Resolutions?

I made New Year's Resolutions. Okay, no I didn't. But I'm going to make some right now because I have to. I think it's some sort of law...

Uh.... well, er....

Okay, I tried. I sat here and looked at the screen and drew a blank, the same blank that I've been drawing the last few weeks when thinking about goals for 2011. Well, I mean I have goals for next year I suppose. I mean, I'm racing several races in 2011 so my goals will to train well for them. I know that's kind of vague, and you're not supposed to be vague with your goals, but I don't know that I need to change anything up with regards to my runs.

I tried to be all motivated for 2011 but then I think I'm already doing well to motivate myself. I'm really pumped for Surf City, am excited about trying to run two marathons in six weeks, am looking forward to the Camp Pendleton Mud Run in June, to the San Francisco Marathon in July... it's going to be a fun year, and that alone motivates me.

So, I guess I don't have any resolutions to make. I think the only real resolutions I need to make are personal, don't involve running and kinda dull really (I need to use my office more often, for instance; I tend to use my laptop in the dining room or living room... I know, zzzzzzzzzzz). So yeah, I think that's it. I don't want to force any half-assed goals down my throat, don't want to set targets when they're already set, don't want to do something just because everyone else does it.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not perfect. No effing way. But things are going well right now with my fitness and all that good stuff, and so I don't need extra resolve when it's already there.

Resolving the issues

I've been meaning to write about my New Year's Resolutions and give you an update on where I've done well and where I've fallen short. I suppose I'll do that now and then I can always re-visit them as I intended on writing about something else but here goes...

* Run outdoors twice a week: This is the only resolution where I can say with certainty that I've done well to meet. I have ran outdoors at least twice a week every week this year. The Garmin and my half-marathon training plan will only help me continue to attain this goal so I am not worried now about running exclusively indoors.

* Wear my CPAP six times a week: I've not worn it six times a week. I'd say it's been more of an average of three times a week. What I need to do is make an appointment with my doctor and get a new sleep study done. I really think my CPAP is not effective, or at least not as effective as it can be. Even on days when I've worn it and I shouldn't be tired, I still feel a bit fatigued. And then there are days like Monday where I just felt wiped out all morning for no apparent reason. I need a new sleep study and with a new CPAP and - at the very least - a new mask, I should be able to wear it every night.

* Maintain 1,800 calories a day: I think I've done well to meet this goal. I know over the last couple of weeks that I've lost some of the weight I put on during the holidays. I think I'm down at least three pounds, and that's a combination of both an increase in my running and a decrease of my calorie intake. I don't log my food, and I think if I did I would be able to better control my calories, not that they are out of control necessarily but sometimes it's easy to lose count.

Alright, well, I suppose I'll keep this post to my resolutions and will dedicate another post to what I had originally wanted to write about, which was my two outdoor runs with the Garmin. I'll have that up shortly, and in fact by the time I write it I should have three runs with it since I'm hoping to get in a run before 5 a.m. on Tuesday. We'll see if I make it out or not.

Resolution No. 3 - Get back on track with nutrition

December is officially over. I had hoped that once Christmas got past I'd be done with eating all the bad stuff but it's been hit and miss over the last couple of days.

Regardless, I need to meet my nutritional goals a lot more consistently. I'd say about six days a week at the following levels would be good.

No more than 1,800 calories a day
Minimum 25 grams of fiber per day
Minimum 80 ounces of water per day

Why six and not seven days? I like to have a cheat day once a week. I found that you need it, you have to have a day where you can not worry about the calories so much and just enjoy the moment. It's quite difficult going to a get-together, for instance, where there is a lot of food and you're there for a while. It's tough to stay away from the food - particularly if you are hungry.

Cheat days are a must and one day a week is okay.

Logging your food also helps meet the caloric goals you've set for yourself. If you have to account for everything you put in your mouth, you are going to think twice about stuffing that cookie down your throat as you walk out the kitchen or past the cookie tray. So I reserve the right to log my food here. I don't want to make that a part of this resolution because I'm bad with things like that but I thought I'd throw that out there anyway... I may do it on occasion to check myself.

With that, I'm done with my own New Year's Resolutions. Three resolutions, one in each major part of my wellness: nutrition (meeting my own caloric standards), fitness (run outdoors twice a week) and health (wear CPAP 6-7 nights a week).

I think I may check in on these after a week, maybe sooner. Like you do with weight loss, it's better to check in after a stretch of time as opposed to after a day or two. You see more progress and spot more trends if you look at things from a distance. But that doesn't mean that if I get my two outdoor runs a week in I won't come in and blog about having met the goal.

Resolution No. 2 - Run outside more

Running indoors and on the treadmill has been great for me. For a good part of 2008, that's how I trained. I spent plenty of time at the very beginning of my running year outdoor but once July hit I pretty much stayed indoors.

This year, I need to focus and concentrate more on outdoor runs. I will try and run at least twice a week outdoors.

Now, I'm not planning on giving up the treadmill entirely - how else can I do my intervals? But for my distance runs I definitely need to spend those outdoors.

Another element of running outdoors are hills. As I'll participate in the Mud Run again this year, I'll have to improve my conditioning in hills if I want to surpass my time from a year ago. But in general, running hills is a great way to build up the leg muscles and improve conditioning.

Resolution No. 1 - Use my CPAP more often

My first and foremost goal, the primordial New Year's Resolution for me, is to wear my CPAP more often. At least six days a week. Seven if possible. That's my goal, a full seven days a week.

What the heck is a CPAP? And why would you wear one?

Well... a little background. Throughout most of my life, I've snored. Loudly. My younger brother and I shared a room for most of our childhood and he is the heaviest sleeper I know. I credit myself for that, for it was because of my loud snores that he forced himself to sleep through anything and everything. The man can sleep through earthquakes...

Anyway, I was a snorer in my teens and early 20s, but it got worse and worse as I got older. My wife was not a fan of my snoring when we first got married and as it worsened, she became a critic and then didn't want to have anything to do with my snores as they kept her up at night. I'd snore her out of sleep and she couldn't get back to bed. We found a solution - we didn't share a bed. We went through a period of about five years where we didn't sleep in the same bed. At all. For anything. During this whole time, of course, my weight was spiraling out of control.

She urged me to see a doctor about the snoring as she feared that it was not just your average run-of-the-mill snoring. Worse, I was getting tired early. And by early, I don't mean at 7 p.m. I'd be so sleepy at 9 a.m. and resorted to taking Vivarin to help me get through the morning. That was the last straw, and after months and months of pleads from my wife I sought out medical help. I saw a pulmonologist and he told me he felt I had sleep apnea. He sent me to a sleep study and I stayed the night at a clinic with wires hooked up on my face and chest and under constant supervision. The results confirmed the doctor's initial diagnosis: I had sleep apnea, but not just your regular sleep apnea, I had it bad. I had severe obstructive sleep apnea.

When you have sleep apnea, the throat closes in on itself during sleep. It blocks air flow down into the lungs and causes you to stop breathing. As I said, I had it bad. I'd stop breathing once every minute or so. When you stop breathing, you sort of wake up but you may not actually come to all your senses. Basically, sleep apnea prevents you from reaching deep sleep.

Because of my sleep apnea, I was tired and sluggish throughout the day. I had a hard time feeling rested because I never got real rest. I never got into deep sleep.

I got a CPAP machine, which is short for Continues Positive Airway Pressure. It's a bulky machine and people can poke fun at it. But I don't care what people say about it. It's helped me massively. The CPAP continuously pumps air in through the mask into your windpipe. It's not enough to make you gag or anything, not like a vacuum or anything either, but it's enough pressure to keep the airway open and allows you to A) reach deep sleep and B) stop snoring.

Now, it wasn't easy to adapt to the CPAP. The first night I was scared of it. But I got used to it, little by little. It looks uncomfortable and it can be but I learned how to sleep with it. The results were night and day. I was no longer tired. I could sleep through the night without waking up, something that hardly ever happened. I felt refreshed, renergized, renewed. I don't think without my CPAP I could have ever lost my weight; I just wouldn't have had the energy to do all the workouts.

But after losing my weight, I learned that I didn't snore any more. At all. I could leave my CPAP off and go through an entire night without snoring. No more middle-of-the-night elbows from my wife to get me to stop snoring, no more raspy snores that would wake myself up, no more restless nights.

So I strayed. I have not worn my CPAP in more than one month and probably wore it for less than 25 percent of the year, maybe on average one or two nights a week.

Not good. Not good at all.

Well, I can change all that. I can start wearing it again. I need to start wearing it again. It's a must. Sleep apnea does not go away. I've noticed too sometimes (like right now) that I get a little tired early in the day. I nap sometimes when I'm home, when I can and if I don't, the phrase "I sure could use a nap" pops into my head often.

So I will start by wearing it tonight. My wife might complain (it makes more noise now than it did when I first got it) but she needs to understand what I also need to understand - the CPAP is important. I must wear it. Every night, without fail.

Am I scared I'll fail with this resolution? Yes, I am. Very scared actually. I've gotten into a routine with it. But I must change for the better, for my sake.