Hmmm

yeah...I got nothing...but I don't want to be a blog slacker!!!!

Have a great weekend everyone!!

We're all turning into blogging slackers again

What happened to the daily check-in? It's been very quiet here this week.

I went with Amy to her yoga class today. Once I got over the urge to snicker at what a stereotype her teacher is (and she told me later he's also a Bradley childbirth instructor -- figures!) and how bad his shorts were, it was a pretty good class. I felt like I was terrible at a lot of the yoga; I'd never even SEEN yoga before, at least not for real (it shows up in TV fiction periodically, and Steve Wesolowski demonstrated some moves to Daniel and me about a decade and a half ago, not that I remember much of it), so I never knew where we were going with anything. But except for the chest opener stuff with the bolster under our backs, where I somehow completely missed the initial instructions and was thus completely lost until the assistant came and detangled me, most of it felt fine.

I was already in my exercise clothes, then, when the afternoon came; this was a very good thing or I know I would have ditched running for the second straight time -- not good when I'm supposed to be in training! But it was so gray out and it felt chilly so I couldn't get excited about leaving the house. I finally made myself go -- I would have felt ridiculous wearing exercise clothes all day and NOT going -- and it turned out to be much better than the last Springdale run. There was very little difference in my time (about 5 seconds), but it never felt hopeless. A funny thing -- my GPS informs me that I stopped 40 feet lower in elevation than I started, which seems improbable given that the neighbor's yard is only about four feet up from Mom and Dad's driveway, so even if I started the tracking a couple of feet late it should have come out close to even.

My calf was very sore last Saturday but felt better by Sunday. Today it felt fine through the first two miles but started complaining at the start of the third, and it's sore tonight. I'm not sure what to do about an injury like this -- do I keep running on my regular schedule and see if it just gets better from the regular rest in between days, or should I take a longer break (longer than just four days, that is!) and see if it heals that way, at the risk of falling behind on the training schedule? Or should I see a doctor right away? (That seems like an over-reaction when the injury is still less than a week old, and the pain goes away a day after running.)

I did some searching online, and a minor calf strain is supposed to heal in a week or so if I rest it. The advice I read on marathon discussion boards is that I should cross-train in the meantime. I can manage that for this weekend, with a short run coming up, but I'd really like to do the 7.5 mile run a week from Saturday! If I don't do that run, how do I get back on track?

Also checking in

I've had a crazy week, but things should settle down. And I'm in the home stretch for the semester to be OVER...just a few more weeks.

We went white water rafting in the Adirondacks this past weekend. It was so much fun. We were on the Indian and Hudson Rivers. I have a bunch of photos but I have to get them sorted. Maybe tonight...

Six miles!

Today's run felt REALLY good. As I cruised through the first half of it it was very obvious how much progress I've made in the last month or so -- up until now it has felt like I'm running farther but not running any better. But today everything felt smooth. I've been able to push the pace on the treadmill so I know I'm doing something right, but that hasn't translated to a measurable improvement in road runs. This morning I felt like I was going fairly easily but my pace was better than my first sluggish 5k by a long shot, and I finished the 6 miles in about 59 minutes. I was feeling so comfortable that I kept having to remind myself to walk -- I'd overshoot my four minute mark by up to a minute. I didn't take my last walk break, but if I had kept the breaks up I could have managed a few more miles, I'm pretty certain. And I was very cheerful while I was running -- I must have looked like a loon out there, grinning as I jogged!

This week I just have 30-minute runs three days, and cross-training on Thursday, though I'm not sure how I'm going to work those in. And two weeks from today I'm supposed to run 7.5 miles -- I have NO idea how to manage that when I'm in Poland! (Especially since they don't have miles over there, anyway.) But I've finished five weeks of the program, so I don't want to quit now -- only 23 to go!

Checking in also

Great minds think alike... I also have been meaning to post, but figured that no one else would have this past week.

I DIDN'T get my normal exercise in this week. I skipped yoga yesterday - for two reasons. First, it was the last session of my Why Catholic? group - ever. We finished up the four year program. I normally leave 15 minutes early to make it to yoga on time, but this time I decided I would stay to the end, and then go home and continue to work on Kirsten's photos. We ended up running over, and I am really glad I stayed.

I, however, have not been eating well - or much. I had an egg and about 1/2 a piece of toast on Tuesday morning - and then coffee... and pretty much nothing else. I have no memory of dinner that night, but neither Katie nor I were feeling particurlarly hungry. Same with yesterday. I had no breakfast (I don't on yoga days and this was before I decided on my plan for the day) and then a piece of leftover pizza for lunch. Katie made shrimp crepes for dinner. This morning we had our usual poached egg breakfast - however, the two days of not eating enough caught up with me. I have been STARVING all day today. And dehydrated. But the dehydrated has been all week and I have been drinking water all along - but still feeling dry. Today I had chicken soft tacos from Chipolte for lunch. I ate two and a half of them - which, anyone who gets Chipotle knows is a lot of rice beans and lettuce! However, I am again very hungry! I mostly want an enormous glass of juice though... So I think it is still dehydration...

Tomorrow Katie and I are hosting the knitting/book club. We talked about cancelling, but this is a replacement for last week's cancellation. I am thinking about doing an Italian theme. This is unrelated to the Irish theme of March and connected exclusively to the fact that I want gelato and bellinis. 8-)

Just checking in

Obviously we're mostly distracted this week, but I wanted to stop by anyway. I've still gotten my exercise in every day this week, though I'll have no gym appointments over the next two weeks or so, so I don't know how things will go in the near future. My weight has dropped this week, because with the candy down to a minimum I'm being more careful about my calorie intake overall, though I've also been so busy that I've been forgetting to eat -- yesterday I didn't make it to 1000 calories. Oops! This morning I had to miss breakfast because I was fasting before a blood test -- only they cancelled the appointment after I'd been waiting an hour and a half because the doctor got called out, leaving ZERO doctors in an office of six or so. Wild day for them. So I have to fast again tomorrow morning. I'm going to start getting headaches if I'm not careful -- I guess then at least I'll be able to demonstrate the low blood sugar I've been claiming all along!

The upside is that today I had a "new" low on the scale ("new" meaning within the last year). I think this is the first year since we started the blog that I haven't seen a noticeable up-swing after Easter! Yay!

Lost weekend

I had intended to go on a longish bike ride this weekend and instead ended up doing nothing fun or active at all the whole weekend. The plan was that Brian would go early-ish (9:00) on Saturday to an HCC Engineering Club event, be home around 1:00 and then I'd get out for my ride before my 6:00 scout field trip. Instead, he came home at 5:00. Apparently they just got so involved in building this damn robot that he lost track of time. So I spent all of Saturday doing housework and laundry, then went to an ice rink and sat on the sidelines because the first time I went around the rink I discovered that ice skating is really incompatible with an SI joint injury. Ouch.

Sunday was my next chance, but it turned out that it was Membership Sunday at our church, which meant a longer than normal service, followed by a reception, followed by a community meeting. Got home from that after 1:00 and then went to visit Kirsten. I got home from that and grocery shopping close to 5:00, by which time it was windy and cold, and while the sun was ostensibly up, it wasn't doing it's best to actually light up Catonsville. So I stayed home and cooked instead (then fought with Claire over practicing her singing, her violin, and doing her religious ed. chapters. It was such a fun evening. Not.).

In the meantime I've been doing nothing to curb my eating. Thank goodness that the Easter candy is gone now, and part of my grocery shopping yesterday was getting vegetables and fruit to snack on--Brian thinks pickled beets and four apples should be enough for a family for a week. Yuck. By the middle of last week I was completely out of vegetables and down to a couple of apples and a pear in the fruit department. But now I'm restocked and good to go.

"Magic mile" run

Today I had a short run instead of the usual weekend long one, which was good, because it's a packed day. I was supposed to run an easy mile to warm up and then run a hard, faster mile and time it. So I did my usual run 4/walk 1 pace for the first mile, and then I ran for the full second mile, which turned out to be not difficult to do at all -- I actually felt pretty good running without stopping, except that it's a little boring. My time on the mile was 8:35 but I realized after I got home and re-read the magic mile information page that I wasn't running as hard as I should have; you're supposed to finish so tired that you couldn't have kept the pace going for even another hundred yards. I definitely had at least that much in me.

I don't usually have any kind of a consistent pace to my running, so for the first couple of weeks of this, being told "easy run" and "hard, fast run" was a bit of a joke. But I'm getting regular enough in my running that I'm finding it hard to slow down when it tells me to go below my race pace, and I don't know how to push it to the limit, either. I knew I was going faster than usual, and for the first quarter mile it felt tough. But once I got moving I really could have gone harder.

The other difficulty I ran into was the course. I didn't want to drive over to the high school to use the track (which is probably occupied on a Saturday afternoon anyway) and there was NO way I was going to do this on the elevated track at the gym, which is boring as all get-out. But I'm supposed to find a flat stretch. So I ran the flattest portion of the Huckleberry Trail, but it's only truly flat for (it turns out) 0.85 miles, so I had to do an abrupt about-face late in the run and the GPS was slow to record it -- so I might actually have run a bit more than a mile. It would definitely screw up the results if I kept running on the trail; the next 100 yards or so is very abruptly, steeply uphill. (When I got home, the mapmyrun data said that there'd been a 40 foot descent and climb on the portion I did run, and I couldn't figure that out at all, because surely I'd have noticed that much of a hill? I finally realized that their data shows the natural contours of the land, which is what the roads follow; the trail is built up above the land for the first mile, with a bridge high over the road!)

The good news is that I now have a baseline "magic mile" for the Jeff Galloway site. At this pace for the magic mile, I'm predicted to finish a marathon in 4:52, which assumes a race pace of 11:10 per mile. That's right on target for the five hours I estimated for the registration.

I can officially say

that although my life doesn't seem to be "changed" the darn mask actually is helping. Wednesday night I went to bed late (12-ish) and then woke up at 2:11am feeling like I couldn't breathe. I yanked the darn mask off and went back to sleep without it. I had the WORST night of sleep. It was exactly the type of sleep I used to have - restless, waking up frequently, dozing instead of sleeping - but it never bothered me before. I woke up Thursday morning feeling all achy. And then I was MISERABLE all day yesterday. Dragging all day and yawning all afternoon. So, last night when I went to bed I resolved to wear my mask all night come hell or high water. I did. I woke up once around 2:30 and then not again until my alarm woke me up at 6:30. I don't feel particularly different today, but I just realized that I have NOT been experiencing my normal 2pm to 5pm yawning and dragging. I have had a headache all day - which the CPAP is supposed to help prevent.

I am actually excited by this. I mean - sure, it is nothing cool like training for a marathon or a triathlon. But I was able to give blood this week!! I slept great last night!! I actually WANT to try a traditional diet again and see if I can make any progress. How cool would that be if my only problem has been sleep deprivation??!

Katie's and my knitting/bookclub (Pages and Stitches) was cancelled for tonight. I am really bummed by this. I really enjoy this group of women. It has been a long long time since I have found a group that I can hang out with and just LAUGH all night. I love it that while we are all on different levels in life (age, career, children, etc.) we pretty much agree on everything fundamentally. We have already (in the three months we have met) read such an odd range of books. And we all like to knit (or crochet). It is fun. Hopefully we will be able to meet next Friday.

Tired

This past week has left my body wiped out. I did 5 miles of running on Saturday followed by a 300-mile car trip. Then I did a 5k in Springdale on Monday followed by another 300-mile car trip. I really think running followed by long drives is a bad idea -- I was left feeling stiff because I didn't have real healing time. On Tuesday I was feeling pretty wiped out already, so I just did 40 minutes on the recumbent bike, the laziest equipment at the gym, though I did Pilates in the morning. On Wednesday I had a great run on the treadmill (after the tough road runs it felt like floating, so I kept up a great pace) but was tired again afterwards. Yesterday I did Pilates again in the morning and then Body Step in the afternoon -- it was all new material and some of it was tough, especially the push-ups track. And then I had to run errands. By the end of the day I was feeling like I'd been run over by a truck. So today I completely took off from exercise -- I'm a wimp for getting in only two days of Pilates this week, but I just hurt all over and didn't have it in me.

Tomorrow the run is short, only 2.5 miles, which is a good thing because our day is packed. I'm hoping I won't be so tired tomorrow. The run also has my first "magic mile" -- a one-mile run to measure what pace I'm capable of if I push it. I have no idea what that will be -- I haven't run for a continuous mile in a long time!

My eating is still very random this week. My weight is staying constant, though, probably because of all the exercise. The Easter candy is about gone, so I'm declaring calorie counting again beginning on Monday. I took measurements this week but they really haven't changed -- I'm still too thick around the middle! Oh, well.

Talking to myself again

Apparently I'm all alone on this blog again! What is everyone else up to?

Even with my SI joint still hurting, I went back to the pool today and had a much easier time of it. I took yesterday off, for the most part, except for 30 minutes or so of my back exercises. I was still hurting today, but decided to try swimming anyway. This time I did no drills--I think being on my back and kicking made things worse. I just did straight laps, and didn't much use my lower body at all except to keep my legs from sinking. And surprisingly, this worked pretty well! I did 30 laps, pausing after the first seven laps, then at the 17 lap mark, then at 25 laps. I never felt exhausted or out of breath--not using the large muscles in my legs means I'm using less oxygen anyway. And while it was taking more strokes per length to get across the pool, overall it wasn't significantly slower (which says something about what a slow swimmer I am!).

I hit the 22 lap mark at just under 30 minutes. I'd have to go back and look (not that it's recorded anywhere) but I think that's more or less where I was last year at this point! In spite of my care, though, my SI joint is killing me again now. It didn't hurt much at all in the water, but I suspect it was too much movement for my pelvis and I'm paying for it now.

Yesterday's run

Yesterday afternoon I did the same route I did on Monday, only this time I used Emily's technique of running four minutes, walking one. I was also careful to stop my watch when I got to intersections and had to wait to cross, just to give myself a more accurate record of how much time I actually spent running (or moving). By doing these things, I knocked two minutes off of my Monday time! To be fair, my average heart rate was up quite a bit, too, from a reasonable 164 bpm to a high 170 bpm. I don't know if that's because it didn't average in the lower heart rate during my stopped times or if I was running faster/harder when not stopped either because I could (with more rests) or because I was trying to compensate for the slow walking minutes! In either case, my average speed was right around 6 mph (5.96 mph to be exact)--not far off my race pace of last year.

Unfortunately, I did this run with my back still hurting from the swim the day before and last night my back was really killing me. I did all of my stretching and strengthening exercises, and made Brian try to pound the joint back into place and am feeling a bit better today, but not completely recovered. Today was supposed to be a swim day, but everything is conspiring against that. Not only does my back hurt, but I still have to get some supplies for the scout meeting tonight, and on top of that, I'm not sure the pool is going to be open. Yesterday they had to close the pool because the water was cloudy and they aren't allowed to reopen until the water has cleared. I haven't checked today to see if it's open, but it doesn't matter because I'm not going anyway.

Just keep swimming

I managed my 22 laps yesterday. I did the first five as a warm up, stopping for a few seconds after each lap, then did five laps of form drills, then finished up the last 12 laps with half breast stroke, half freestyle. I stopped for a minute between sets of five, but otherwise swam continuously. So overall, not nearly as bad as I expected. My time was slower than last year, of course, but not as slow as on Saturday, and my stroke rate was what it had been before, so I don't know what was up with Saturday. I *think* the pools are the same distance, but now I'm wondering if the one at the fitness center is in meters and not yards. They don't look any different, though. I spent a little while watching the woman doing laps in the lane next to me. She's one of these swimmers who looks like she doesn't even have to try to keep going--perfect form, nice even pace, and just keeps going lap after lap. Out of curiosity I counted her stroke rate and it was only two or three strokes less than mine per length, so that made me feel better too!

I really like the pool at work because it's heated. When you first get in it feels nice and warm, so it doesn't jar my muscles and make me tense up. Then as you work out and your body warms up beyond the temperature of the water, the water feels nice and cool in comparison. I can't remember what my average heart rate was, but it never felt really bad, and I let it slow down to 140 bpm between sets. My SI joint hurt last night more than usual, and still does today, so I'm not sure if I'm going to venture back into the pool tomorrow as planned or wait until Friday to give me more time to recover.

No loss for me

Not surprising considering I "excercised" once in the past week. I also ate at IHOP yesterday (with Emily, I did notice she didn't mention THAT tidbit!). I actually was up today. Ugh.

I decided to lose weight the old fashioned way... by physically removing it. I gave a pound today to the Red Cross. Shockingly enough. I had an appointment to go tonight, but went around 1:15 instead - thinking that it wouldn't take long since they usually reject me in about 15 minutes. I did - yesterday - take a pre-natal vitamin from April and another one right before I went to the center. I also had just eaten lunch (a seafood club sandwich). So I think both of those things helped. I was also thinking it might be the time of day, but then I remembered that I was rejected at chuch around 11am the last time I tried there - so that probably wasn't it. Anyway, they took my blood. Oh! Maybe the increased sleep helped too?

I had a real hard time with my CPAP the other night. I felt like I was being smothered. It may have been a panic attack - or maybe I am mildly congested, but I really felt like I couldn't breathe, and I kept trying to compensate by breathing through my mouth, which you can't do with the mask on. Then last night, I had no problem falling asleep, but I woke up in the middle of the night, again trying to breathe through my mouth. I don't know what is going on. Ugh. Maybe I should call the sleep center and ask about this...

148

I'm STUNNED that my weight is staying consistent over the post-Easter weeks, because this is always my worst time of year for weight gain (contradicting the general advice of dieting in spring as the best time for weight loss) and I've been eating junk and not counting calories because it's too hard to keep up with the little candies. But I have been exercising hard and not missing the weekends because of the running. My mileage for this week won't be high, so it will be harder to keep my weight under control, but I'll still be working out five days, so there's hope. I'm going to try to get back to dieting next week.

I had meant to post on Saturday (I haven't posted since last Tuesday, but I've been checking in every day) because I went for a 5 mile run that morning. It was a GREAT run -- I managed to hold back my pace at the beginning so I didn't wear out as quickly as I had the week before; it was earlier in the day, so the temperature was perfect, too. And it was long enough that I was able to get into the zone, so to speak -- my mind released its stress and just focused on keeping me moving. I ran 4 minutes, walked 1, all the way through until the last two-thirds of a mile, when I discovered I had plenty of energy just to keep going, so I ran to the end. It was very satisfying.

Yesterday's run, however, was torture. After Saturday's run I had a long car drive, and then yesterday I ran in Springdale, which was designed for runners who are trying to destroy their quads, knees, and feet as efficiently as possible. I started out straight uphill and was jogging slower than a walking pace, I think, though the GPS signal is no good at that point so I didn't get a correct pace (or distance) from my phone (it said I went 0.5 miles in the first minute!). Then I had a lovely flat stretch for about a second and a half before it went back down. Then up. Then more flat in an uphill sort of way. Then a tiny bit of flat and then torturous up to get to the highest point in Springdale -- and this is the route they actually USE for the Springdale 5k! Fortunately the third mile is almost entirely downhill, so I didn't get sick to my stomach, but it's jarring to run straight down for a mile. Then I had another long car ride so I couldn't really relax my legs all day. So today my legs are very unhappy with me, the first time that has happened since I started the program. Probably not the last, though. I'm going to take it easy at the gym today.

I forgot to bring Pilates with me to Mom and Dad's, though I know enough of the exercises that I could have done them anyway -- but I didn't, of course. So I think I've done maybe three days out of seven or eight, which isn't great. And I can't tell that it's making a difference yet. It still pinches in my back on the right when I kneel. But I think I need to keep trying.

I'd like to go for a walk at lunch...

BUT I hate the idea of getting wet when today is one of my long ones where I leave work and head straight to class until 7 pm. It isn't raining here yet, but it sure looks like it is going to dump at any moment.

I did go for a walk last night. I took the Harry Dog, which is never really a good idea when you want to walk for exercise. He likes to stop and sniff EVERYTHING, and then I end up dragging him along for the entire walk and not going as far as I had planned. If the weather holds up I plan to go again tonight once I get home from class, and I'll probably take him along again. Maybe he'll eventually understand that he is along for MY walk, and not the reverse.

I also found one of the 300 pedometers I have acquired through initiatives at various peoples' workplaces over the years. This one actually still works, so last night I put it on in the evening and cleared 2000 steps from 6:30 pm until bedtime. I have it on today, but I have been at my desk all morning so the count is a lame 733 so far. I like the display on this one, but it is a pain because the clip isn't very strong and I am constantly chasing it when it hits the floor; it is round and rolls all over the place. Which, BTW, is a blast when it falls in the bathroom and rolls into a currently occupied stall. I think it came from a Get Fit Maryland thing Constellation did a few years ago.

Foodwise we had yoplait smoothies for breakfast again. I made Let's Dish Cashew Chicken for lunch today, and dinner for tonight is still TBD. I'm torn between going to the grocery store for "new" food and just eating down what we have in the house. I know eating stuff down will make for very random, uncoordinated meals, but we have some things we bought in bulk at one point that just aren't getting eaten. I wish I knew what to do with croutons...at some point Peter bought what seems to be a 75 lb bag and we've eaten like a handful out of it. Maybe I will wrap them up as Christmas gifts with the onion soup mix he bought at the same time. LOL

I'm supposed to be in training, aren't I?

I was re-reading my posts from this time last year and realizing how far behind I am from where I *should* be. Last year my bike speed was about a half mile per hour faster than I'm currently going, my running speed was 45 seconds less per mile than I'm doing now, and my swimming was WAY better--I could manage the whole distance of the race without stopping and was finishing the distance in about 27 or 28 minutes (which is what I managed on race day, although I'm told that the actual distance was longer than I had trained to do, so my race pace was slightly faster). And more to the point, last year I was taking the training seriously--I was swimming and biking twice a week and running two or three times a week.

So as of today I'm reminding myself that I really am still in training. I'll be back at the pool for real (my last two pool visits were accidental--the Girl Scouts were there, so I was there) at noon today with the intention of swimming the full 22 laps, even if I have to stop and rest after every single lap, which I'll probably have to do. I ran 3.5 miles yesterday and will repeat that tomorrow (I found a new route starting from work that is a lot more pleasant than what I've been doing--quieter streets, residential instead of commercial, and better sidewalks). And now that Brian is unemployed again, I can go back to bike commuting once or twice a week, which pretty much takes care of that part of training, although I need to start cycling the race course regularly in June or July since that route is slightly longer than my commute.

Today I was up to 148. I'm telling myself that this isn't bad--given all the Easter candy I've been eating, I'm surprised I didn't gain 5 pounds!

I lead a boring life...

But that's ok. I spent Friday being a judge for the Maryland State Geography Bee. That is always a fun but exhausting adventure. Those middle school kids are insane with their knowledge of geography.

The weekend consisted of a walk Saturday morning, and then I cleaned the house, started to organize our closet and did some gardening. Nothing spectacular.

Exercise hasn't been scheduled, so it hasn't happened. Food has been decent. I've been making us smoothies for breakfast. Yoplait has these packets of pre-measured frozen fruit and frozen yogurt chunks and you just have to add milk and blend them. They are easy and quite tasty, and definitely a change from the normal boring breakfasts we tire of so quickly. Then I cleaned up the grill for the first time this season, so we have been grilling out. Yum. I love grilled vegetables. And Peter's sister shared an asparagus recipe with us that I am going to try on my own tonight. I despise asparagus (only broccoli is more foul) but this recipe is really good. She blanches the asparagus for 1 minute, then tosses them with chopped shallots, garlic and salt & pepper. It stays crunchy and doesn't have that weird taste or the stringy texture.

So that's all. Oh--I did our taxes yesterday. Definitely newsworthy!!

I should have been posting....

....but I've been too busy climbing Mt. Everest.

Actually the only thing I've climbed recently is a hill in Patapsco State Park and the wall at the gym yesterday (and I gave that up before reaching the top).

But I was determined to stay active this past week, being kid-free during the days, so I made myself do something each day. Monday was a 7 mile bike ride with Claire, Tuesday was the 7 mile hike in the state park followed by a 3 or 4 mile bike ride with Claire, Wednesday was just 40 minutes of light exercise, Thursday was biking the Baltimore - Annapolis trail (33 miles total), and Friday was a 3.7 mile run. On Saturday Claire and I (and Mary!) had our scout overnight at a fitness center, during which time I swam 10 or 11 laps (more on that later), climbed the rock wall, and did 35 minutes on the rowing machine. I had hoped to do an aerobics class, but they were all full by the time I got up there to sign up. I also did a few minutes of jump roping, but the ropes were sized for kids so I gave that up quickly.

And on the seventh day, I rested. I made it through church today, came home, ate a sandwich, then slept for three or four hours. After waking up I did my taxes finally (you know, in spite of the nice return we'll be getting this year, on the whole I'd rather have Brian employed) and ate a bunch of Easter candy (black jelly beans--thanks, Emily!) and am now just kind of staring into space and contemplating putting kids to bed.

So. Swimming. I tried swimming back in January and the SI joint pain (which had otherwise gone away by then) hit immediately and I couldn't even complete a lap. Last night I eased into it more slowly and managed to finish ten or 11 laps (about half the distance of the triathlon) but was in pain afterwards and still am, and I was slooowwwwww. The laps were taking me a good 10 seconds longer each than I was able to do last year, and I had to rest after every two laps. I used to be able to swim the length of the pool in about 24 strokes (which ain't great) but last night it took me 30! That's a lot more effort to go the same distance. I'll have to force myself to get to the pool a couple of times a week, but I hate this so much it's not even funny. It doesn't really bother me that my running is also slower (about a minute slower per mile than I did in the triathlon) because at least it doesn't hurt. I never liked swimming much to begin with, but now that it hurts to do it, I'm even less motivated. I'm going to keep trying, and just get through the triathlon this summer (I hope) but then I'm done. No more swimming for me. My only consolation is knowing that even though I'm worse off than I was at this point last year, I'm at least better than I was when I first got in the water in October 2008. I have four months until the triathlon, so if I stick with it and the pain doesn't get too bad, I should be able to swim the distance of the race.

Sarah should be posting...

I have done nothing interesting in the past several days - however, everytime I call Sarah she is biking the Erie Canal or climbing Mount Everst and what all. I haven't managed to do ANYTHING!

I spent the day killing bugs on Wednesday - wasps mostly. There appears to be a nest somewhere near my bedroom. I sprayed and then finally opened up the window again last night. There were probably about 10 dead bodies INSIDE my window. I went to Home Depot yesterday to buy replacement screens. It seems that you can't BUY replacement screens and that you have to build them yourself. So I bought a kit (6$, no biggie), but when I went to remove my screen from my window I can't figure out how to do it. It is attached to the whole window somehow. Maybe this is Andersons or Thompsons or whoever made my window's way of making me buy ALL new windows to fix a simple hole. I have to work on this one more...

I am so glad it cooled off today. I was NOT ready for hot weather. Warm is fine - but it was too hot on Tuesday and Wednesday, especially considering I have no screens in my doors and the windows seem to be letting in wasps. It was getting very stuffy inside and I REFUSE to run my AC this early in the year. Katie thinks we have ghost wasps. Three times now we have trapped a wasp in an area or a room and it has just disappeared. Very weird.

My comments

It seems that if I comment from my home computer they don't show up. Last Wednesday I had a whole series of comments about BMI calculations, buying new fat clothes verses new thin clothes, and I don't know what all - and NONE of them seem to be on the blog anymore. Just now I commented on Sarah's middle of the night sickness and it isn't there. Here is what I said if anyone cares:

You sound like you had a spastic colon attack. That is exactly what happens to me... wake up, run to the bathroom, purge and go back to bed. After 30 or so years of this happening off and on I can often predict when they will hit - but, by any one else's standards they are out of the blue. Once in a while I will feel very queasy while I am purging - to the point where I start gauging the distance to the sink or bathtub, but I have NEVER (knock on wood) had it actually hit from both ends. I think it is actually just the pain from the cramping that makes me queasy. Then once I am done, I am usually DONE. And it is almost always around two or two thirty. In fact, the only time I feel residual fatigue in the mornings is if it happens at 2:30 or later. That is my breaking point. Prior to that it is like nothing happened.

147.6

Higher than last week, but not by much.

It's been an interesting couple of days. The deal I made with myself was that I'm not allowed to eat any Easter candy each day until I've exercised. That was a bit dicey yesterday when I was home with both kids, but Connor's therapist came at 11:00 so I forced Claire into clothes (she had just woken up!) and we rode our bikes over to the state park and back. It was a short ride, and verrrrryy slow (7 miles or so in an hour and a half!), but long for Claire so the speed was necessary. And it counted as exercise, which was all I cared about.

Today was a rough day. Connor woke up at 2:30 a.m., which coincided almost exactly with me getting violently sick for about ten minutes. It was the strangest thing--I had no warning at all, just woke up feeling a bit crampy and then spent ten minutes in the bathroom getting rid of just about everything I had eaten for the previous 24 hours. And then I was fine. No ongoing nausea, nothing. But I was up with Connor and when breakfast time rolled around, I didn't want to eat--I was worried that I really might be sick and didn't want to see the results. But I had to exercise, right? This is my "no excuses" week and I had planned a hike at the state park, so as soon as the kids were on their buses I headed off to the park. No food in me, just one bottle of water and some shot blocks. This was fine until the water ran out at the halfway point--turns out the park didn't have their water fountains turned on for the season yet. And I was hungry at that point, and getting shaky from being tired and thirsty. Obviously I made it back, but the last half mile was a pain. I did about 7 and a half miles, averaging 3 miles per hour while moving, but overall just 2 m.p.h. with all the stops. And then in the afternoon when Claire got home from school we got out on our bikes again, this time just a 4 mile ride to get snowballs.

Tomorrow I'm taking a rest day, so just easy exercise in the morning--pilates (which you CAN do every day with no problem, or at least I used to do it daily) and yoga.

Flashback

Earlier I was trying to remember what year it was that my team dressed up as Starbucks for Halloween. I thought it was 2005. So, when I was on the blog I decided to look up Halloween time 2005 to see if I mentioned it (I didn't). I ended up reading a lot of the posts we had done from back in the early days. It was pretty inspirational - sort of. I mean I was inspired because that was back at the point that I was still losing and had not yet plateaued or began gaining again. So I starting thinking... maybe it CAN work for me. At that point I wanted to lose 55 pounds and was hoping to get down to 160. I had lost around 10 at that point - which put me just at 205 or so.

I want to do that again. How was it that I was doing it then (briefly) and how can I get it to happen again, withOUT the back lash of lose 10 gain 40?

I called Katie up and asked her how much she weighs now. At the time she and Sarah were lapping each other and trying to hit 150 each. Sarah beat her by .2 pounds. Katie says she doesn't know what she weighs now, but she was guessing it was around 170. She -at one point - was down to 130-ish, along with Sarah. So SHE lost 30 and gained 40.

One of the things Katie and I were doing at the time was exercising every day after work. We were doing the 10 minute exercise routines (or the 20 minute Jenny Craig tube and tone or the 25 minute aerobics tape). So MINIMAL exercise - but concentrated and mandatory. We stopped when the clocks changed. We don't know why, but for some reason we stalled on our exercising and, not surprisingly on our weight loss. (BTW - during this conversation with Katie she dragged out Charles' Wii Fit and when we got off the phone she said she was going to do a workout.) I pretty much held steady at that point (205-206) until Sarah and I went on our cruise - or shortly before that. Beginning in January of 2006 I decided I would get below 200 for the cruise. I started exercising again MOST days - I was going to the gym near work and doing 45 minute workouts - usually a combination of aerobic and weights, but sometimes just one or the other. I lost a few pounds more and got to my lowest weight on a weigh in day (202) mid-February (I had hit 201.8 one day but it wasn't official and so didn't make the charts). At that time I dropped my calories to 900 per day and continued exercising daily hoping to lose the last 2 pounds, but actually ended up being slightly higher for the cruise (204 exactly). I returned from the cruise weighing 208.8 (not bad considering it was a week of eating like a pig and almost no exercise). That was the last of loss that I saw. I ended the year (September at 207.8) and after that just kept climbing.

So, I think I need a new goal. I don't think the number counts for much for me, but I think I want to get to a point where I can buy clothes from normal stores again. I don't care if I have to buy the biggest size they sell, but I am TIRED of fat lady clothes (slouchy shapes, elastic waist bands, etc.)

I am going to do a whole bunch of measurments tonight (gack!) and see how many inches I have to lose to get to a normal XL or 18 again. I am also going to start with my 10 minute DVD exercises again. I can do them in the living room on my computer, so I should be good... I hope...

148.5

I did pretty well eating yesterday until game-time came. I was home alone and I brought my computer and my Easter Basket to the sofa with me. Every time I ate something, I recorded it on MyPlate, on the grounds that this would somehow rein me in. It didn't. I racked up probably 600-800 calories in candy in the space of two hours! I am rapidly going through the little stuff, though, and on the big stuff I find it much easier to hold back. My Valentine candy (Daniel gave me some gourmet-ish dark chocolates) lasted until a week ago -- just a piece or two after lunch and dinner each day.

I did Pilates yesterday morning and went for a run, also in the morning (too hot, though, so it wasn't much of a run). Today I can't feel the run in my legs but I feel the Pilates in my pects a bit from all the reaching and stretching. Because of the game I was also up too late last night, and the combined soreness and lack of sleep made me decide that I'd skip the Pilates this morning -- I do have a gym appointment, though. I enjoyed doing the running in the morning because then I had the whole day open in front of me (except for Girl Scouts last night), but then that meant I was home during my sluggish time of the day when all I feel like doing is sleeping or eating. So then I remembered why I always have scheduled exercise in the late afternoon -- I need it then.

Weigh-day

OK - so I gained a half a pound.

I did my baby 10 minute walk last night. I actually did it in my work clothes, I just switched my shoes. This wasn't the first time I have been out walking since last fall. In fact, I walked a couple of times with April in the past month. However, that stupid little 10 minute walk had my legs burning. It is possible that this was because I WAS pushing myself a little bit more than I normally would on a regular walk. BUT STILL it was 10 minutes! Sad.

My food yesterday wasn't great. I had two hard boiled eggs and fruit salad for breakfast (as I did today). I had left over French toast casserole for lunch. Then my team went to Cheesecake Factory for lunch (I didn't go since I was doing payroll) so I had them bring me a grilled chicken club sandwich which I ate in the car on the way home from work at around 7pm. That was my dinner. And this is also the reason why I shouldn't be allowed to buy expensive accessories. I got avocado on my fancy purse. It mostly wiped off - but still... I am not sure exactly how it got there, I just can't be trusted with expensive stuff.

I ate more peeps (I never let them get stale enough) and one of Sarah's cream eggs as junk food during the evening. Sarah, I REALLY liked your egg. I liked that the texture was more solid than the Cadbury ones. It was more like you were eating a candy version of a hard boiled egg.

I slept the WHOLE night with my mask on last night. I woke up around 4:30, but didn't take it off and fell back to sleep just fine. I woke up just three minutes before my alarm and took it off at that point. Today was the first day that I had a mask print on my face. You could see the whole outline. It was lovely.

I have a horrible pain in my shoulder. This is the same spot where I have my normal buzzing going on. It hasn't buzzed in a few months, however, yesterday it was going crazy and today it is VERY painful. I have one of those heat pad stickers on right now, and it seems to help when I am pressing against the heat, but it still is hurting... Maybe I slept on it funny.

I have no idea if I gained or lost

I didn't weigh myself on Good Friday OR Easter Sunday OR today. No point in micro-managing when it doesn't ever do anything but go up.

I don't think the sleep machine has "changed my life." I do seem inclined to sleep later on the weekends, and my attempt over lent to go to be earlier seems to have worked. I have conditioned myself to start looking to go to bed by 9:30 - which is good if I actually then make it to bed by 11. So maybe I will improve my sleep habits slowly and maybe that will benefit be eventually.

Last night I took the mask off around 3:30am. I don't think I meant to. I actually THOUGHT it was closer to the time I needed to get up - but I can't really see the clock well through the mask (and I can't put my glasses on with it on) and so it wasn't until I was all unplugged that I realized that I still had three hours to go. I didn't put it back on. I don't MIND sleeping with it so much anymore, but it is kind of a pain to adjust to right after I put it on, and so once it was off I really didn't want to go through the adjustment again. So I didn't.

I have been noticing for the past several days that I have been feeling kind of weak. Not tired exactly, but PHYSICALLY weak. And specifically on my joints, my elbows, hips, wrists and knees. I don't know how to describe it, but it feels like I am running out of fuel. Since I first noticed it on Good Friday I thought that was exactly what it was... I hadn't eaten enough calories. I felt the same way on Saturday - and again, I really hadn't eaten much or enough - but YESTERDAY? I had plenty of calories yesterday! And they weren't all bad calories! I don't know what it is about Easter (spring in general actually) I don't feel the urge to eat sweets in the spring so much. I only ate one strip of peeps yesterday - and that was late in the day. That was it. Honestly, I still have Easter candy left over from last year. I have been carrying the same three Easter kisses in my lunch bag for a year now. I don't suppose they go bad - but I think I will throw them out anyway.

I haven't started my conditioning for the marathon I am not going to run this year. I HAVE, however, been setting my alarm early each day - and then turning it off. Today I didn't turn it off, but I had to go into work early since I was out on Friday. I am going to go home now and get in my first walk/run today. Since it is a baby one (10 minutes. Seriously?) I have no excuse!

Gained 1.5 pounds in one day!

Hmmm, that's somehow not as interesting a title as Sarah's. I woke up at 147.0 yesterday and hit 148.5 this morning. Yesterday during church I had my usual back discomfort while kneeling, and it turned into a sharp pain by the end of the Mass, so I have vowed now to add Pilates every day (well, six days a week). Today was easy because we're not doing school, but on school days I'm going to have to get up a half hour early. No more laziness for me! I can't live with back and shoulder pain all my life.

Is daily reasonable for Pilates? For most sports you're supposed to take a day off between workouts to allow the muscles to heal. But Pilates for Dummies isn't exactly extreme, and no one says you need to take breaks from stretching, right?

I didn't feel like I did a good job of engaging my core during this morning's workout, and when I lay down on my right side for leg lifts it was VERY uncomfortable -- that's the side with the shoulder pain AND the back pain. But the good news is that by the end of the workout my right shoulder was feeling much better, so it at least stretched it out.

I'm trying to refrain from stuffing myself with candy all week -- I let myself go yesterday but I have no desire to keep that up all month. I'm still trying to count calories. How do you count "four jellybeans and an almond-flavored cookie a friend made"?

Lost 1.5 pounds in one day!

And didn't even have a stomach virus! It was a perfect storm for a one-day weight loss (although not, unfortunately, long term weight loss)--Good Friday, so I wasn't eating much of anything; the weather was beautiful so when I went out on my bike to deliver Connor's diaper bag to the library (where Brian and Connor had walked) I kept going for another 8 or 9 miles; and then in the afternoon I went and chopped off all my hair. I donated 15 inches to Locks of Love, but then lost another couple of inches in the styling process. So far everyone who has commented on it comments FIRST on the fact that it's straight. That, too, is not long term--next shower, or if today is especially humid, or if Connor gets me with a blast from the hose and I'm back to being curly.

So today's weight was 145.4, down from 146.8 yesterday (which I was pretty happy with to begin with). I figure this gives me a good cushion to head into Easter--it takes a lot of jelly beans to gain a pound and a half!

Not much to report here either

We have been off yesterday and today, doing random things around the house. Marian is stopping by to finally solve the "what color to paint the first floor walls" dilemma. I can't tell you how close I am to just painting each wall a different color and saying to heck with it. Then I'll just buy decorating stuff that I like with complete disregard for whether it matches or not. Matching is overrated. Totally conformist. :-) LOL.

We've been busy, but I haven't formally exercised yet this week. I am thinking about setting up my own circuit in my house for days when I don't feel like anything else. Jump rope, free weights, the exercise ball; I think I could do it.

We have an extra dog through Monday night. He is a giant geriatric black lab named Roan that turned 14 yesterday (WAY past the shelf life for a dog his size!!) He and Harry apparently have taken their doggie relationship to the next level; Roan has been "bathing" Harry's head all morning by licking him. I am sure Harry is going to smell delicious after 4 days of that. Roan's a nice enough dog, but man our house is always SO GROSS after he leaves. It already smells like a giant dog m when you walk inside and he hasn't even been here 24 hours. It takes me forever to get it cleaned up. He rolls all over our carpets (his house is only hardwood floors--old school rowhouse in the city) and he just loves our wall to wall carpet in the basement. I can generally empty the vacuum 3-4 times with all the hair he leaves behind just from that one room. Blah. Enough complaining.

Nothing to say, so I'll say a lot of nothing again

Where is everybody? I hope nobody's posting because you're all out enjoying the amazing weather. I'm enjoying it, but not getting much exercise; yesterday we had to be at church so early that I couldn't schedule a gym appointment, and instead of really exercising I helped Cecilia learn to ride on a bicycle with training wheels. Monday and Wednesday are my short run days, and on Thursdays I'm supposed to cross-train. I think I hit about 6,000 steps for the day -- hardly cross-training.

I had the fun this morning of seeing my weight below 150 for the second day in a row. It's still up about 5 pounds from where it was a year ago, but it's down about ten from when we got back from Norway (down 13 from my high point in November) so it's moving the right direction, more or less. I shouldn't be able to gain any weight today, at least. And I tried on my skinnier jeans (bought in the 140s, not the 130s, so not super skinny) and they're fitting OK again, though when I sit there's a muffin top. How did I squeeze into these all the way through August?

Tomorrow I have a four-mile run. I considered doing an 8k (weird length!) they have going on in the morning, but after today I suspect I won't be up to it, and I don't really want to have to get up early and drive to Radford. If I'd been at the training a little longer I might be more enthused about it. I think I'll stick to the local 4-miler.