The first rule in US presidential elections is be on the ballot. I know of this one first hand because in my own state of Tennessee, write in ballots are not counted unless the election is close enough for them to make a difference. In Virginia write in ballots may not even be legal in the primaries. Newt failed on this big time and probably deserves to lose based on this gaff alone. He couldn’t even get on his own party’s primary ballot! If he can’t even get things done in his own party, how can he be expected to work with other parties to get stuff done?

The second rule is, don’t screw up the primaries. Hillary Clinton learned this in 2008 by letting her own party screw her. She let them “punish” Florida and Michigan, two states where she enjoyed a massive lead, by not counting their delegates because they moved up their primary elections by a few weeks. By toeing the party line and not having some backbone, she not only failed the people of those states who voted for her, she cost herself the nomination. Her lack of leadership in this area cost her dearly and Newt’s lack of leadership will cost him as well.

The funniest thing in all of this is Newt’s sense of entitlement.

“Only a failed system excludes four out of the six major candidates seeking access to the ballot.”

Really Newt? I would say that only a failed system would automatically allow candidates from just two parties, neither of which have any distinguishable difference to anyone outside the US, to be on the ballots and would deny the same access to other parties and individuals. The only failure here was that Newt Gingrich couldn’t find 10,000 valid signatures for a ballot petition in a state that is literally a stone’s throw from his old stomping grounds in D.C.

I felt pretty good on race morning and showed up 15 minutes before the start, just like all Nashville runners do. I got my stuff and had just enough time to take the t-shirt back to my car before the race started. After greeting my running buddy Joe and talking about our goals (he was aiming for 30 minutes too), the race started. I got a pretty good fast start and Joe was just ahead of me, but he quickly pulled away. I wasn’t discouraged though because I’m coming back after 3 months off and Joe runs and works out fairly regularly.

As seems to be usual for this race, the sun was behind a few clouds, but quickly comes out when the starting gun fires. As the morning heat was building I just ran along. Many people were passing me, but after about half a mile I started to get into my pace and started slowly working my way through the pack. I looked down at my watch and was rather surprised to see a pace of 9:20 which would put me right at my stretch goal of 29 minutes. I didn’t feel like I was running that fast, but I kept at it.

After the first mile, I was feeling pretty good still and passed on the water stop. This race was going just about the same as it had the year before, minus the annoying teenagers. I didn’t really feel any fatigue at all until I got closer to mile 2. The first half of this race is mostly down hill and the second half is mostly uphill, so that’s when things really start to go bad for a lot of people. I was prepared though and just kept chugging along.

As I approached the end, my new goal was to try to beat last year’s time of 28:31. It was possible given my pace, but I still had to work really hard to try for it and try I did. I pushed hard for the last quarter mile and sprinted the last tenth of a mile. I came in with a time of 28:52, which didn’t beat last year (disappointing), but I did beat both of my goals for this race (Yay!). This time also gave me a lot of confidence in my new training plan which is slower than before, but has many more miles (at least 3 a day). I was worried the slower training pace would lead to a slower racing pace, but this race proved that theory wrong.

And to all you people out there on the sidelines, I’d recommend you go out and sign up for a 5K immediately. Any large city has one every couple of weeks or so and many people start out just walking. Five kilometers is only 3.1 miles and you can start out walking, running and walking, or running if you feel up to it. There were several people at this race that walked it in about an hour which is 20 minutes per mile which is a very easy pace that just about anyone can manage. It’s an easy thing to do and it’s gives you a goal to work towards.

Also special props go out to Emily who ran the entire distance for the first time in a 5K. Congratulations!

Banks, I’m not a big fan and becoming less of one with each passing day (er, payment). I am currently trying to pay off all of my credit cards. The first on the list is a Citibank Visa with a starting balance of about $1000. After selling some stuff at the used bookstore, I had an extra $115 to put down towards my balance. As soon as I got home I logged onto the Citibank website and tried to make a new payment. I received the following message:

You are permitted 4 online payments per billing cycle. You have already made 4 payments totaling XXX.XX this billing cycle.

My immediate response was WTF!? I can only make 4 payments per billing cycle? How dumb is that? I should have known there was a limit, because on my account page it was tracking the number of payments I was making per billing cycle. I like to make payments each time I get some cash in the bank, this prevents me from procrastinating and spending the money elsewhere. If I get $80, I go put it in the bank and then immediately transfer that money to the bill I’m wanting to pay. I was outraged when I attempted to do that with my $115 yesterday. Luckily, my last payment was still pending, so I quickly canceled it and added the $115 dollars to that and resubmitted.

As is common these days, I vented my frustration to Facebook by posting the message I received from Citi along with a big ole Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, and received a few comments. One was from my friend Jason:

Yet you can send as many checks as you like…which require far more resources to process. It makes almost as much sense as when an online payment isn’t credited to your account for 3 business days. Frakkin’ banks.

I guess you can see where I got the idea for this post’s title. This actually gave me the idea that I should send them a check for $10 every day for the next 20 days (which would pay off my remaining balance), but this would be wasteful and vindictive and there’s probably some obscure paragraph in my card user’s agreement that prohibits this (probably right under the paragraph about only getting 4 online payments per pay period). Since my payment cycle is up tomorrow anyway, I decided that I would just wait, pay the balance in full and close the account as soon as possible.

Another friend’s comment got me to thinking a bit deeper about the subject of banks:

yet it is a convenience .. Therefore the banks see it as a way to make money.like they are doing you a favor

Yes, it is convenient for me to pay my bill online, but it is equally convenient for the bank, if not more so! To do it the old fashioned way, they have to send me a paper bill, which costs the money of the bill itself and the postage. I have to send them a check back, again via the mail. Someone has to open it on their end and manually process the payment and do the data entry. With online payments, they send me an email and notify me that my statement is ready. I go to their site and make the payment, doing the data entry for them. The payment is debited from my account automatically. The only human doing anything in this transaction is me. The only thing it cost the credit card company is the bandwidth (probably a penny or less) and the cost of their IT infrastructure, most of which would be their anyway even without online payments. There is probably some small transaction fee, but I can’t imagine it would be very big and are offsetting considering payments go both ways between each bank (i.e. Bank X probably has a similar amount of money transferring in from Bank Y and it has transferring out to that same bank).

The gist of this is that Citibank ain’t doin’ me NO favors! In fact, all the favors are coming from me. I did them the favor of choosing them for my business (a mistake for many reasons). I’m also doing them a favor by saving them the money of sending me a paper statement and doing their data entry for them while paying my bill online.

This really boils down to a business deal, and a poor one from my end. Citi is charging me money so that I can spend money that I do not have. This is completely stupid and the more I think about it, the stupider it sounds on my part, and the more unethical it sounds in general. Banks are like the drug pusher on the street corner and we the people are like the addict trying to get our fix. The pusher doesn’t care what the drugs are doing to his customer, the pusher just keeps on selling more and more of his stuff until he completely owns that addict. And that addict keeps coming back for more and more, because it takes more and more to get his fix. In the same way, the bank will loan you more and more money so you can buy more and more stuff, none of which you actually own. Before you know it, you’re hip deep in debt and using one credit card to pay another and there aren’t enough years left in your life to pay all the debts. And if you croak, the pusher moves on to the next addict and the bank does the same thing.

The good news is that we don’t have to keep following this same path. Just like the addict can give up drugs and clean himself up, we can give up debt and clean up our finances. For both the road can be long and painful, but in the end both will be better off. For me, I’m heading down that painful debt-free road now. It’s going to be a journey of several years, but it will be worth it and the lessons learned will be good ones. And it will eventually allow me to live a more peaceful life without as much worry and frustration.

My first goal is for the race I have coming up tomorrow. It’s the Firecracker 5K in Brentwood and my main goal is sub-30 minutes (a 9:38 min/mile pace). This is based on my training runs of late and I am confident in my ability to reach this goal in a safe and injury free manner. My stretch goal will be a time under 29 minutes (a 9:20 pace). I’ve done some intervals at that pace, but I’m not certain I can maintain it for the entire length of the race and remain injury free.

My focus on not getting injured is because of my next goal, running at least 110 miles in July. In fact, this small goal is part of my longer term strategy to run 840 miles this year. To do so I’m going to have to make up for some lost time. By running 110 miles a month for the rest of the year, I will hit 840 miles, but the key will be not to get injured. My strategy will be to run at least 5 km (3.11 miles) every day with a long run on the weekend of not less that 8 miles. These runs will be at a slow pace with maybe one tempo run or speed session per week.

The final goal will be to lose 15 lbs in the month of July. My weight at the start of the month was 221 lbs and my ending weight will be 206 lbs. I know I can do this and I know I can do it safely. After a year and a half of running and dieting, I know how much my body needs to function and when I can push it and when I need to back off. Plus, losing 15 lbs in a month is a lot easier and less risky at 221 lbs than if I started at a lower weight. The key here will be to keep my caloric intake in the 1300 calorie per day range except on the days that I do long runs where it will need to be in the 2000 calorie range or more depending on the length of the run.

That’s it for now. I’ll post updates throughout the month on these goals and I’ll do a wrap up post at the end of the month so see where I came out.

Fortunately, things started to turn around. Management decided that they were paying too much in overtime, so they put a cap on our hours to just 40 per week. Once this was implemented, my mood greatly improved and I started waking up to the fact of how much I’d let myself go. Having taken all my “fat” pants to Goodwill last year, it was getting to the point where I was going to have to either buy bigger pants, or lose weight. Weight loss won out in that equation. In late May I began running again. It was slow and painful, but I did it. By mid June I had decided that it was time to start counting calories again. Things are finally starting to get back on track after my major derailment.

So here’s an update on my goals that I posted earlier in the year. Some things will be out the window as I’ve just waited to long in the year to get going on them, but others have already been attained or are still attainable.

• Reach my goal weight of 160 lbs (lose 60 lbs) – I’ve actually gone backwards on this. My new goal is to be below 200 lbs before October 15.
• Run 840 miles for the year – It will be difficult, but I think I can actually do this one so it is still on the table.
• PR in the 5K, 10K, and half marathon distances – PRed the Tom King 5K.
• Develop and execute a non-running exercise routine – Not much progress here although I’ve started doing push ups recently. Just 10 a day for a week and then 20 a day starting tomorrow.
• Update this blog at least once a week – Fail! But going forward, I can still do this one.
• Eat more veggies – Er, are chicken wings and ice cream veggies? I ate a lot of those. Again, I will be working on this one going forward.
• Eat less fast food – My restrictive food budget should cut this out going forward.
• Visit a state I’ve never been to – Probably not going to happen. This will be something I can do next year maybe.
• Pay off my credit cards and close the accounts – Got one paid off and working on number two. Number three will probably be next year.
• Learn about meditation – Working on it.
• Read at least one book a month – Not sure about this one. Another one to work on going forward.
• Spend less time on the internet – Another fail. I think I need to spend more quality time on the internet writing blog posts and less time just watching Youtube videos.
• Develop a love life – I’m trying, but my social ineptitude is a constant bother.

As you can clearly see, I have a long way to go on all of these goals and only half the time to accomplish them. Some are toast already, but others can still be salvaged. I will continue to work on all of them and update this blog with the details. I hope that when I do my year end recap, most of these will be in the accomplished column. And as always, feel free to email me with advice, encouragement, accountability checks, or constructive criticism. All correspondence will get a reply (unless you are a creepy stalker, non-creepy stalkers are okay).

The first thing that was bad was that I hadn’t trained for over a month before running these races. Also, I had put on some weight. These are not really a good combination before going out to run the longest distance you’ve ever run… in case you were wondering. Nevertheless, I had paid my money and wanted to get my run on, so I went out and did it.

The 5K was first (and thank goodness because I wouldn’t have run it AFTER the half marathon). I got there early and picked up my chips and swag and headed back to the car to listen to music and eat an energy bar. I didn’t feel too nervous, but I was a little anxious considering my lack of training. Goals ran through my brain and I considered each carefully. My first thought was just to finish both races with dignity, but as the 5K start time approached, I decided I’d go out hard and see what happened.

TK races start with bagpipes followed by the sharp crack of the gun. I had taken up position towards the front, but was quickly passed by some better runners before settling into a group running about my speed. After picking off the slow runners who started too far forward in the first 200 yards, I pretty much had the rest of the race to myself. I passed a few people here and there and a few passed me, but for the most part the crowd was thin at around the 9:00 pace I was running. My whole body began to hurt at mile 1, especially my chest which wasn’t used to the deep breaths I was taking. Around mile two I was laboring pretty hard, but still hanging in there. At about mile 2.5 I was considering backing off a bit so I’d have something left for the half marathon, but I kept going. As I approached the Stadium (where the finish line was), I decided to just go for it and ran as hard as I could for the last quarter mile. As I rounded the final corner at the back of the end zone, I raced another man to the finish with a time of 27:50, a new PR by 41 seconds!

I was exhausted at that point and seriously considered not running the half marathon which was a mere 30 minutes away. I went back to my car and got my chip and number ready for the next race and polished off another energy bar. I went to the start and saw a few friends who where also there to just run the half. I decided that I’d try to stick with Gail who was going for a 2:30:00 finish time.

Once again the bagpipes played and the gun sounded and I was off. This time I was moving much slower and was towards the back of the pack. I immediately lost track of Gail, but I knew her pace and I was going to just run that pace in 2:1 intervals (2 minutes running, one minute walking). After about a mile, the crowd thinned a bit and I found Gail. I didn’t really do much talking. I wanted to let her run her race and I was too tired to talk anyway.

Things went pretty well for a while. I felt okay and the walk intervals were helping a lot. However, it started getting harder and harder to maintain pace and at mile 7 things started to go bad. I finally let Gail run off without me and I took a couple extra minutes for a walk break. I started back on my intervals, but I was quickly running out of energy. I took a 5 minute walk break and let my friend Emily catch up with me. We ran together for a while, but I didn’t want to hold her up, so I walked some more. I actually maintained distance with Emily for a while and started feeling better, but then the cramps set in. At first it was just one leg, but around mile 10.5 both legs started cramping. I was out of juice and at this point I was just running until I cramped, then walking until I uncramped and repeating. In the 11th mile I cramped up big time and had to walk most of it. At about mile 12 I was back to running then walking in intervals. As I approached mile 13 I started to feel like I could finish it out running. I took off, doing the best I could running down the ramp and into the stadium. I picked off a few people on the grass and was about to make a great finish, but then 10 feet from the finish my ENTIRE body locked up. I almost fell down and managed to barely walk across the finish line. I received my medal from the Titan’s Cheerleader (something i’d been looking forward to), but I didn’t get to enjoy it because I was in so much pain. I fell to the ground and laid there for quite a while. Luckily Gail and Emily were there waiting on Emily’s S.O. to finish, so I had some company. My finish time was 2:43:48 which is not my worst effort at the half marathon although it was about 27 minutes off my PR.

Despite not being able to walk for about 5 days after the races, I’m proud of what I did that day. I got another PR in the 5K distance, and I finished (with almost no dignity) the half marathon. Despite my experience, I might make this a regular thing and double this each year. The key for next year will be training, training, and more training.

The race starts just outside Autozone Park (the minor league baseball field in Memphis), and ends in the park itself. I was really impressed with the amount of close, cheap parking that was available. The weather was brisk, but not too cold so I stashed my jacket and pants in my gear bag and left them at the bag drop. I wandered around a bit and ran into my Nashville running buddies Joe and Karen. They were planning on doing the full marathon. We chatted for a moment and then went our separate ways.

Due to an utter lack of training, my main goal in this race was to finish with dignity. I was mainly aiming at a 2:25:00 finish, but would have been satisfied with anything under 2:30:00. I headed down to the start line and took up position in my corral. I chatted with some of the runners around me, one from Kentucky and one from Hermitage (not too far from my old apartment).

Pretty soon we were off to the races. My first mile was pretty slow just running with the crowd. I had set my watch for 5 minute run intervals with 1 minute rest intervals, but pretty much ignored it as it beeped. After a mile or so, a lady in front of me dropped her lipstick. Who carries lipstick in a race? And why would you need it? She got several laughs as she stopped to go back and get it.

The next couple of miles were through the streets of downtown Memphis. There were lots of people cheering on the sidelines, probably the most I’ve seen at a race. Lou and Victoria who ran Ragnar with me showed up to cheer on the Nashville crew and they were standing on the corner cheering for just about everyone. The crowd got really dense in a few places, so much so that the running lane was only a few people wide.

After downtown we headed through the St. Jude campus. The crowd here was tremendous and extremely enthusiastic. There were lots of high fives to be given out and even some hugs and pats of the backs for a few participants. It was a great boost of energy.

We then headed into Midtown and the meat and potatoes of the event. The crowds thinned out as we headed down into a residential area. I started feeling fatigued at this point. At mile seven I realized that I had not stopped running since the beginning of the race (except for at the water stops when people just stopped right in front of me). I decided then that my goal would be to not take any rest intervals and to just run the whole thing. it would be hard considering how out of shape I was, but I felt like it was something worth attempting.

We next entered a park and the running lane became narrower, but the runners had thinned out a bit. I was still maintaining a decent pace and even tried to step it up a bit. As we came out of the park though, things started to get a little hilly. The hills were small rollers, but there seemed to be more up to them than down. This was the terrain for most of the rest of the race. It really started to get to me after a while and by mile 11, any hopes of a PR were finished, but I was still running and had not stopped.

Around mile 12.5 or so, we topped the final hill and headed around a curve. Victoria came up behind me and handed me a Star Crunch which I gladly accepted (even though I only managed to eat half). With her encouragement I slogged on through although I was at an extremely slow pace at this point. People were passing me at will. The end finally came into view and from out of nowhere a last reserve of energy was found and my legs took off. I passed back a lot of people and finished with a time of 2:20:09.

I skipped the after race festivities. It was just too crowded and too confusing to try to figure out how to get to the post race swag. The only real gripe I had with this race was the pre and post race setup they had. It just wasn’t as runner friendly as it could have been.

While I wasn’t at the peak of my training, this turned out to be a pretty good race. I ran the whole thing, finished just 4 minutes off my PR time, and got to see and hang out with some great people. If you’ve never been to Memphis or have never raced in Memphis, this is one you ought to try.

I’m also nearing my previous record low weight of 207 lbs which I recorded on August 30, 2010. After bumbling my way back up to 220 lbs right before the holidays, I’ve managed to knock 8 lbs off of that already. Last week’s official weigh-in was 211.8 lbs, and I’m on track for another pound or two of loss this week as well (official weigh-ins are on Mondays). My short term weight loss goal is to beat Tyler from 344pounds.com to 199.9 lbs. Previously I had missed that boat when he got below 200 lbs, but he put 25 lbs back on while I wasn’t reading his blog, so I have a new opportunity to race him to the bottom now that he’s losing again (even though he doesn’t know me or know that he’s racing someone).

I’ve still got a long, long way to go before I reach my ultimate fitness goals, but I’m glad that I am now back on track and headed in the right direction again. And you can come with if you want. All you have to do is decide that you want to do it and then make it happen. The only person holding you back is yourself.

Now on to the updates I promised in the title. I’m already well on my way to my goal weight. I’ve lost 8 lbs since mid-December (current weight 212.4), mostly thanks to a website called MyFitnessPal. The web site takes your current stats, asks you a few questions about your weight loss goals and life style, then generates a daily calorie goal. You then update the site with the food you eat and the exercise you do. It does all the math and keeps a running total of how many calories you have left. For example, based on me wanting to lose 2 lbs per week, my lifestyle (light activity), and my current weight, the site says I need to eat about 1600 calories a day. Now, if I were to burn 400 calories exercising, the web site would add that to my total giving me 2000 calories to eat that day. As long as I don’t go over my calorie limit (whatever it may be), I should lose 2 pounds per week. So far it seems to be working just fine.

I also took a step towards spending less time on the internet by canceling my DSL. I can still tether my laptop to my Android phone and get internet access, but that one step has already reduced the amount of time I’m online. It also saves me the money on DSL service and that will help me towards my goal of paying off my credit card debt. And speaking of that, I’m probably getting a huge tax refund this year. I’ve already planned out how I’m going to use it all to pay down my credit card debt. If my calculations hold true, I should be able to cut it in half!

I’ve already made a little progress on some other goals too, but I’ll leave that for another post. Now go get you some toesocks!

2010 Stats:

• Miles run: 688
• Time spent: 131 hours
• Average pace: 11:26 (min/mi)
• Pairs of running shoes: 2
• Weight lost: 44 lbs
• 5K PR: 28:31
• 10K PR: 1:06:08
• Half Marathon PR: 2:16:03
• Ran or walked at least one mile every day in July.
• Went Skydiving.

For 2011 I want to continue on with some tangible running goals, but I also want to have some more success at weight loss and general fitness and nutrition as well. In fact I would like to focus more on weight loss and nutrition this year and less on running goals. Of course running will be a big part of my weight loss goals. And as I lose weight, my running goals will get easier to attain.

I also want to extend the “Out of Breath” concept to more parts of my life besides running, eating, and weight loss. I want to live my work, personal, spiritual, and financial lives as well as I intend to live my physical life. I want to bring that same amount of dedication and focus to all aspects of my life. Some of my goals I will list below will reflect this and I hope to write more about those things on this blog as well. Since I’m still working on some of these things, I will just give general goals in some areas and will update later with more specific goals. If I don’t, call me on it!

2011 goals:

• Reach my goal weight of 160 lbs (lose 60 lbs)
• Run 840 miles for the year
• PR in the 5K, 10K, and half marathon distances
• Develop and execute a non-running exercise routine
• Update this blog at least once a week
• Eat more veggies
• Eat less fast food
• Visit a state I’ve never been to
• Pay off my credit cards and close the accounts
• Learn about meditation
• Read at least one book a month
• Spend less time on the internet
• Develop a love life :-)

I’m sure more things will come up, but I think this is a good start and I will be keeping you posted on at least a weekly basis. If you have any advice, criticism, or encouragement, feel free to drop me a line and let me know what you think.