I almost forgot to complain when I weighed myself today, but then I remembered it was Tuesday. I was 134.0. I haven't been eating all that well and I only exercised officially on Wednesday and yesterday, though I did walk to Kroger on Sunday (but that's so short it hardly counts, and I made Mary and Alexander walk up the hill so I didn't have to push them up it in the stroller).
Yesterday I ran on the treadmill again, this time with it on manual. I just put it on 0.5% grade, because the steeper grades kill me but absolutely flat makes my shins hurt. I was able to run four miles, starting my pace at 5.5 mph and pushing it up a tiny bit each mile to 5.9 for half of the last mile (and then I knocked it back down to 5.5 for the second half, and I found I can't quite do 6.0). So my 5k was slightly faster than last Wednesday but not as challenging. I didn't get a stitch but the bra was still not as comfortable as a normal one, breathing-wise -- but I don't bounce too much. Running at a consistent pace I could tell my form was terrible -- I tend to wobble from side to side over every few steps. It's a wonder I don't fall off.
Anyway, after the treadmill I again hit the bike for 20 minutes. I don't have any problem with that -- in fact, it's a real break. But I think if I did the full 11 miles on the bike, or even half that, and then went to the treadmill I'd find it a lot harder.
Daniel and I discovered that the Blacksburg Classic 5k (in March or so -- we see it gearing up each year but we've never done it) starts almost in front of our house, so he plunged out the front door yesterday and ran the route. Turns out 5k on the roads in Blacksburg is a lot harder than 5k on the Huckleberry! I can only imagine how much worse it's going to be than the treadmill.
Food yesterday was better than usual in terms of balance, though still a bit much. I ate a ton of raw veggies with dinner -- everyone in the house likes to munch on bell peppers, even me, so I really should chop one up every night! For dinner we had the dill meatloaf which is supposed to be low fat, but I used ground round (which is at least a little lean) instead of sirloin, whole evaporated milk instead of skim (I didn't have any skim on hand), and 1 T butter instead of 1 T margarine (it tastes better and the sauce thickens better!!) so that killed that. But when I got full I stopped eating. Mostly. We also had roasted potatoes (they use olive oil, so not totally lean, but not too awful). For lunch I had PB&J -- I was in the mood for a sandwich but we were out of lunchmeat. But I didn't snack terribly during the day (the GS cookies are all in the freezer and I didn't break into the marshmallows or chocolate chips). I did have ice cream for dessert (but now the Heath Bar stuff is gone -- of course, there's still strawberry cheesecake ice cream!). Sheesh.
2 comments:
Your exercise is amazing! I'd be flat out dead if I tried running that fast for that long--the 5.1 m.p.h. I did yesterday is all I can manage without my heart rate skyrocketing. I figure if I up the speed every three weeks by a tenth of a mile I might be able to push myself to 5.5, but I don't know if I'm even physically capable of much more. I *think* I could keep going at the 5.1 m.p.h. for a longer time, but I can only manage 35 minutes before I have to get back to the office.
The Danskin Triathlon we're looking at is in the New York area--this year it's in New Jersey but I don't know if it's the same place each year. But because they are doing open water swims, it means the running and bike routes are near the coast, which means flat as a pancake--thank goodness. I don't know if I could manage hills! But I keep telling myself that I have over a year to get myself ready for this, and in the past eight months I've gone from totally sedentary, barely able to keep walking for 30 minutes at 3.5 m.p.h. to running three miles without getting out of breath.
It's the exercycling that did it to me -- I can push myself a lot harder sitting down in a recumbent seat than I can standing up or even on a standard bike. I think that really helped me shed pounds, too. So my endurance now is dramatically higher than it was nine months ago! I haven't checked my heart rate lately, either -- it's possible I am overdoing it.
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