Mar 16, 2012: Yes, I know. I fell behind. WAY behind. My deepest apologies. Let me recap: the Tarantula Run was cancelled last fall due to construction so QBFF and I ran the Grape Stomp instead. Well, Elliott ran the six miles in the first three and I stumbled and dragged the last three with a little more running but we finished in an hour and 15 minutes! QBFF, bless her heart, is running for the Team in Training in the San Diego Rock n Roll Marathon June 3rd. I, however, will be slugging along in the see jane run 5k in Alameda that day. My friend Kristi talked me into that one.... Good thing or I'd still be "just managing" a mile to a mile and a half three days a week.
Today is my first day running in a few weeks due to stress and migraines. And yes--this is the day I chose. Beautiful, eh? Windy, threatening to dump on me, but 60' so it wasn't bad at all and it never rained. I saw 10 Mallard Mates in the creek--gonna have us a TON of babies next month! Yahoo!
There were some pretty spots on the run, however. It certainly made the mile go by quicker. Elliott and I walked an extra mile and a half for a nice little exercise outing. He immediately came home and wanted to play with his Angry Birds. Ah, to be a lab....
So there it is. A new race to train for. Here is the link:
http://www.seejanerun.com/t-See-Jane-Run-Half-Marathon-and-5K.aspx
They have one in Boise, Idaho for all my Idaho buddies.... }:) Three miles isn't ANYthing! And you can walk if you have to! If I can drag my tired old body down the trail at more than a stumble, you can, too!
May 30: Kids, it's a red letter day for me!!! I am officially 22# lighter than I was last July!!! After plateauing for four months the weight has finally started coming off again. I would like to get rid of the final 12 by the end of July but getting rid of the last ten will work, too. I feel great, my clothes are loose or fit comfortably, and I could just sing (but in the interest of humanity will refrain). YAY!!!!!!! :D
May 18: Well!!! I mentioned on the main post that I jogged 2 3/4 miles and I'm VERY proud of that. If you'd asked me back in January what the chances were of me EVER running even one mile I'd have laughed and said not a chance! And now look at me.... Wow! :) AND it looks like it's going to be Tarantulas this October! The course is being mapped out and my sources have it that the first part is going to be all up hill but then it levels out before going back down to finish. We'll see how accurate that is.
I need to hit up my ECRG peeps because if the race follows tradition there will be a 3k, 5k, and 10k, besides a 1k Kid's Walk. I can just see all the families from our East County Regional Group (ECRG) out there with ALL our little ones, purple group tees EVERYWHERE! and putting our sneakers where our mouths are--encouraging our kids AND ourselves to be phsyically active. Can you imagine? We have over 50 members and most of us have at least two kids--we could have them change the name of the run to the Tarantula and ECRG Run! HAH! I can't wait to tell the group tonight at our monthly meeting! WOOP WOOP!!!!
Better go get chores done or Da Boys will be home and I'll be fighting homework while trying to finish chores. No fun at all! ;) Warm up those sneakers, kids! And think of me as you put a few miles on them.....
April 26: Another good walking day! While Da Folks did their pre-walk ritual, Elliott and I RAN 1.5 miles!!!! YEAH we did!!! THEN we walked 3.5 miles with Da Folks and THEIR puppies!!! We are TRAINING FOOLS, we are!!! Never thought I'd ever run that far NOR be able to pass another jogger!!!! Zowie!
Good day for a walk/run! It was in the upper 50's with a breeze and the sun and Duckies were out. Elliott and I got another 2.25 miles in but today we jogged 1.25 of them--first time EVer!!! I'm so proud of us! His post-walk pic is on the home page below the duckie sighting pic....
Elliott was on MAJOR power assist at the start of today's exercising/training. I started the fun with TWO ten minute sessions, and almost sobbed in relief when I saw that today's training schedule was just walking. Then I bullied the boys onto their bikes and down the trail. Elliott was dragging me as hard as he could so instead of just cardio and total body from the 10 minutes trainers I also got an upper body work out. BONUS.
FPA--Four Paw Assist!!!
Here's Elliott in walking mode--advance, advance, advance!!!!!
We did 2.5 miles in 35 minutes--today was a "no run" day.
We didn't see any turtles but we did see 13 Mallards, 6 Panic Ducks (they "panic" whenever they see us), one black and white duck (pretty!) and one Muskrat. I assume it's a muskrat:
too small to be a beaver and too thick to be a water rat so therefore:
It's a muskrat!!!
Anyone who's known me for awhile would know that I believe running is necessary only when chocolate is being offered or when fabulous shoes can be had at unreal prices. Or if the boys are about to run out in front of anything larger than a Mini.... Running has only been kept out of the Handy Torturing Handbook because some idiot, I think his name was Pheidippidis?, decided to run 26.2 miles and some other idiot thought that was good enough to make it a sport in the original Olympics....
Anyway.... Running bites. Running gives poor Elliott the runs.... Running isn't as bad as I thought.... HOLY COW! What do you mean I ran a mile two days in a row!!!! How could that POSSIBLY have happened and I lived to tell about it??? Wow.
Walking is great--walking is mindless and you can see some wonderful things. I started walking back in August when I topped out at 173. It wasn't healthy on my 5'7" frame nor with my family history of insulin resistance and Type II diabetes and heart disease, etc. etc. etc. So, as soon as the boys went back to school, I laced up my Half Marathon Sneakers (from 2007 when BFF so graciously WALKED it with me) and I hit the trail with my FPA (four paw assist). I walk just about five days a week and the longest walk I got down was five miles. Pretty darn cool!
Since I leveled out at 157 (dipping down to 155 for awhile, hence my claim to having lost 18 pounds) I realized I needed to kick it up a notch so I started doing the Ten Minute Trainer with Tony Horton (creator of P90X and other such devices worthy of our Handy Torturer). You do 10 minutes each day with three different four-week programs laid out for you. I may still be at 157 on a regular day but I have defined muscles in my arms even when NOT flexed and my legs look FAB. Well, they do. Phbt. This is the end of the fourth week of the first program so next week I'll add another 10 minute session on and continue what I've been doing. The last 15 pounds are hanging out in the danger area--right on the front of my belly--so I'm hoping that this next step will start whittling those off.
Exercising is grand and your heart loves you for it but eating properly is the other thing I have to master. Food is glorious. A good left over dinner for lunch the next day gets me through the morning. Food is half the reason to have friends over. (Having a clean house in which to have your friends over is the other.....) That said, last July while home visiting Da Folks I found a magazine by Taste of Home and it was called "The Comfort Food Diet". HOOOOOOOOOOO yeah!!!!! Mama, I'm HOME! My poor magazine is now in pieces; I'm going to have to put it in a loose leaf binder in order to keep the recipes.
This magazine ROCKS and fortunately for the rest of the world it has a cookbook that goes with it. Same title, I got it on Barnes and Noble's website for $13 though I've even seen it at Lowe's. ANYWAY. This magazine/book lays out two weeks' worth of menus with recipes from their book plus gives tips on how to lose the weight you are looking at getting rid of, gives you a place to do a grocery list plus list your favorite meals, etc.
The recipes are broken up into snacks, breakfast, lunch, dinner, sides, and DESSERTS!!!! YAHOO! All the caloric and serving information is at the end of each recipe and it even tells you how much a serving is (yay!). Best of all, it has helped me to be able to gauge a portion when I go out to eat and gives me fabulous options that keep dinner interesting and even Da Boys like most of the recipes. When they feel like it. Or when they're sucking up for something. Because they're boys. :) I was able to switch over to this way of cooking without any protest (save the regular "I don't LIKE zucchini!" and "what is THAT?!") and my husband has been enthused over the change for the better. I even got Da Folks doing it!
The cookbook has also helped me to look at a recipe and adjust it from "special night once every six months" to once a month to even once a week. BFF got me hooked on a blog at kevinandamanda.com and she posts some of the most FABulously delicious dinners I've cooked in a long time. She is in the South and you know how those folks love their butter and cream but for the most part the recipes are pretty diet friendly. I tried one last week and by changing out the heavy cream to fat free half and half and decreasing the olive oil and butter I was able to subtract over 100 calories per serving from her recipe. Yay me! (Definitely go give her blog a look-see because she has beautiful pictures and wonderful recipes and she, too, is a scrapper with some really great projects she's posted!)
Wow. I got a little detracted from the whole running log, eh? Oops.
Anyway--diet and exercise! Good things! And because I'm feeling pretty spunky about what I've accomplished BFF has convinced me to do a 10k run in October. Yowza!! We're hoping to do one put on by the Contra Costa Water District called the Tarantula Run but they won't have an answer/decision until the first week of May. There is another one around the same time called the Grape Stomp in Livermore, California. BFF has actually run an ENTIRE marathon and knows about training schedules and other such foreign languages so she's hooked me up with a schedule. I actually can now believe that I can run a 10k without needing a medic at the end. By building up running times and lessening walking times between running I am putting myself closer to running a full 6.1 or something miles in one shot. That's so exciting! And amazing!
So for this week, so far, I have run (R) or walked (W) the following distances:
Monday: 1/2 mile (R), 2 1/2 (W)
Tuesday: 1/2 mile (R), 2 (W)
Wednesday: 1 mile (R), 1 1/2 (W)
Thursday: 1 mile (R), 1/2 mile (R); 1 mile (W)
Is that COOL!!! or what? :) I know--I rock.
Next week will be the challenge, though--Da Folks will get here Monday night and stay through the weekend--they'll walk with me but I don't think I'll be able to convince them to do the 10 Minutes with me OR run... Well, Mom's Border Collie would... Elliott would be bummed, though....
To wrap up today's abnormally long blog, I will continue to post my running updates here as well as any updates I get on the Tarantula Run. I'll start a new page for FOOD!!!! and post any wonderful things I come up with/across there. And I have to get some stuff on Da Boys' page as my oldest is all jazzed about being included on the site. (He said my blog was "COOL!" I'm so proud! *sniff*)
Till tomorrow--double knot those laces, kids!
1 comment:
Run Forrest Run!!
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