mgiven.com

The puck drops in a few hours, but our household battle started...

Mon, 14 May 2012 16:05:00 -0400

The puck drops in a few hours, but our household battle started with the walk to school this morning :)

Mother’s Day sunrise from the beach in Seaside Park, NJ. A...

Sun, 13 May 2012 12:28:00 -0400

Mother’s Day sunrise from the beach in Seaside Park, NJ. A good backdrop to start a 10 mile run :)

Playing around with some of the new toys on various social networks. Today’s focus is on...

Wed, 09 May 2012 10:27:00 -0400

Playing around with some of the new toys on various social networks. Today’s focus is on Facebook Interest Lists, Google+ Hangouts On Air and saved #hashtag searches, cleaning up Twitter lists, and giving Tumblr another kick in the tires.

Lottery results posted … I have officially been accepted...

Wed, 25 Apr 2012 21:59:21 -0400

Lottery results posted … I have officially been accepted into the 2012 NYC Marathon! :-)

Rutgers Unite Half-Marathon (Race Report)

Mon, 23 Apr 2012 08:46:00 -0400

Fun race at the Rutgers Half-Marathon and the rain held out until the very end. My main goal was finishing my first half, so that was accomplished. The next goal was to do so in one piece, without tweaking a back or knee, which I always a possibility with me. Happy to report the knee that sometimes isn’t happy didn’t even flinch once, which surprised me. Maybe the preventative knee sleeve and IT band strap helped in a placebo effect kind of way :)

As far as the racing and pacing part goes, I finished 549 out of almost 3,000 but some room for improvement. I didn’t go out too fast since the amount of racers blocked you in for the first mile. I eased in with 8:00/mile pace team pretty much the whole race, but they were going more like 7:45 to 7:50 minute miles. I guess they wanted to have some time in the bank to make sure they hit their mark. Was still feeling strong so hung there for awhile and in retrospect it might have been a tiny bit fast for a hilly course. I did get through 11 miles at a 7:58.8/mile average pace.

Then things got interesting as my HR shot up a bit high for my comfort, not always reliable and not crazy territory, but not great for a half either. I did feel a little spent and didn’t think today was the day to push it, so I decided to ease up…always better to pick your spots and live to race another day :) I slowed the pace to around a 9:00/mile and walked through the last 3 water stops. I kept thinking that Coach Jeff Galloway would have been proud to incorporate some of his method here. Sure, your pace drops , but it’s much more enjoyable. The time isn’t posted yet, but my Garmin has me at 13.2483 miles in 1:48.31 and an average pace of 8:11/mile.

In the end, fun was had by all, mostly dry, lots of cookies eaten, many children high-fived, and my favorite part … hanging around and cheering all the other runners in.

Quirky observation for the day: lots of bands on the course, but this one scene was notable. As we’re approaching the 10 mile mark where people are feeling sluggish and right at the time where most forecasters predicted the skies would open up…I hear THIS from the band in the distance:

“Hope you got your things together
Hope you are quite prepared to die
Looks like we’re in for nasty weather”

Great song and I love CCR as much as the next guy, but C’MON! Show some mercy with your song selections given the situation :)

GEEK/TECHIE NOTES:

Avg. HR 171 (92.4% max)
High HR 185 (100% max…a new high on my Garmin!)
Calories: 1605
Avg. Cadence: 178 (180 when you throw out the walking breaks)
Training Effect (TE): 5.0
EPOC Peak: 620 ml/kg
VO2 Peak: 45 ml/kg/min
Avg. Respiration rate: 38 breaths/min

I am running the 2012 ING NYC MARATHON (and ALL My 2012 races!) to support critical cancer research at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. Please consider donating to support my run(s) and THANK YOU!

Checking out the weather forecast. I don’t want it to pour as expected tomorrow for my...

Sat, 21 Apr 2012 17:13:49 -0400

Checking out the weather forecast. I don’t want it to pour as expected tomorrow for my half-marathon and it’s hardly EVER rained during the four months of training! On the other hand, our girls softball team is the walking wounded and we really need a rainout for tomorrow afternoon! I guess in a perfect world the rain would hold off till I cross the finish line and then open up :) If I have to choose though, I’ll take the rain!

Yankee throwback jersey and cap for today’s 100th birthday...

Fri, 20 Apr 2012 09:11:30 -0400

Yankee throwback jersey and cap for today’s 100th birthday game at Fenway.

tax procrastination ... an annual tradition!

Mon, 16 Apr 2012 22:51:13 -0400

I’d like to thank whoever made Emancipation Day a DC holiday tomorrow for fueling my tax filing procrastination tradition. I guess I can go to bed now that I still have 25 hours left :)

Henrik with 39 saves and the shutout for a 1-0 win. Whew!

Mon, 16 Apr 2012 22:19:00 -0400

Henrik with 39 saves and the shutout for a 1-0 win. Whew!

Nice pic :) kevinfaraci: A snap of our ship in the British...

Sun, 15 Apr 2012 20:45:00 -0400

Nice pic :)

kevinfaraci:

A snap of our ship in the British Virgin Islands. We’ll be in Europe in no time.

nofightinggravity: A special occasion I always love during...

Sun, 15 Apr 2012 20:44:00 -0400

nofightinggravity:

A special occasion I always love during baseball season is the day now set aside to pay tribute to Jackie Robinson. Years ago this started off as kind of a sloppy gesture by the MLB of having certain players wear his number and certain teams paying tribute. I think it is now what it always should have been, every team honoring him and every player wearing his number.

More on Jackie Robinson Day.

2012 Goals: Two Birds with One Stone

Sat, 31 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0400

My major achievements in 2011 were getting healthy, eating better, losing 90 lbs. in the process, getting in great shape, and taking up running to keep myself there. I did most of this for me.

In 2012 I want to continue and build on my personal successes, but dedicate my efforts to helping others. To this end, I will run in 2012 to raise money for cancer research.

As with most of you reading this, I have lost many loved ones to cancer. From Aunts and Uncles to Grandparents to my Father at the young age of 57.

I am running the 2012 New York City on November 4th with Fred’s Team to benefit cutting edge cancer research at Memorial-Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Please consider helping out and donating to support my run!

Here is the link to my donation page: www.mgivenback.com

THANKS!

My Annual Report (next one in 2016!)

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500

My weight-loss, nutrition and fitness journey started at the end of February last year, so this is my personal annual report. Lots of people have encouraged and motivated me along the way and have asked how much I’ve lost or why I started or what I did differently. I didn’t really answer many questions because I didn’t feel I was “done” yet or the answers sounded self-important. It’s been a year, so I decided to write about everything ONCE to share and get it out of my system, and then not bug anyone about it again (or at least for awhile!)

I decided to change my diet and begin exercising the day after the Superbowl last year. I remember the greasy/queasy feeling in my stomach the next morning following a predictable big-event food and beerfest. I stepped on the scale, which mocked me by displaying a new lifetime high weight. So I did some research on general nutrition and exercise, made a shopping list of better foods and vowed to join the local gym. That was pretty much it, though it sounds kinda boring as a motivation. No sob story…no life-changing event, no doctor’s orders, no nightmare or strange dreams, no trip to the desert to find my life or connect with my inner soul, and no jarring epiphany. Sorry!

By the end of February I had started eating better and less. I finally did join the gym and I dragged myself there every day and left huffing and puffing, but still ticking. The goals of my “diet” were to lose around a ½ to 1 pound a week with a balanced diet and anything more could come from exercise. The nutrition breakdown I shot for was 55% carbs, 25% fat and 20% protein, which was well within the guidelines of the government, all health organizations, and most sane nutrition “experts” on the interwebs. I also tried to add enough fiber to be within the 28-34g per day recommended for men and stay under 2300g of sodium. I started exercising with VERY slow cardio on the treadmill and told myself that I’d graduate to the elliptical if the treadmill didn’t kill me first. I also planned to add weight lifting if the elliptical didn’t do me in (and if the treadmill take me before the elliptical!)

Fast forward six months to the end of July. The nutrition part of the diet went exactly as planned. I ate well and balanced and less. I still indulged in “bad” foods when I felt like it, but made better choices overall. I became a gym/cardio slave and pretty much went 7-days a week from the end of February to the end of July. I dropped the treadmill out of boredom and took up the Elliptical machine. Sticking with the gym was a shock, but direct tv and flat panel monitors on every piece of equipment aided in the process. My daily exercise during that period averaged a 980 calorie expenditure. This activity combined with my nutritional changes resulted in weight loss of around 90 lbs by the end of July. The good news is that I’ve kept up the loss and nutrition and have only gone up and down by 2-3 lbs since then. Still fascinated by my newfound fitness and energy, I decided to take up running since the Elliptical was getting boring.

On July 27^th, a few days after my 44^th birthday, my then 11-year old daughter and I headed out the door for the first walk/run in our couch-to-5K training program. This seemed like a nice slow start to my new running adventure, it involved geeky gadgetry (C25K phone app), and she was intrigued enough to come along for the journey. There were a few road bumps of slight pains, cramps, huffs, puffs and general blahs, but we made it through every single workout in the 8-week program.

We entered and completed our first 5K in September and then went on to do five more of them together. Our favorite was the Girls on the Run 5K. My daughter’s school didn’t have a fall program (they do it in the spring), but we ended up training and running ourselves, complete with pink spray-painted hair with yellow highlights and neon eye-blocking tape :-) I went on to finish a 10-week 10K training program and raced in my first 10K race in October. I then started a 12-week half-marathon training program and will race a 20K next week and a half-marathon in April.

If you’re still reading this far (and I completely understand why most wouldn’t have made it to this point!) then you probably know that my borderline obsessive/compulsive personality loves stats and over-analysis. So the following is the “data” section of my annual report. Lots-o-numbers but hey…that’s what I do :)

Over the last 12 months I ….

Went from 240 or so lbs to 150 or so lbs.
Logged EVERY food and exercise in LoseIt! phone app and website
Averaged 980 calories in exercise per day from Feb through July
Averaged 420 calories in exercise per day from August through today.
Nutrition breakdown: 55.1% carbs, 26.1% fat, 18.8% protein.
TOTAL calories burned: 244,448 or around 70 lbs!!!!!
Went out walking 378 times
Strapped myself to the elliptical machine 186 times
Ran 131 times for a total of 420 miles
Coached softball 37 times and coached wrestling 15 times
Favorite foods … coffee on 392 days (obviously didn’t give that up!)
Ate fat-free or 2% Greek yogurt on 330 days. My #1 “new diet” staple
Had butter on 204 days (didn’t give up either, but usually fat-free)
Ate Fiber One cereal on 198 days (another new food item)
Had some sort of protein or fiber bar (Clif/Nature Valley/Kashi) 444 times.
Ate a slice of wheat/higher fiber/protein bread with breakfast 148 times.
Enjoyed bagels 48 times, potato chips 31 & pretzels 27 times (weaknesses!)
Pigged out on my birthday, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years & SuperBowl!
Weekly running mileage up to around 30 miles & long runs are up to 14 miles
Resting heart rate dropped from 81 beats per minute to 40 beats per minute!

So what’s next? I have always had one far-fetched athletic goal in the back of my head that seemed impossible, and especially from the couch or behind a computer, but still a nice distant fantasy. I also want to do more in local community volunteerism and charity in general. I might as well combine the two and dedicate 2012 to running further and raising money for charity along the way. I am starting the year by volunteering and helping to organize a few local charity races and have plans to organize a few more in the summer and fall. Oh….the “far fetched” goal? I registered this morning for the 2012 New York City Marathon (11/4/12) and will run the race for cancer charities.

Thanks for reading (if there is anyone out there who stuck with this drivel) and I couldn’t have done it without the support of family and friends, including the hundreds of new ones from online communities like LoseIt! and DailyMile. The good news is that since I posted this today you are spared another overly-long annual report until the next leap day in 2016 :-)

11/11/11

Fri, 11 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0500

11/11/11:

This article provides a synopsis of the possible implications of the 11/11/11 date singularity and of the number eleven; followed by a quick metaphysics experiment.

"MUST … NOT … GO … NEAR … THE … CANDY … BUCKET!"

Mon, 31 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0400

“MUST … NOT … GO … NEAR … THE … CANDY … BUCKET!”

Florence, Italy

Wed, 26 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0400

Florence, Italy

"Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones..."

Thu, 13 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0400

““Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover””

- Mark Twain

Let's do the timewarp...again!

Wed, 12 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0400

Laughing to myself ahead of the chaos that is going to hit Facebook next week when “Timeline” profiles go live. There is going to be a LOT of sharing and deleting and resharing and deleting. The sidebar thing is gunna go nuts with updates. Half the people will complain that they want their old profile back and why did they have to go and change it. The other half will begin posting things from 20 and 30 years ago. Let’s do the timewarp again!