The Running Journey

My Family - Credit to Kristy Walters and  Oh Be Joyful Photography Life as a Dad (so far) Being a dad for the last three weeks has been amazing. Moments where my son wants to just hold and be held to sleep is such an incredibly heartwarming experience. I love it. He makes hilarious faces, has great farts, and has such an inquisitive look all the time. It's wild to look at this little baby and realize, this is a full blown person. As someone who can work from home, I have really cherished the time I get to spend with him and my wife. Plus, he helps my with my training. He usually wakes up around 4-5am for a feeding so I take that shift and feed him a bottle and take some time to get him back to sleep. This usually takes about 30 to 45 minutes and leaves me pretty awake. Prime time to get a run in. It feels great to get out when its the break of dawn, the world is just waking up, and the weather is cool. I look forward to it now as part of my routine. I started all of this

Obviously I've set an enormous goal. And that's a fine thing. But what good does it do if I just slap it on my wall and don't make an actual plan to achieve it? Last week, we established a basis for tracking my physical progress from the 'Starting Zone' character I am now to the 'End Game' that is my big goal. But one big goal needs to be broken down into smaller, short-term, achievable goals.  Now to do this, I am taking inspiration from the book " Level Up Your Life " by Steve Kamb as well as his website  nerdfitness.com  and the " Nerd Fitness Academy " (I highly recommend these resources to anyone interested in changing their lives, fitness related or otherwise). Steve likens short term goals to the side quests in a video game that empower your character and in turn help progress your story. And it does us no good if the goals are generic because it lacks real direction. So I decided to create a list of  SPECIFIC goals for the

Northshire Abbey - Credit to Blizzard Entertainment Like any game, an epic quest like this journey has a starting zone. I have a long way to go to reach Boston and it's important to be able to track that progress from 'Starting Zone' to 'End Game'. To be able to track that progress, I need to know what the start was in the first place. I have a few things that I can track to help establish this: Photos Measurements Weight Times The combination of these will work as regular check-ins to see my progress moving forward in addition to the goals I set as milestones.  I'm taking a moment of courage here to post these to the world but here goes. because the point isn't on focusing on the 'Starting Zone' but understanding that it is a necessary part of the larger journey. The Starting Zone 1. Photos: 2. Measurements: Neck: 18" Chest: 49" Biceps Left: 16.5" Right: 16.75" Waist: 53.5" Hi

Hello world. I'm going to be a dad pretty soon. Emotionally, I am ready and eager to experience everything fatherhood brings with it but my body is not on the same page. I want to be able to be a great parent to my child and I think I can be, but I think part of that involves being a role model for a healthy lifestyle. Currently, I could be the poster boy for a 'Cheetos' advertisement. It's hard to be a dad when you are dead from a fat heart. So, like any good parent, I'm going to run from my problems. Literally. I want to run away from the unhealthy life style I have been living and begin laying the ground work from which my progeny will hopefully learn from.  I've been running semi-regularly for the last four years and really took to it once I began. As a kid, I hated the idea of running. To me, running always seemed to mean running on a treadmill (which is truly miserable), and I'm not sure why. But once I really set my mind to running outdoors