This was my view earlier this morning. 

This past Monday, I finally started doing something that I’ve known for a while needed to begin again. I started going for early morning walks with the intent of transitioning slowly into running. 

Woo hoo! Check me out! My first weekday step goal attainment since Friday, August 11!

As much as I used to dominate in step challenges in the past, this has not been the case so much lately. Despite rolling back my daily step goal by 2,000 steps, I'm not even making that regularly.

And when you're in Chicago all day walking everywhere, you wind up doing this...

I love Fitbit. I really do. Actually, I need to qualify that statement a bit...

I went for a run yesterday for the first time since my 5K in February. Well, I should qualify that claim a bit. I went for a walk that had three spontaneous run-like outbursts scattered throughout.

I discovered a feature in the Fitbit app recently that I had never paid attention to previously... their activity tracker.

Fitness and healthy eating are some things that have been eluding me of late.

It's all fine and dandy to create the perfect playlist of music for a 5k, but what if it all goes to hell before you can even really listen to it?

For another week, I am Fitbitless.

I really hate when I miss my Fitbit daily step goals by just that much.

We would like to take a break from the regularly scheduled programming for a very special announcement...

I always knew that my Fitbit played a part in my decision to get moving. I just never quite realized the degree to which it went all method actor on my fitness goals.

On the bad side of the coin, my Fitbit died today. Just about a year old and she done crapped out. No charging, no syncing, no resetting. Yup, that reset trick that is supposed to work every time (and had to this point) doesn't. At all.

Thankfully this past Saturday and Sunday were far more productive than Thursday in terms of constructing our floor.

Howsabout a status update on the reflooring project in the first floor of our place?

Yesterday afternoon, I returned from one of my lunch break walks and was down in the locker room changing when a friend of mine came up to me.

I say it a lot and, if you're sick of hearing it, I apologize in advance but I LOVE MY FITBIT!

Although I've been working my butt off to maintain a 10,000 steps per month average since the beginning of the year, one thing I haven't tried in order to help is to jog. I've only done a few running spurts here and there and then my 5K in February.

I've been at this whole Fitbit thing now for a quarter of a year (give or take a week), and I've been enjoying it. Setting up this 10,000 steps per day goal for this is, I feel, one of the best goals I've set for myself in a long time. Nothing sedentary like watching TV or whatnot.

Nothing like getting up, getting dressed, walking a mile to the course, running an organized 5K, and walking a mile home to not only get the blood flowing but to get you over 12,500 steps before 11:15 a.m.

I got a cute little email from Fitbit this morning recapping my "year in fitness" with mostly true animal facts. I think probably no true, but still funny.

I'm realizing something very quickly, this Fitbit 10,000 average daily steps is not going to be an easy goal to keep this year.

Because of all my at-work jogging and walking, I've felt a need to find new routes so as not to get bored. I did that again yesterday when I explored a snow-covered bike path extension.

Yesterday, due to the weather, I only went so far before turning around and heading back.

Earlier today I saw a picture of myself that I hate. Absolutely loathe.

The shock of seeing it made me realize that I need to cut the crap from my diet. But it's never easy. Especially at this time of year.

It's been nearly three months since I injured my knee and ankle at the Urban Warrior Dash.

It's been slightly more than one month since I felt any pain in my knee at all. Even impact pain.

New month. New plan. Time to start running again.

The UWD has come and gone and, as the saying goes, I'm no worse for wear.

That's not true. If you follow me on Twitter or Facebook or you were there with me, you know that's a load of crap.

Let's recap this mutha step by step, shall we?

Why does the Universe hate me so?

You do remember last week when I said that I was getting back into Cto5K mode and, after two days of running, I twisted my ankle walking some steps (completely unrelated to my running effort), right?

Last Tuesday, I started back to the gym. I had only been away for a few weeks (maybe a month), but it felt like an eternity. I needed to restart my Couch-to-5K program again... desperately.

Jerry Angelo... I hate you.

Well, we did it. Katie and I (and Scott and Becca) ran our first 5K today. It was the Snowflake Shuffle and let's just say I'm glad it was designated a walk/run. I don't even know what our official final time was. Somewhere around 47 minutes. Not a time I'm particularly proud of.

Why?

Starting Friday at midnight, we got hammered with snow. This may not always be a big problem. Heck, many people have run in snow without problems. But this is our first organized run. Up to this point, all we'd done is run in what are otherwise ideal conditions. Those being either a treadmill or the occasional outdoor run in which it was nice and clear. We were not at all prepared for what happened here in Geneva.

The roads were horrible. Sure, they had plowed and salted, but the last time was a couple hours before our run began. Honestly, considering the conditions, the "pace car" for the race should have been a snow plow. I'm not kidding here. It would've made total sense and would have given those plows we were seeing on the road with their blades in the "up" position some purpose.

The reason why the snow was such a problem is because I have bad ankles and my body has a tendency to overcompensate when it knows there is some kind of danger that threatens my ankles. I have a very overprotective body that I cannot control at all. It's a bodily sixth sense. So my body began to overcompensate for what were perceived to be potential slips and twists and turns and my calf began to cramp up as a result. Katie had a similar problem.

We did have fun despite the real and perceived peril and we will do it again. But I think we need more outdoor and inclement weather training before we do the Super Bowl Shuffle 5K (PDF) in February.

Here's a shot of the four of us post-race. You can tell it was immediately post-race for Katie and I by the looks on our faces.

More photos are available in Flickr.

About five years ago, Katie and I finally made the jump to owning a TiVo. Well, two of them actually.

Now, we can't imagine our lives without them. I can't even remember what it was like to constantly set our VCRs for shows we wanted to watch and constantly swapping out tapes and trying to remember what was on each of them when we wanted to go back and watch them.

Life was so primitive.

But the best part of owning a TiVo, or any DVR for that matter? Fast forward!

Sure, we could fast forward through recorded shows on our VCR, but being able to do it during semi-live TV? Ohmigod. It's so fantastic! We will intentionally not watch a show when it airs live for about 15 minutes on a half hour or 30 minutes on an hour show. Why? So we have enough gap on the airing so that we can fast forward through all the commercials.

And during campaign season, it's an absolute sanity saver!

We have a couple of particularly heated battles going on right now in the State of Illinois for the Governor's mansion and one of our U.S. Senate seats. The two running main candidates for Governor are Pat Quinn (incumbent, somewhat) and Bill Brady while the two vying for the Senate seat are Alexi Giannoulias (sp?) and Mark Kirk.

These candidates are fighting tooth and nail and pulling out every stop in the book in their quest to make the other look like a complete assclown by dragging their name through the mud and slop and excrement and any other nasty substance you can think of. You remember how dirty the 2008 Presidential campaign was? Compared to these two races, that was a gentlemen's duel.

Guess what? It's working. I think all four of them are jackasses and I don't want any of the four of them in office.

Sadly I have little choice in the matter. The two-party system that exists in this country makes it impossible for any third-party candidate to be a viable option. Hell, in most cases, we never even hear of their names.

I wish just one of them would come out with a simple, generic ad in which they say, "Hi, my name is Bobby Dunleavey [not a real candidate... I think] and I'm not Bill Brady or Pat Quinn." Honestly, at this point, that might be enough to sway me. I seriously don't want any of the available candidates to take office.

Or maybe I'll just start a write-in campaign for Dave2.

At least I know what to expect from him...

[please don't hate/sue me for using your graphic, Dave]

Katie and I are signing up for our first ever fun run!

It's the TriCity Family Services Second Annual Snowflake Shuffle 5K Run & Walk on December 4, 2010.

Why are we doing it? There are several reasons...

1. It's scheduled for the day before my birthday.
   If I survive, I can really celebrate my birthday feeling like I've done something cool. If I die, I never have to turn 36 years old. Yay!
2. It's a mile from our house.
   I don't really have to worry much about travel or parking or lodging or anything. And it's so close, we can actually practice on the planned route.
3. The route map, oh the route map.
   Speaking of route, if this route map (PDF) doesn't sell you on the race, nothing will. C'mon, is it seriously that difficult to create a Google Map Mashup and make it publically available and link or embed it on the site?

 Wish us luck!

Pray for us.

Katie and I signed up for two months of Bikram Yoga (read: the hot, sweaty stuff that Sting loves to do; aside from sex with Trudy, of course).

Katie has been wanting to try yoga for quite some time since I've been loving it for two years now. But it can be expensive (mine is a very cost-effective class through my workplace, but she's not eligible to participate) or limiting in terms of class times available especially with Katie's constantly changing work schedule.

However, the other day, a friend updated their Facebook profile with information about a yoga studio in Naperville near where I work that was offering two months of unlimited classes for under $50 via Groupon. How can you say no to that? The price is amazing. So we both signed up.

And I'm dreading its start.

Immensely.

Me + heat no makey a happy Kapgar.

We're becoming fitness nuts. We're hoping to do Bikram at least a couple times per week plus our five mornings per week of working out at the gym. And I still do my regular yoga one day per week.

We'd damn well better lose a ton of weight!

I ran into a friend the other day and as we're all wont to do, I asked him how he was doing.

His reply? "I'm alright. The rest of the world is all wrong."

I LIKE THAT!

I must start using that immediately.

Only I can't blame Vegas. Damn.

This morning I woke up no less than eight times and I'm not entirely sure which ones were real and which ones were dreams.

The first one I remember was about 4 a.m. to pee. Pretty sure that one was real.

Then I woke up to my alarm. I think that was real, too. But I snoozed it.

Then I remember laying in bed back-to-back with Katie and we were holding hands when I woke up. Doesn't sound like something we'd achieve comfortably. So I'll mark that as a tentative no.

Another time I heard Katie talking to somebody on her side of the bed and I heard a man's voice responding. I spun around and saw nobody there. I shook Katie to ask her what was going on and she said she was talking to my brother. She has had weird conversations in her sleep before but never have I heard a second voice in the mix, so we'll consider that one a pretty definite no.

A second snooze wake-up call. Pretty real, I think.

I also remember waking up and showering and dressing and getting back into bed but on Katie's side and we turned on the TV and watched it. Considering I woke up again after that and was not fully dressed like that, we'll nix that one too.

I woke up to the sound of carts crashing around and then two women I work with pushed shopping carts full of used clothes into my bedroom and put them in a pile under our window. They informed me that they were donations for me to take to Goodwill. I told them they couldn't put them there because that's where we put all our dirty and clean clothes and they'd all get mixed up. When I finally got up, I looked and saw no clothes against the wall at all (not even our own), so I'm pretty sure that one's fabricated by my head.

Then I got a third snooze alarm.

So I woke up, showered, dressed, and here I am... wishing I was back in bed to make up for all the sleep I lost in all those "wake ups."

Be proud of us. This gym thing is taking hold.

Katie and I have been to the gym five times since last Friday. Tonight will be #6.

But if there's one thing I've learned, it's that my iPod Shuffle desperately needs a new mix of music. It's been a while since I updated it. Gotta work on that. Soon!