A whole lot of shake-ups.

It's a real challenge to juggle everything we need to juggle. Having a child is a lot harder than people let on. So I'm trying to now juggle quite a few things, raising my daughter, my relationship with my wife, teaching, getting back in shape, finances, and then hobbies like magic, history, fantasy.

I am hoping by renewing my commitment to blogging about my struggles and successes, I will be able to push through. I am going to be adding new content that is in line with those things above. I need to stop worrying about what other people are catching, and start learning how to truly catch happiness myself. As I overhaul my focus and try to get a feel for what this blog will be about, you will notice changes. Some posts might go missing. Some might get edited.

 You might have noticed that I changed the title from "Catching it Myself" to "Catching it Together". The reason for this change, is because I need to open myself up more in my relationship. I will be inviting my SO to check into my blog. She is an important part of the journey and she will help me be the best that I can be. Maybe I can even get her to be a part of this blog time will tell.

Catch you all soon.
  P

November 11 25 2012 - 4.0.01

Let's try this again. I'm now a proud papa. She just turned three months old. I'm already a quarter and a half into the new school year, and am loving it.

I still feel like my life is out of control. I'm gaining weight. My workouts are inconsistent or non-existant. I am building a running base, but it's not quite enough. Hopefully I can string together enough of these posts, to motivate myself to keep going. I need something to go right and gain momementum to turn my life onto the path I deserve. Tomorrow is a new week. This week I hope to do two things. 1.) No fast food on the way home from work. We need to save money, and I need to save my waist-line. 2.) Wake up at 5 a.m. every mornign this week. _see_you_soon. P

Well That Didn't Happen Now. Did it?

Perhaps it's my ADD or laziness or lack of time management. I just can't seem to get the hang of this.

So here is the updates that has happened since last we met.

I have a Baby on the Way! She's due any moment now. As an educator, I finished the school year strong and have worked to improve during this upcoming year. I've been doing a lot of reading and I really want to get back into the some sort of fun events. I have signed up for the Warrior Dash in my home state and am going to run the race to raise money for St. Jude. I have been running very consistently for the past month and hope to keep it up with the baby and my upcoming year.

Just checking in with you. I hope to gain momementum this week and start blogging much more frequently on my own blog.

... Waiting is the hardest thing

I'll be back soon...

For now here is a motivational video to pick you (okay actually me) up.

Challenge 007: Plan a Birthday

I hate planning things. My wife hates that I hate planning things. I always worry about not having the perfect outcome, so I waffle on the details until the time to plan has passed and the event falls apart or never becomes.

In honor of my wife, I decided to plan her birthday this year. Today I made plans to go to a restaurant, and ordered flowers sent to her work through an online flower company near her work.

On Friday I made reservations for her friends, family, and ourselves to go to dinner and then follow that up with a ghost tour. I did need her help making sure that she would enjoy the events, and I did hit up her friends for advice, so I cannot give myself the most XP points available. But I am planning. It makes me nervous, but the follow through is important. I believe by following through, I can improve my success rates in my challenges.

XP for succesful outing: 50 XP

Sunday Morning Rewards II

Starting Level: 1
Starting XP: 200
XP to next level: 800

Current Weekly Progress:
Challenge 001: 100 XP - Bloged 3x this week. Need to improve my schedule.
Challenge 002: 0 XP - Ran out of food on Friday, and then celebrated at a wedding on Friday, also ate out on Saturday. Need to improve in this challenge for next week.
Challenge 003: 100 XP (50 x 2)- Pet Sematary and The Running Man
Challenge 004: Did it! Boy was it hard. 100 XP
Challenge 005: Except for day of the wedding night. (6 x 10) = 60 XP
Challenge 006: 25 XP
-----------------
Weekly Tally: 385 XP
Ending XP: 585 XP
XP To next level 415 XP


Current XP

Challenge 006: Join the Rebellion

I said it before. I am a big fan of Nerd Fitness. It's time to gain social accountability.So I am going to join the Nerd Fitness Rebellion.

XP: 25

Challenge 005: Make 7 Yours.

Before I move into today's challenge. A quick update on the last challenge. It turns out that the marathon training book was little too intense for my current level of fitness, so I decided to tone it down for the time being and look for a different training program. In the meanwhile I am going to build my endurance by running four times a week for 30 minutes, and then a long run on the weekend where I increase my mileage. So far so good. I am two runs into this week, and while I am tired and a little sore, I am in great spirits.

Speaking of tired; on to my next challenge. Studies say that for optimum performance a person needs 7-9 hours of sleep each night. So that is what I am going to do.

Challenge 005: Get at least seven and no more than nine hours of sleep a night.
XP Reward: 10 XP per day.

To achieve this I need to reorganize my day and prioritize. I will actually need to schedule sleep. I started this challenge on Sunday and will have a full week by this weeks rewards day.

Challenge 004:A Run Run Run Run R-Run Away

I am out of shape. I hate being out of shape. Many of these challenges are going to deal with getting back on track and in shape. I currently am a soft 200 lbs (this puts me in the borderline obese BMI category). What happened to me? I was on track to do amazing things. I was 175 lbs and running marathons.

I want that me back. Hopefully these challenges will motivate me to acheive my goal of being a toned sub 180 lbs.

So here's what I did today. I went to the nearby running store to get fitted for new running shoes. I am going to run a marathon sometime in 2012.

I am going to follow a training plan I found in Run Workouts for Runners and Triathletes (Workouts in a Binder).

For everyweek I follow the plan, I will get 100 XP.
For every race that I do: 5k = 500 XP, 10k = 1000 XP, 1/2 Marathon = 2000 XP, Marathon = 4000 XP with a 2000 XP bonus for breaking my P.R. of 4 hours during the marathon I ran back in 2005.

Sunday Morning Rewards

Starting Level: 1
Starting Exp: 0
Exp to Next Level: 1000

EXP Awaraded:
Challenge 001: 100
Challenge 002: 50 (100/6 *3)
Challenge 003: 50 pts - Different Seasons
-----------------------------
Weekly Total Award: 200 XP



New Level: 1
New Exp: 200
Exp to Next Level: 800