Apparently …

all I have to do to reach a goal is talk about it here.

Which doesn't mean I've lost 20 pounds this week. Wouldn't that be miraculous?!? But it does mean that yesterday's Cto5K session included TWO sub-10-minute miles.

YAY ME!

As both of you know, I've been training on a flat road now that Cto5K is a long solid run (this week they're 28 minutes), and I go with my husband. I'm missing the hill training on my own road (never thought I'd say that!), but a nice level surface does indeed allow me to run continuously.

I start the MapMyRun app when we begin walking. After half a mile or so I start the Cto5K app, which begins with a five-minute warm-up. When it buzzes and orders me to "Start your run now," I take off, while my husband continues walking.

MMR provides feedback after every mile, while Cto5K lets me know how I'm doing at the halfway point and after each interval, which is now at the end of the session, since it's one long run. If you'd been with me following yesterday's third mile, you'd have seen me fist-pumping the air and shouting "Woo hoo!"

See why?

The temperature was in the high 60s, which helped a lot, and the fog had burned off. It was, all in all, a great run. Total distance for the 28-minute Cto5K portion was 2.84 miles.

To finish the workout, I catch up with my husband again just as he's hitting his 2.5-mile turnaround point, and we walk back to the car together.

I realize I'm not Speedy Gonzalez. And I doubt I could keep this pace going for much longer than a couple of miles. But hey … I turned 62 in May, and I haven't run regularly in half a dozen years. And seriously? I didn't think I even had one 10-minute mile in me!

I'll give myself a high-five. And start thinking about future goals …

P.S. I did increase the calories yesterday, ending up at 1316 for the day. Burned 487 during the run (according to LoseIt). No more dizzy spells. Another high five for that!

Friday Quote Day

The greatest pleasure in life

is doing what people say you cannot do.

~ Walter Bagehot

I'm not sure if it (a marathon) will be my greatest pleasure or not. And it's only one person (my husband) saying I cannot do it.

He never tells me what I can and cannot do. Except for this. He was with me that hot, hot day a couple years ago (three, I think) in Washington, DC, when I did the Army 10-Miler and a much younger, much fitter man collapsed and died just after crossing the finish line. We know a man who had a heart attack after he ran Boston a few years ago.

He says he's worried about my health, but I think he's just worried about who's going to do the laundry if I die before he does. (Hah! That's a joke, honey!)

The walking plan I started this month is the prelude to getting back into running. I'm hopeful (although there's no evidence so far) that regular walking and sensible eating will result in some weight loss. Losing some weight will make running more comfortable. Once it's easier to run, I can start building up some mileage in preparation for training.

For a November race, I need to start training seriously in July or August, the hottest months of the year here in southern West Virginia. It would be very helpful to be carrying around less lard by then.

So … first things first. Keep on walking. I've managed to walk at least three miles a day for two straight weeks. One more week and it'll be a habit! I'm at the point now where I don't question whether I'm going or not, it's more like when during the day am I going to fit it in. Not quite as automatic as brushing my teeth, but almost.

My husband said he'd go with me today, and we're going to do five miles, to help boost that monthly total to 100. That also may not be my greatest pleasure, but it would make me pretty happy.

Have a good weekend. I'll be working at our Democratic headquarters. And walking.

This training stuff really works

Keep in mind that I'm training to Train. I'm not really Training for a race yet, because according to all the experts you have to be able to accomplish a little bit of sustained running (three miles seems to be the starting point) before you begin Really Training.

Until yesterday, I couldn't manage even one mile. Yesterday, my first mile was smooth as silk. And my total time came down, as well, averaging out to 12:36/mile for four miles.

The new Runner's World came yesterday and I actually saw the words "thirteen-minute mile" printed in their pages. It was in a training article, in which they suggested that if you normally run a 10-minute pace, you might want to back it off to 13 minutes starting out. (I'm in the office, the magazine is down a flight of stairs and in my house – a separate building – so I don't really have all the details.) Suffice it to say I was startled to see anyone being told to run a 13-minute pace for anything from the pages of RW!

I recently finished reading a book that Wendy recommended more than two years ago. Yes, I'm slow, but you knew that when you read my average pace, didn't you? Heh. Anyway, I finished the Non-Runner's Marathon Trainer and have been using one of the recommended techniques the past couple of runs. They suggest creating a little mantra, a paragraph of encouraging sentences that you say to yourself as you run. I'm sure I'd get tired of it after 13.1 or 26.2 miles, but it works pretty well for four. (Mine is eight sentences, and I'm not sharing. Heh.)

I ran in the afternoon yesterday, instead of first thing in the morning. The day was perfect – a light breeze, temperature was 70-ish – and I guess since I'd been up and busy for several hours, maybe my body just worked better. I don't know. I do know that as the days and weeks roll from spring to summer, morning runs will be the norm. It's the only time of the day when it's cool enough for me to get out. But this year we're having spring, (as opposed to moving straight from winter to summer) and I'm really enjoying it.

Instead of starting with a quote tomorrow (since I'll be meeting with Important People in Washington, DC), I'll leave you with a bit of inspiration, and hope you have a kick-ass weekend:

"Don't lower your expectations
to meet your performance.
Raise your level of performance
to meet your expectations.
Expect the best of yourself,
and then do what is necessary to make it a reality."
~ Ralph Marston

When is an afghan not an afghan?

When it’s a throw! (Warning: Knitting talk ahead.)

I was supposed to knit 36 repeats of the 8-row lace pattern. I stopped at 30. Actually, I think the proportion turned out better, because if I’d done a gauge swatch (Swatch? Swatch? I thought that was a pocket!) I’d have realized that I should have added a couple more repeats widthwise, as well.

As it is, the finished piece blocked out to fit on top of a twin bed – no overhang, and starting where the pillow ends. Thus, it is a throw. And it looks so nice on the couch in our “new” living room, doncha think?

I did three miles on the treadmill yesterday morning, a jog/walk combo that averaged out to 15-minute miles. Which, I guess, makes it a three-mile walk. It’s amazing how different I felt yesterday compared to Sunday – slow, heavy, just plodding along. Increasing my speed was very difficult, and I could only manage it in quarter-mile segments. (On Sunday I was able to run continuously for 1.25 miles.)

The plan I’m following right now is getting me ready to train, and I’m going to keep doing the first week until I can run every mile. (The first week is four running days and three rest days; I’m doing the total-body workout on two of the rest days.) Had I not done something like this in late 2006/early 2007, before the Country Music Marathon in April, 2007, I’d be discouraged already. But I know from experience that training increases stamina, speed and confidence.

Or at least it did a couple years ago. Let’s just hope history repeats itself.

So, so close

This morning’s “easy” run was to have been two miles at a 12:32 pace. Since my goal pace is considerably faster than that, I thought I’d try to step up both speed and distance, and do three miles in 36 minutes. In the end, I did neither.

Total distance: 2.5 miles. Total time: 30:42.

Before I’d gotten a quarter of a mile down the road it started raining. So my first decision was to only do two miles. But since that first quarter of a mile was a walking one, I decided I had to end with a quarter-mile walk, as well. Symmetry, I guess.

And once I’d finished 2.25 miles, I realized I was so, so close to making my 12-minute-mile goal that I just went ahead and tried. Didn’t miss it by much. I’ll blame it on the rain. Heh.

My dad’s back in the hospital again, and it might be the same system-wide infection he fought off in May. Some of the symptoms his wife described were eerily similar. I’m not, so far, making plans to go to Florida, but I think I’ll make sure the laundry is caught up and the house is semi-clean for the next few days.

Just in case.

Plan B

It’s always good to have a back-up plan, when you wake up late and it’s pouring down rain and the morning is overscheduled and a nine-mile run just ain’t gonna happen.

Everything we do at home today has to happen before 10:30 a.m., when we have to leave the house to do everything else we’re doing today. I woke up at 7:30, and a nine-mile run takes two hours when you include driving time to get to the flat road and back. That leaves only an hour to shower and pack for a weekend trip. That may be enough for you, but it’s not enough for me.

Besides, cramming a week’s worth of running into four days is an invitation to injury. Ask my knees. I iced the left one Monday night; last night I switched the ice pack to the right one. A day off will be good.

I checked MapMyRun for likely routes near Worthington, Ohio, and found plenty from which to choose. So my Garmin and my running gear will get packed after all, and I’ll take a little time away from the triplets to sweat.

Their dad is the one who inspired me to run my first race. I’d been walking and jogging on my hilly road, with no purpose other than to control my weight. A month after my husband and I got married in Las Vegas, we had a family celebration at home. My husband’s son was training for a marathon and had a 20-miler on his schedule the morning of our party.

And he did it.

Just got up, got ready, headed out and came back to move furniture, help with setting up the party, mingle with our guests and put everything back where it was supposed to be afterward.

Obviously, I was pretty impressed. He was training for the Columbus Marathon; I registered for the Country Music Half-Marathon soon after.

Somehow I don’t think anyone will miss me if I take off for a couple of hours to run.

Have a great weekend. Back on Monday.

How cool is this?

No, literally, I mean how cool is this:

The next three days are going to be downright chilly here in the Middle of Nowhere. And we may even get some rain, which we can really use. Yesterday we saw places where you could walk across the river and not get your feet wet.

I’m cramming all of this week’s training runs into four days so I won’t have to worry about getting any of them in this weekend. We’ll be visiting the triplets (and their parents), and I doubt there will be time for a nine-mile run Sunday morning.

Today is an easy two-miler, which I will stretch to three because I just think two miles is hardly worth it. I have to drive two miles to get to a flat road that’s long enough to run two miles on. Might as well make it worth the gas it takes to get there, right?

I weighed 177 – again – this morning. Nice to know that eating pasta and rice and cereal, oh my, this week hasn’t made me balloon up to 200. Is it wishful thinking, though, to have hoped I might lose a couple, considering I’ve either walked or run 24 miles since last Thursday?

Apparently, it is.

Zoom … ka-boom!

Imagine my suprise as I set out on my seven-mile tempo run this morning to find this, at about the end of the first mile:

At the tippy top of the photo is a train moving along the tracks. The two empty coal cars (and an additional one not pictured) you can see braced against those trees were, until last night, moving along those tracks. The entire hillside is covered with coal.

It didn’t slow me down, though.

My goal was to jog a 15-minute warm-up and a 15-minute cooldown, on either side of five 11-minute miles. That would have been 85 minutes. While it didn’t work out the way I planned – still haven’t learned to pace myself – I actually beat my target time. Woo hoo! Or, rather, zoom-zoom!

Splits, anyone? 12:24, 11:05, 11:35, 11:56, 11:51, 11:55 and 12:52 – for a total of 1:23:41.

This has, so far, been my best week of training. I feel confident, strong, capable and running is fun. For all of those things to be true at the same time is pretty cool.

Now, though, it’s back to politics. (Big political news today, in case you’ve been avoiding your cable outlets.) Or dinner.

Zoooooom!

Okay, y’all know I’m not the speediest of runners. I blame it on my short stature, advanced age and extra weight. But the combination of two months of training and much cooler weather seems to have helped my pace tremendously. I used to struggle to run a 12:40 mile. Today? Not so much:





I did a total of 6.8 miles, most of it walking, but I was supposed to run two miles today at a 12:32 pace.

I think I smoked it. Heh.

If I can keep that up for 13.1 miles (BIG heh), I’ll not only PR in Richmond, but I’ll also make my goal of finishing in 2:30. In order to PR, I have to run in less than 2:38:24.

Eating a more normal diet is very helpful, and it doesn’t matter to me whether it’s psychological or physical. If I think I can run more efficiently if I have rice with dinner and a banana with my morning coffee, then that’s good enough for me.

The halfway point

Yesterday’s four-mile run (supposed to be at a 12:39 pace; I did it in 47:15 – an 11:49 pace) marked the end of eight weeks of race training. Eight down, eight to go. (My left ankle is fine; I thought I tweaked something in my left calf, but that appears to have been Something to Make Me Worry Unnecessarily.)

The next two months are quickly filling up with trips and activities. Good thing I’m not training for a tri – it’s harder to find places to swim than it is to find places to run.

I felt great yesterday, and can probably credit my change in diet. Having a banana about an hour before I headed out was a Good Thing. Do South Beach dieters ever get to eat bananas? (Apparently they do.)

My husband came home from a short trip yesterday, meaning I had to cook dinner. I find when he’s gone that I don’t cook much, if at all. I think the only time I used the microwave last week was to heat a cup of coffee, and the only time I used the stove was to make popcorn. Other than that, it was cereal, fruit, deli-meat wraps and one trip through McDonald’s for chicken nuggets. If it weren’t for the iced coffee I ordered there, I’d think I was a toddler.

Mileage ramps up significantly this week – and I really feel ready. Hope your weekend was restful and your week doesn’t throw you any curves.

Ruh Roh

I never was a Scooby Doo fan. I’m from the Bugs Bunny/Chip ’n’ Dale/Tweety Bird (“I think I saw a puddy tat”) generation. But when I experience an “uh-oh” moment, I immediately think – and sometimes say – it in my best Scooby Doo voice.

If you’d tagged along on my walk/run Tuesday morning, you would have heard me. I can’t remember the exact moment, but somewhere along the 7.25 mile-route, I twisted my left ankle. It’s still a little twingy – is that a word? – so I’m postponing today’s four-miler until tomorrow.

Thank goodness for easy weeks, eh?

I wrapped it in an Ace bandage and hobbled around yesterday doing what I normally do. RICE (Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation) was called for, but Compression and about an hour of Elevation was the best I could do.

It’s definitely not a sprain, and is much better today. The swelling is gone, as is most of the pain. If I weren’t in training I’d probably test it. But I sure don’t want a major setback with just eight weeks until race day.

My South Beach experiment has blown up in my face. What? You didn’t hear the explosion? You missed the flames erupting from the blown-out windows? While I can lose weight and still train eating meat-and-salad, meat-and-salad, meat-and-salad, I can’t do anything else. And while I don’t have a fulltime job or children to look after, I do have a house that is, as my mother used to say, “ready to walk.” And a mother-in-law who is still in the hospital and a President to elect.

Heh.

Carbs = energy. Without carbs, I sleep nine, 10 or even more hours per night. I drag my ass through my day and sleep like I’ll never wake up. I’m tired when I rise in the morning, tired when I run, tired when I hit the sack at 8 p.m.

To celebrate leaving the Beach, I had a cup of Shredded Wheat with strawberries and milk for breakfast. (Carbs ≠ donuts, Belgian waffles or coffee cake. Does anyone eat coffee cake any more? My mother used to make the recipe on the back of the Bisquick box and invite the neighbors over for coffee and cake at least once a week.)

I guess my major weight-loss push has been pushed back to, um, the holiday season.

Oh, joy.

A little knitting update

I’ve finally decided that, yes, I will make sweaters for the triplets for Christmas. My other three grandchildren live in warm climates and rarely need sweaters, but the littlest guys live in Ohio, where it gets c-c-c-cold in the winter. I’m using the Trellis pattern; that little shawl collar looks so manly to me.

The yarn is good old machine-washable and -dryable Lion Brand Wool-Ease. Any mother of triplets would appreciate an easy-care fabric. I’ve amassed quite a large quantity of the wheat color, so that’s what I’m using.

Unfortunately, I sliced a fingertip on a razor the other day and the bandage is getting in the way of my knitting. I’m hoping to remove it today and really get to work on Sweater #1 today.

This week is another easy one for running. I love how the training program throws a couple easy weeks – low mileage, no speed drills, just go out and run for the fun of it – into the mix. Each of this week’s three runs is just four miles, at a slow – 12:39 – pace. I know I’ll run faster than that, and probably farther, and probably do four days, but that’s more for weight loss than for race training. I’m going to try to get back to the weight bench again this week, too. I did one session last week, and while one is better than none, it’s not enough for results.

I wish I could be a grown-up about this stuff. I’m more toddler-like – whining that I don’t WANT to!

That’s quite a mind picture, isn’t it? A 57-year-old overweight toddler. Heh.

Hot, hot, hot

The weekend weather, that is.

We went to the hills of Kentucky for a retreat, something we’ve done for the last nine years, and I don’t ever remember it being so hot, humid and uncomfortable. The park where we stay has hiking trails and a lake and a lovely front porch with big rocking chairs and I think the only time I was outside was when I absolutely had to be.

Oh, and Saturday morning for my long run of the week.

It was supposed to be eight miles. I did seven, letting the hills and humidity make up one mile, since the most logical route was an out-and-back from the lodge to the main entrance. Besides, I stretched my two-miler the previous day to four, so I knew my weekly mileage was covered.

My pace was supposed to be slow, and it was – 13:12 – much slower than I was supposed to go. The killer hills were brutal, and I ended up walking a lot. There were two very good miles, though, where I felt great and ran fast (11:17 and 11:55). I was dripping wet, soaked with sweat and gasping for breath when I got back to our room.

The retreat part of the weekend was inspiring, uplifting and just what we needed. It was nice to get away. And it’s good to be home.

Stay safe

Wishing everyone who lives in Ike’s path traveling mercies as they get out of his way, and a safe return home when the time is right.

I need to get a short run in this morning and then I’m heading for the hills for a little getaway. Looks like it’ll be raining all weekend – if it were race day, I’d be running in it, so I guess my long run will be a little soggy this week.

I did a total of six yesterday; the initial walking mile was pretty quickly done (for me), then four fast-ish ones (11:07) and then a final cooldown mile. After 4.5 miles I started feeling sick, and had to walk the rest of the way. My final time wasn’t pretty, not pretty at all.

During the fast part, I find myself glancing at the Garmin to see that I’ve been running a steady 10-minute mile for what seems like quite a while. It seems improbable to me that I can run that fast, and my mind takes over, shooting negative messages at me. My breathing becomes more labored (if that’s possible), my legs start aching, my feet feel like blocks of wood and BAM! I’ve hit the wall.

I’m not sure if the Garmin works tucked into a pocket or not. Perhaps it would be more useful to steel myself against looking at my wrist, rather than hiding the darned thing.

No. Really. I am still here.

It appears that when life gets stressful, I clam up. That’s probably a Good Thing, as I tend to be impulsive and might write something I wouldn’t want to take responsibility for at a later time. The better part of valor is discretion, a tenet it’s taken me many, many years to adopt.

First things first: Happy birthday to Wendy! I’ve been trusting her running advice (and more) for way more than a year now. Just because she’s flipped over into that “don’t trust anyone over mumble-mumble decade” doesn’t mean I’m going to stop now. Click over and give her your good wishes. I’ll wait.

So. It appears that, for me at least, the Penguin is right: It’s difficult to lose weight during race training. He doesn’t say it’s impossible, but he does point out that losing weight is one thing and race training is another. Different goals demand different strategies. I’ve found it verrrrry difficult to stick with a South Beach eating plan while following my training schedule. Doesn’t matter if it’s physical or mental – the fact is, I’m hungry more often and vegetables just don’t appeal. (I’m back up to 177, after the party and eating a lot of restaurant and hospital cafeteria meals last week.)

My mother-in-law has been transferred from the far-away, big-city hospital to what I like to call Tiny Hospital. It’s a 12-mile drive and she’s getting adequate care, but I’d like to see more emphasis on physical therapy and getting her up and out of bed than has happened so far. I’ll chalk it up to being transferred at the end of the week – small hospitals tend to clear all but the seriously ill out on weekends, and they – like most medical facilities these days – are short-staffed.

A little more housecleaning: The group photo I took at our Obama party did end up on the website. It's part of a slideshow and takes for-freaking-ever to download on dial-up, so I didn’t do it. But someone did for me, and says our photo is at the 4:13 mark. (I don’t know if the slideshow has been updated since the day I tried to view it.) You can see it here. Eventually.

The most popular item in the party goodie bags was the “Retired. Inspired.” bumper sticker. Hey, we’re old! What can I say? It hasn’t been too popular on CafePress, but then I’m not sure how to compete with the other 18 million Obama items for sale there.

I missed one run last week, and was two miles short of my weekly mileage goal, but felt good on the long run yesterday. My pace is supposed to be 12:39, but I’ve been shooting for 12-minute miles at this stage and I was darned close yesterday: 12:07 for more than six miles. I gave up when my husband drove by to see how I was doing and offered me a ride. The long run wasn’t quite as long as it was supposed to be, but my legs were toast and riding the last 1.7 was Just. Too. Tempting.

What speech were they watching?

Sorry this is turning into a quasi-political blog lately.

My husband and I care very much about the outcome of the coming Presidential election, and since the Democratic convention is going on, that’s what’s on our minds. We flip back and forth between MSNBC and Fox, figuring we’ll get the partisan viewpoint from each side of the broadcast aisle.

I was at my prison volunteer gig for much of last night. When I got home, my husband urged me to stay up to watch Hillary. Based on the commentators’ build-up, he predicted I would be happy with what she was going to say.

(I’m not a Hillary fan, I don’t care for her stage presence – that head-bob bothers the heck out of me – and it’s difficult for me to listen to her strident voice. Thus, my husband knew I would need some convincing.)

So, I stayed up to listen. The way our family room is arranged, I can sit at the computer and not have to look at the TV. I was not swayed by crowd reaction or by her facial expressions. And I thought she said all the right things to get her supporters to vote for Obama. So did MSNBC.

Keith Olbermann: “A grand-slam. Out of the park.”

Apparently, Fox wanted something different.

William Kristol: “Tepid.”

It’s laughable, really, no matter whose side you’re on. (I’m on Keith’s side.)

Okay, back to the running and the knitting. Knitting first: I’m almost finished with the body of my in-the-round, looks-like-it-will-be-too-small pullover. The sleeves will be knit separately, joined to the body at the underarms and then the bodice will be completed as a raglan with a V-neck.

Someday.

The running: My husband and I went together for his 10K walk yesterday. When we do that and I need to throw an easy run into it, I end up doing seven-ish miles. I was supposed to only run two miles, but I felt really good and ran 3.5. The first two were continuous, then I walked a mile and then I ran another one. Each of the running distances were at a sub 12:30 pace. I know, I know – not fast at all. But I feel more and more confident about continuing to improve my time and being able to finish the entire 13.1.

On today’s agenda: Cooking, cleaning and ironing t-shirt transfers onto a couple of shirts for my husband and I to wear tomorrow night. Can’t have a party without new clothes, can we? Heh.

Almost party time

Have I mentioned that my husband and I are having a party to watch Obama’s acceptance speech Thursday night? I’ve lived here 11 years, and other than our wedding party (held at his mother’s home) and our annual 4th of July family reunion, I can think of only one other “party” we’ve held, and that was for a group of knitting friends.

My husband really wasn’t part of that equation.

Anyway … we’re excited and I spent the weekend putting the finishing touches on our office/family room. After much trial and error, I think I found the solution to hanging 12 photos, all the same size, so that they a. don’t fall and b. are equidistant apart. Sticky-back Velcro works like a charm. Of course, the frames (simple, black, wooden, ordered online a couple weeks ago) are very lightweight. During the initial stages of trying to use actual picture frame hangers, three frames fell, resulting in broken glass. I bought cheap Dollar Store document frames to replace the glass. It’s been two days now and every photo is still on the wall. It’s so exciting to walk up the stairs and see that the whole display is still intact.

I turned to Martha for patriotic decoration ideas, and ended up making tri-color, three-dimensional paper stars and some little red/white/blue drink umbrellas. I think they’ll enhance the buffet, and we might even stick some in cups of lemonade.

(I also found this cute little way of presenting gifts of cash; my older grandchildren appreciate cashmoneybucks more than “stuff” these days. That Martha is sooo clever.)

Fifteen stars are scattered across the wall space above five windows, along with four “Yes We Can” posters. (You can snag lots of Obama printables here.)

We also have goodie bags for our guests, filled with swag: posters, bumper stickers, buttons, a t-shirt transfer and a mix CD of protest songs. This was my favorite part of the party prep, and I’ve been working on it for a couple of weeks.

Now that the room is ready (please pray that the satellite doesn’t go on the fritz this week), it’s time to start on the food! Mmmmm! (I’ll write about the menu tomorrow, if you’re interested.)

With all this busy-work, have I had time to run? Why, yes, yes I have. Last week was an easy week – three runs, two three-milers and a four-miler, all at a 12:47 pace. I aced the second and third ones, which gives me a lot of confidence that continued training will result in faster times and improved endurance.

Cooler temperatures wouldn’t hurt, either.

Wacky week

I’ll be out of town this weekend and have to mix up the training schedule a bit. My long run will be Friday instead of Sunday, and I’m swapping the tempo run, originally scheduled for Thursday, and the easy run, which I was supposed to do today. I hope this leaves me with enough energy to take care of a one-year-old Saturday and Sunday. Heh.

Also, in addition to a 20-minute weight-training session, I’m adding a long walk to each of my three or four rest days. (Early in the training schedule I only run three days/week. Later on I add another run day.) My husband and I walked 10K yesterday in about an hour and a half – a nice, not-too-slow pace that felt good. My hope is that the additional walking will help get rid of some weight. Did it work?

Well, here’s what the week looks like so far:

• Sunday: Weight – 177.5. Ran seven miles, moved some furniture, planted mums
• Monday: Weight – 177.5. Walked 6.2 miles, moved the same furniture to different places, rearranged all my computer equipment. Edited to add: Also lifted weights for 20 minutes.
  
• Tuesday: Weight – 178.

My meals during this time have been wonderful examples of the South Beach way to eat: lean protein, salad, yogurt – you know the drill.

Perhaps I should back away from the scale. It’s more than a little discouraging to see that number creep up instead of down. I’m not asking for advice or explanations, by the way. I’ve been through this before, too many times. I have to go by how I feel, not how much I weigh.

I feel pretty darned good. Moving all that furniture around was hard, heavy work. The fact that I can do it without hurting myself or breaking the furniture is pretty cool. Hell, the fact that I can run seven miles, at my age (57) without hurting myself is pretty cool.

Anyway – speed drill today. Speed is a relative thing in my running world, by the way. I have to sandwich three 11:07 miles between warm-up and cool-down miles. Here’s how I justify my lack of speed: The longer I’m out there exerting myself, the more calories I’m burning.

Oh, and I was usually in the art room during math class. Heh.

Weekend wrap-up

My rest day this week was Friday – I’m not sure how it happened that I didn’t do a lick of exercise then, despite good intentions, but that’s what happened. I walked six miles Saturday with my husband (six point TWO, actually, as he always points out), and did my long (slow) run Sunday. Goal pace was 12:47; as you can see, I didn’t make it for most of the run.

BUT … I ran and ran and ran. Very few walk breaks. There’s a tortoise-and-hare analogy in there somewhere, but I’ll be darned if I can find it. Perhaps it’s that I ran seven miles instead of the six that was on the schedule. I really thought I was supposed to do seven. Is this how Alzheimer’s starts?

I finally bought the chrysanthemums I wanted for around the birch tree. I don’t think I’m finished buying mums, but here’s what it looks like so far. I took the photo at dusk, hoping the little solar walkway lights would be on, but they weren’t and it was starting to sprinkle and my camera’s not waterproof and, well, here’s my gravel-spreading project:

My husband and I continue to “decorate” our garage office/family room. I now have a display of race stuff on the wall behind my computer – medals, finisher’s certificates, a couple of bibs and this inspirational photo from the Brooks website:

Only one wall remains to fill; we’ve framed a dozen of my photos (from the late, lamented Project 365 attempt) and will get them hung today or tomorrow. Then, I think, we’ll be done.

Hope your weekend was as nice as mine was!

The treadmill is my friend

– at least when it comes to pacing.

Yesterday’s easy run was a repeat of last Tuesday’s: two miles at a 12:47 pace.

It hardly seems worth it to me to work up a sweat for anything less than three miles, though, so I started out at a brisk walk, bumped it to a slow run after one lap and hit my stride (a 12:30 pace, or 4.8 mph) at the first half mile.

After 2.5 miles I was able to kick it up to 5 mph and finished the last lap at 5.5 mph.

Three miles total at a 12:39 pace. Pretty speedy for an old, slow, fat lady. Heh.

Worked some more on the gravel yesterday. I’m putting large rocks around the perimeter of the area, and am halfway finished with that. I need to gather more rocks from another part of the property.

For that job, the wheelbarrow is my friend.