Headed to the high school to play an alumni game against this year's varsity. I am excited. It is apparently being treated as a real game and supposed to be serious and I wouldn't want it any other way.

I have played soccer in over a year and haven't played more than twice since my last college game in November 2007. If you think I don't have skills anymore you are trippin. I am fit (not match fit), but still will have some lungs on me from running over the summer.

I am going to be disappointed if I don't score tonight. I will be getting up and down and making darting runs out of the middle. Basically doing things that high school players don't know how to defend. Game on young bucks. Daddys Home!

I made a new years resolution to run 365 miles this year. A mile for every day if you will. I haven't run once yet because it is cold/I am a baby, but am itching to run. I have also decided to buckle down and start eating better again. It was rough from halloween through christmas because of the candy and big meals and what not, but I am back to dominate good eating habits again. The 1st 2 days are the worst because my body cries that it needs sugar. Once I get over that I am good to go.

Now I am going to play video games to keep my mind off my body crying for sugar...

Weight 170

I just watched zombieland and boy was it amazing. I truly hope that they make another one because I laughed my ass off. Emma Stone is so underrated for her sexiness. I hope she pans out unlike lilo.

So I am almost under 170. It is a good feeling. My jeans that I talked about fitting in are now very comfortable and almost too big. I need a belt too, but haven't had a chance to get one.

My reading list is going well. I just finished the third option by vince flynn which was amazing as usual and now I go onto Shooting Stars by Lebron James with Buzz Bissinger (author of Friday Night Lights). It is about Lebron's high school experience. Since I have a massive man crush on Lebron, I probably will finish this book in 4 days.

I am in a grove with this whole eating thing and it doesn't feel like a chore at all which is really nice. Honeycrisp apples are so amazing with peanut butter! The Laughing Cow spreadable wedges on triscits are also amazing.

I am out of a job 2 weeks from Friday. It is a little stressful, but I will hopefully find something permanent soon. In the meantime, I will most likely take a part time gig somewhere.

Time to read, and hit the hay.

My thoughts are with Charlie Davies (sorry don't believe in prayer) and I have realized that the US team's hopes at the world cup are no crushed...gay.

weight: 177

I lost 1.5 lbs from last week which is about right. Things are going well and I don't even feel I am dieting anymore because I am not restricting things I am eating too much. I feel like I have more energy these days though. I don't get sleepy at work in the afternoon and my sleep at night is now very good and I wake up feeling very rested. I like this a lot.

Books I want to read before 2009 is over (in no particular order):
The Kite Runner
Killing Floor
A Salty Piece of Land
The Blind Side
Shooting Stars
Where Men Win Glory
Into The Wild
Morning Sunshine
The Third Option
The Road

I am excited to read all of these books, especially shooting stars (lebron book), where men win glory (pat tillman book). All these titles do excite me though. I'll be back next week. Almost finished with the lost symbol.

weight: 178.5

Dropped a pound from last week which is cool. I have been eating more starches and fruits daily so my variety of what I can eat is much better now. I haven't run for over a week which will change tomorrow. Between tv starting, books I want to read, naps to take after work, and the fact that it gets dark earlier and earlier every night it is tough to fit in a run. I will do it though and it will be amazing.

Vikings@ Lions this week Come on boys! I'm looking at you AP!

weight: 179.5

I lost 4.5 pounds since last week. Apparently the weight lose was supposed to slow to 1-2 pounds a week so I am not really sure whats going on. I guess it isn't good to lose this much weight because it can take away muscle mass too. I know for the most part what that means, but I don't think it affects me too much as I am still doing different body weight stuff for strength training. I have been running too which is nice. Only running 3 miles is a little more enjoyable than 7 and above. 3 is all I need to keep the metabolism going. I am still trying to get myself out of bed in the morning to run, but it will happen soon.

The jeans I talked about fitting into 3 weeks ago I can now fit into and wear comfortably. I tried them on just to see where I was at and they fit really nicely. So that is exciting, but I still have that goal weight of between 160-165. I am now wondering if my jeans will be too big for me. That would be kinda lame, but I will just rock the belt and things will be all good. I am totally souped for sports starting thursday and continuing to sunday night (and monday night, but those football games are terrible match ups).

What I'm watching:

Thursday: Titans @ Steelers
Saturday: Arsenal @ Manchester City, Manchester Untied @ Tottenham, Air Force @ Gophers, USC @ Ohio State
Sunday: VIKINGS @ Browns, Redskins @ Giants, Jags @ Colts, Chicago @ Green bay

It should also be mentioned that Sons of Anarchy started tonight and is so awesome. Last season was great, but this season is setting up to be absolutely phenomenal.

60 minutes also premiers sunday night which is awesome and most of the shows are back next week. Ohh yes. The weather is getting cooler and Football season is upon us. I am please with my fantasy team and think that I minimized as much risk as possible. I have the tools to have a big year and we will see what can happen. I need matty ryan to have a big year, and I believe that he will. See you next Tuesday!

weight: 184

I feel like I have done rather well for my eating habits these 1st 2 weeks. Tonight my sugar free popsicle will be the last thing I have for Phase 1. That means tomorrow I can have a piece of bread with my eggs for breakfast, which I will admit, sounds retarded, but after not having any bread for 2 weeks it sounds amazing to me.

I haven't had any cravings, which is good because at work there is candy anywhere, and at my house there is all types of candy. Why? Well I really don't know. Today at work we celebrated a coworker's bday and he wanted thai food (worst part of this job is the birthday meals because everyone gets ethnic food. What happened to like a hamburger or something American?) so I had to research and make sure I wasn't going to get dominated by some grease bomb. What I ended up getting was basically just green beans and chicken in some sort of red curry sauce. It tasted delicious, only the sauce was like broth and it came in the little white chinese type boxes. I dumped some of it onto my plate and it is just like water all over the plate...god dammit. So I eat some chicken and green beans and then put more of the chicken and green beans from the box onto the plate, only to have it splash all over me. Way to make me look like a moron thai food. Of course later in the day I am wonder what smells like shit, and if I am the one that smells like shit and its the curry dried onto my shirt and shorts...gross. It brought me back to the FDU Cafateria really fast and I was very sad.

We had ice cream cake today too, and I wasn't going to be the person who didn't eat any, so I had some. It was the most sugar I have had in 2 weeks and my stomach actually didn't feel too well after the fact. Did it taste good? Of course it did, but is wasn't that great. I do miss chocolate though, and Sweet Martha's cookies have been talked about everyday on KFAN at the state fair and I could really go for some of those.

All in all things are going good in terms of this whole diet thing. Apparently the 1st 2 weeks are the toughest (no brea/pasta/starches and no fruit) so I got that part out of the way and now I will go about steadily losing about 2 pounds a week for about 10 weeks. That sounds like cookies (get it!?) to this guy. Also it will be easy to do that with the corresponding football season.

I'm still trying to get a routine going for running and lifting. I have nothing set in stone yet, and with the days getting shorter it is starting to become necessary to go out before work and run. I really am not a fan of that, but we will see what happens.

Game of the week: Virginia Tech vs. Alabama. Come on Hokies!!

See you next tuesday

I started the south beach diet a week ago. I don't know what I weighed then, but at the moment I weigh 187.5. I am hoping to get down to 160-165. South beach an interesting diet, though it has the gayest name, thats cool though. I'll keep running tabs every week with my weigh in and what not. I should have the weight off by november. We shall see how we do. I really just want to fit into my jeans again.

Distance: 15
Temp: 53
TOD: 12:45
TOR: 2.38.43

(I didn't do splits because its just too hard to keep track of every mile and where they are on on the route.)
http://www.mapmyrun.com/run/united-states/mn/minneapolis/576124063599740104

I had a relaxing Friday evening with Tyler that involved sitting around and watching hockey and tv until about 10. Then I relaxed a little with some reading in my bed. I tried to not think about the actual distance of running 15 miles the next day because the number really is a ricockulous amount to run. I made sure that I had hydrated enough and had things sorted out for the morning such as setting my alarm for 8:30 to get some food in me to be able to digest before I headed out the door.

I woke up Saturday and it was raining, which I was indifferent about. It was supposed to rain so that wasn't a big shock. I ate some food and then read a little. It stopped raining before I went out so I guess that's good just for the fact that extra moisture in the shoes can lead to some dirty blisters.

I filled up my camelbak, got my gu's ready (orange was a flavor i haven't tried yet and was decent) and set out on my journey.

I made my route to loop around my close neighborhood a little to try and build up some miles before I went further than my home. It just sucks to loop around at the end of the run than at the beginning of the run. It is all mental, but I used it to my advantage and it did help.

I cranked up my tunes, strapped on my camelbak and set out for a run that would be long, though I had a mindset just to enjoy it for what it was...a run in some nice weather in spring. The time seemed to go by faster and faster though. I use the gels every 50 minutes and when I took the 2nd it didn't feel like I was running for almost 2 hours. My legs felt good and my body in general felt good. No pains anywhere, which really is a nice thing because aches seem to make minutes last longer and longer than they really are. I arrived back home in under 2.40 and I was satisfied with my time. My legs were definitely fried, but it felt good to do 15 miles. The longest run of training is 20 miles which is in 5 weeks. So 5 weeks to build up to 5 more miles sounds, dare I say, simple.

It was nice to stop running though. After 2.38 my legs felt like jello (understatement) and walking for the next few hours was a little rough, bit it wasn't too bad. 15 miles sounds a lot worse than it really is. Once again, its all mental. I did get spoiled with the weather though. I mean it was the best possible running conditions. Overcast and in the 50's with a light breeze. Next week I could be writing about how terrible 16 miles was because it was in the 80's. That would be a bad run.

I went out to Hopkins Saturday night with Tyler and some other fools. It was relaxing and fun to have some drinks. I learned that Tom has trust issues with his girlfriend. I'll need to teach him how to control his anger and not break his phone when he is angry :P. Hopkins is fun though, so thanks to everyone who came out I enjoyed myself. Also a surprise to see Kelly out and about. That was cool. My friend from out east Jennifer called me because she was at Auburn visiting her sister. I can only imagine how awesome it must be to go to school in the south. It sounded like an awesome time (see: hogs and slip n' slide in the backyard of a house party...long live the south!!!)

I guess I signed a 3 day contract with Tyler's union this week to landscape. It shouldn't affect my marathon training. I will be back in literary form Tuesday. Wow the Kentucky derby is Saturday and the weather is starting to be glorious on a daily basis. Fishing will commence very soon and I cannot wait.

Distance: 4
Temp: 75 (hot as hell is what it felt like)
TOD: 1:45
TOR: 38.08

Splits

Mile 1: 9.00
Mile 2: 9.07
Mile 3: 10.11
Mile 4: 9.49

Today was hot out and like a moron I wore a regular cotton shirt. I ran 3 less miles than yesterday, but it was about 10-15 degrees warmer out and by the time I was done running I was soaked. Even with my hat on sweat was running into my eyes and stinging very badly. I hate that feeling so much. It just pisses me off. I have the forehead of a neanderthal, as I have no evolved to handle when sweat drips down my forehead...pisses me right off.

So the run today was good, and it felt like 90 out there. I remember back to summers past playing soccer and running in 90 degrees and humid. Ahh those were the best. I would probably die if I did that now. I guess thats one of the secondary reasons I'm training for this silly marathon. I am started to feel like Happy Gilmore at the beginning of the movie when the dudes bet him $20 he can't hit a golf ball further than them and he takes the club and just mutters "stupid thing". This marathon is just a "stupid thing". It isn't as stupid as that golf club, because, lets face it, not much is as stupid as golf. Races are run, and even though training alone can suck balls, the reward is running a race in which there are spectators and just general antics during the thing. I am truly looking forward to the marathon, although the training is starting to get to me. I guess the only way to change that is by keeping a positive attitude and a middle finger to that silly training by continuing to do it. (that makes no sense, but I don't care)

Tom commented about if I was drinking again like I'm so sort of alcoholic. First and foremost: Fuck you. Secondly, man my tolerance is so low right now. I had 3 pints tonight and was feeling it. What a sad sign. To go from 120 shots of beer in an hour to getting buzzed at 3 pints. Come to think of it thats how I have been though: Easy to get a buzz, really hard to get really drunk. Needless to say with summer comes the best time to drink, and even though I have cut back in previous months its gonna be hard to continue to cut back as the weather turns nicer and nicer and the outdoor activities begin. It also seems silly to not start drinking until the middle of June. Thats 1/3 of the summer already gone. I must make amends to my previous plan.

I got 15 miles on Saturday. I have been a little shaky on this distance, but my confidence is growing more and more. 15 won't be cookies, but with a good mentality I will do fine. It is supposed to be in the 50's and raining so hopefully that will make it feel good and not end up backfiring in my face. I will be back then to check in with what my run was like. I'm loving the hockey playoffs and still bored as anything with baseball. As each day passes I wonder to myself how people bitch about soccer and love baseball and also how I managed to follow it so much in he past. Wow baseball you really are not fun.

It should be mentioned that we went to a shit bar/restaurant/douche headquarters (sorry Jamie) by my house for trivia tonight and it sucked. We didn't do well, but wow I just don't like that place. Next time I go there is when I get free drinks from Jamie and we end up going someplace cooler afterward. I will be back in Hopkins next Thursday for trivia with the real people.

Oops forgot to mention an awesome party I went to last Saturday night. It was a 90's party at my boy Dres' place in Minneapolis. What a fun time. Had a little bit of everything and I thoroughly enjoyed myself and reflected on my days as a college degenerate (graduated to a regular degenerate) as I saw scores of shitfaced coeds all over the house. Its still a wonder I made it through college (barely) in one piece.