall feeling this close to collapse even in my 10 years of ice hockey! I will be more careful!

All that said, I completed the day a few minutes quicker than any other day despite the problems. Therefore, with proper control of the medication I'm confidant that I'll continue to progress going forward.

For those with asthma, I must note that in the past when I was more fit, I found I needed medication les and less as I progressed. I really believe aerobic exercise is a bit of a cure for asthma as opposed to asthma being a reason not to do aerobic exercise. A sound, gradual program, along with proper preventative actions, such as taking an early preventative puff of the medication, and not starting out to quickly, mean you can run with no problem. I just happened to not do the right things on this given day, and vow to be more careful in the future.

Completed 100PU W2 D2 today with 48 pushups total and 14 in last set.

My W3 D2 run went great yesterday. Each day is a progressive challenge but as fitness improves a bit with each day as well, it never seems to be insurmountable.

My runs typically run down to Bronte Harbour and back. Bronte is an area on the east side of Oakville, about 20 miles west of Toronto. Originally a fishing village and way back a British Navy post was located in the harbour.

Naturally the Navy is long gone, and the fishing is purely sport fishing for lake trout, bass, and salmon.

I'm not much of a fisherman, but as I'm seeing the lake and harbour each day I'm starting to get the itch.

There also is a very active yacht club both in Bronte and Oakville.

We only moved down to this area a year ago and I'm truly enjoying being by the lake.

On a side note, I've scheduled my PMP exam for Wednesday September 3. That gives me plenty of review time. The Project Management Professional exam is a difficult 4 hour exam, but I'm feeling reasonably confidant now, and no doubt if I stick to my plan, I'll be ready by September.

Reviewed 1/4 of PMI material today. Went very well. 39/40 in the to chapter tests.

Did W2 D1 of 100pu. No problem. Topped out at 13 PU fo total of 40.

Thing's continuing well on all fronts. Completed Day 2 of the pushup challenge yesterday, and W3 D1 of the C25K today. That's the longest running stretch so far and it didn't seem to be a problem.

Well things are moving along nicely on all fronts.

PMI
On Friday, I received confirmation that my audit with PMI has been approved and I am now eligible to take the PMP exam. I can schedule it immediately but I'll wait a few days so that I can better gauge the amount of study time I need to be ready. I'm already probably about 75% ready, but I'll schedule it this coming Tuesday or Wednesday, and probably take the final exam around the end of August.

Fitness Plan
On the exercise front I'm progressing nicely on both the C25K and the 100 pushups.


I completed Week 2 Day 3 of the C25K with no drama. I have to slow down a bit going forward because I'm reaching 90% of maximum heart rate by the end of the last running segment. In order to keep going 70% - 80% would be better. W1 D2 of the pushup challenge also went well. I'm doing this on the off days from the running. I did about 42 this time with no major problems

The nice thing about the combination of these two plans is that on alternate days I'm taxing different muscle groups thereby allowing recovery time for each group.

The other great point of the combination is I'm betting both upper body and lower body workouts with the pair, as well as aerobic and strength training.

That combined with sensible eating have allowed me to drop 9 lbs. in the last 3 weeks. I have a lot to go but I'm pretty psyched up about it.

Toronto FC

Finally, to top off a great day yesterday, my sport's passion, Toronto FC hade a very unlikely road victory in Colorado yesterday afternoon. The team started the match with only about 5 of their regular starters. The rest were either away on international callups, injured, or suspended.

This team has generally been sucessful at home and lbeak on the road. 3 road victories in 1.5 years up until yesterday. We've also gone through a dry spell at home lately.

So, certainly a win was unlikely in Colorado with so many reserve players playing.

The game is held at altitude and yesterday it was 95 degress at the start of the match. Toronto had 2 additional starter injured throughout the game with Ricketts going down with leg craps and defender Tyron Marchall with what looked like a leg or hip injury.

Regardless of the hardship, the youngsters that came in played a marvelous game, and new comer Chad Barrett scored an absolute world class free kick to the top corner from about 30 yards out. Congrats to TFC for a marvelous victory.

As well as my professional upgrading this summer, I've decided to take on 2 specific physical challenges and programs for the next few months.

I'm going the C25K challenge and the 100 pushup challenge.

These 2 programs progressively take the participant to the ability to run 5 K now stop and do 100 push-ups non stop. The programs each are 8 weeks long and move forward in a slow progression so as not to discourage or injure the participant.

I realize that for many people these are not very difficult goals. I however would struggle to do either one today... so I consider them to be noble and reasonable goals. When I complete them, I'll no doubt come up with something even more challenging.

Hey folks.

Batman here.

I'm keeping this blog for my own purposes... but there's are no great secrets, so I'll put it up in a blog on the off chance that someone else wants to have a look.

I've had an active summer as I'm in a career transition.

For many years I've been involved in sales management in the technology sector. I've built sales teams throughout North America and have been involved in selling software and services for over 20 years.

Many of my past employers have also sold extensive services and I've managed some of the projects as well as the people working on those projects.

This year, I've decided to formalize my project management experience. Initially I obtained the CAPM designation from the Project Management Institute.

Subsequently I've decided to work towards my Project Management Professional designation from PMI as well. The PMP is the worldwide industry standard for Project Management. I'm very enthusiastically pursuing this designation and expect to have it successfully wrapped up by Sept. 08. Right now, I waiting for approval of my experience documentation in and audit from PMI. I've done a great deal of my studying already but following approval, I'll schedule the exam and continue my studies until that time.