Exercise 05/05 - 05/11

I am in a TDY  today and can't get my picture to upload which is really sad because it's a good picture. I have color on every day.  48 miles today for the week. 


Monday - 1.5 miles walking. I walked after work with ChocolateDaughter on her scooter until she fell. She was fine and it was a nice time with her.
Tuesday - 1.25 miles walking. I walked during some work breaks.
Tuesday - Spin 13 miles in 60 minutes.  I spun while watching Mad Men.  5 x 3 standing hills and 1 recovery. Then 15 x 1 standing hills and 1 recovery.
Wednesday - 1.65 miles walking.  I fit this in between meeting the washing machine repair guy and ChocolateWife leaving for work.  It was hot out.
Thursday - 12 mile spin. Steady zone 2.
Friday - 2.2 miles between afternoon walk at work and 30 minutes after dinner while trying to help the kids across the street get their dog back from following me.  Said kids have neither supervision nor a leash.
Saturday - 12.5 mile biking.  My first ride in months. I got down the bike and aired up the tires, oiled the chain, tested the brakes, etc. Then went for an easy ride.  Quite fun and warm.
Sunday - 3.9 miles walking to and from the grocery store.  It was warmish and the groceries got heavy but I love getting to walk to the store rather than drive.


I've lost a few more pounds from my all time high.  Continuing to work on it in a healthy way. 




Steps:
Monday - 9,254
Tuesday - 6,435
Wednesday - 10,020
Thursday - 7,096
Friday - 9,697
Saturday - 8,557
Sunday - 14,030 *


Total:  65,089


ChocolateWife got me a FitBit for Mother's Day.  I have been considering one for a long time but haven't wanted to spend the money but she went ahead and got it. I am quite excited about it although it did not log as many steps as my phone app on the way to and from the store on Sunday. I actually know my approximate step count per minute and it undercounted that count.  So... we'll see.

Activity (or lack thereof) 03/31 - 04/06

Not a great week but I should be consistent in posting.  My activity:

Monday - Good evening spin for an hour.  I did a warm up, 25 rounds of 1 fast standing and 1 sitting recovery and warm down.  We watched the end of HIMYM.  I called 1/2 of the "surprise" ending about a month ago and then read speculation about the other half so it was not a surprise to me.  But I did not like the ending. 
Wednesday - Lunchtime walk. 2 miles approximately. I walked to and from walk as well as on morning break.  Felt like crud because of the pollen but at least I did it.
Wednesday (2) - I did a solid zone 2 spin. No racing. Just steady and let my mind wander while watching TV. 
Weekend - I had no activity over the weekend.  I had a very uncomfortable and personal medical issue that prevented my doing anything from Friday to Sunday.  It seems to be healing so hopefully I can get back to some activity soon. 

Steps - I had a good week with steps.  But after a few months of a lot of frustration with my phone, on Friday I reset it to the factory defaults. It didn't occur to me to record the steps before I did that. 

Weight - I weighed myself on Sunday.  Wow.  I had no idea how much weight I had gained. I knew that I gained enough that my pants aren't fitting and that I can see it but in pounds, I had no idea.  Wow.  I'm disappointed. At the same time, I'm aware that there are a lot of issues going on right now: family stress and commitments, allergies (mine and daughter's), broken treadmill.  I need to eat less junk/chocolate and less snacking.  But other than that, I'm not really committed to making a lot of other changes at this point. 

Hmmm...

Exercise 07/15 - 07/21

Not a terrible week but not as good as I would hope.  Had a combination of the rest of the family having a stomach bug and my having one very late evening due to an eye doctor appointment and getting my eyes dilated.

Wednesday - 2.5 miles walking in 50 minutes.  I jammed this one into my day and got what I could. 

Friday - 1.5 miles walking in 30 minutes.  Again, what I could fit in.

Saturday - 18.91 miles cycling in 1:27 (13.1 mph).  A very good ride. I'm getting somewhat faster and stronger. I can ride faster on the streets than in the park but the park is more fun and prettier. 

Saturday - 15 minutes of core work.  My first core work in months. I did a 1:00 plank and a :45 plank and some ball work and crunches.  I need to do more core work.

Sunday - 2.6 miles hiking in 60.  I was planning to go for a run but then I suggested that we take a family hike and we did. We went to Walnut Creek a little later than we would have liked because ChocolateSon needed some hiking shoes.  It was a good hike but everyone got too hot and tired by the end.  We went from the park to Chuys so all was good in the world.

My weight is back "down" to 170.  I think I started this effort at 169, got down to 165, and up as high as 173 (my lifetime high I believe).  I want to be at 155 or 150 so "down" to 170 is not good but it's better. 

I'm reading The 4-Hour Body.  It is much much thicker than I expected but is going very quickly.  So far my very general and preliminary thoughts are:

• *While I am sure it would help me to reduce my intake of "white foods" (starches) I don't intend to eliminate them entirely (his classification of white foods includes brown rice).  More strongly, I'm not going to eliminate fruit from my diet. 
• One thing I am really enjoying from the book is his instruction to just read the parts you are care about and just implement the parts you want to implement. He even says "if you want to lose weight, read these chapters" to build muscle, read these ones, etc.  It's not all or nothing. 
• Another concept he has that I really like is that all goals should be 20 pounds difference (defined as 15 pounds fat lost, 5 pounds muscle gained or 20 pounds muscle gained or whatever as long as it adds to 20).  If someone needs/wants to lose 150 pounds, their goal should be a 20 pound meaningful movement and when that is done they can set a new 20 pound goal. He says some people only need 10 pounds but they are the exception. 

I should probably say that I signed up as an Amazon Affiliate so if you click that link and buy the book or click that link and buy something else, I'll get some small amount of money. 

Workouts 07/08 - 07/14

I have not posted in weeks. I'm not sure why - apathy?  I actually have been getting some exercise but not on a training plan.  Last week was somewhat typical although we had a very busy week. 

Tuesday - Cycling 12.5 miles in 1:02.  After a weekend at the farm with only one walk to show for it and eating too much eggs, cheese, and bread I was dying for some exercise and green vegies.  I left work 2.5 hours early for a hair cut, then rode my bike.  It as between 96-98 degrees out. I rode past the end of town, back to the grocery store where I had to lock my bike to a cart return because there don't seem to be any bike racks in the suburbs.  No kale!  No green beans!  Still I grabbed a few things and rode back home.

Wednesday - Treadmill walk 3.15 in 1:00.  It recorded twice so my pic shows 6 miles in stead of 3.15.  Nice peaceful walk.  The kids played with their visiting cousin and let me walk and read.

Friday - Cycling 13.41 in :57 (14.1 mph).  I woke up feeling crummy but then went out after a few hours. I rode mostly on streets so it was faster than usual. 

Sunday - Cycling 16.44 in 1:16 (13 mph).  I was up a good part of the night with ChocolateDaughter so I set out easy. Even so a better speed than I would have done a month ago.  Lots of runners and riders out.

My weight is up from my starting and certainly my goal.  I started about 165, got to 173 and am now at 171.  Obviously I'm not happy about that.  I need to keep working at it. 

I'm enjoying all the cycling I'm doing.  A month ago my speed to hit was 12.0.  Now it's 13.0 or 13.5 and my legs feel stronger all the time.  I still wouldn't consider myself at all serious and I ride mostly on the bike/walk path which is, by definition, slower than riding on streets.  But it's also more fun and prettier and still burns about 900 calories an hour. 

My step counts are not really worth posting any more. The pedometer app I was using did an update that did not work on my phone and I've pretty much stopped carrying it around all day although I am still taking the long route to/from my desk and around the house, etc. 

Activity 05/27 - 06/02

It was a bit of a strange week as part of the family was still out of town and then they got back and it stayed a strange week.  I got in some workouts:

Monday - 3.08 Treadmill walk in 1:00.  My son was not very patient. We had an agreement to go get FroYo and he nagged me about when we were going. He also asked if the Santa Claus myth exists just to get kids to go to bed. 
Tuesday - Core work.  30 minutes of good core work on the floor and ball.
Wednesday - 5 miles in 1:15 or so at Walnut creek.  A good mix of running and walking.  Did 1:00/1:00 ratio and sweat like a pig in 86 degrees.  Joy was the portopotty in the parking lot at the end of this one.
Wednesday - I did a short chest/back/legs workout. Basically I did the Coach Jeff workout but skipped the core work since I had done full core the day before.
Friday - 4.0 miles.  I got off work early on because of was our company picnic.  I walked to the store and back with a little bit of food.  Very hot - 90. 
Saturday - Nice bike ride.  15 miles in <1:15.  I didn't push it and it felt great.  I fully intended to do strength training later in the day but had a bad experience at lunch and my stomach did not settle well after that.
Sunday - The best laid intentions and all that...  I woke up with stomach cramps like heartburn and it lasted all day (literally every moment of the day).  The family took a short (30 minute) walk/bike ride around the neighborhood but that was it.

Weight 
My weight was up a few ounces to 167.8.  Arggghh.

Steps
My step count was plagued by times that I didn't have my phone in my pocket and one day that the phone clearly didn't count steps well.  But here are the numbers anyway:
Monday - 11,192
Tuesday - 7,160
Wednesday - 13,107
Thursday - 4,863
Friday - 11,625
Saturday - 6,057
Sunday - 5,901

I'd like to get those counts back up this week. 

Activity 5/20 - 5/26

A pretty good week:

Monday - 1.25 mile walk. I did a quick walk at lunch.  It was hot enough that I actually came inside and walked in the tunnels a bit.
Tuesday - 4.0 run and walk in 1:00.  Jesus it was hot and humid out.  I did my walking warm up and then started 2:00/1:00. Then 1:00/1:00. Finally I just switched to running between the zone 2 beeps on my watch and then walked back to the office.
Tuesday - 30 minute Core Workout.  Such a good core workout.
Wednesday - 1.5 walk.  I would have done more but a hard day at home left my workout out of the question. While the wife laid down with our daughter to put her to bed, I went for a neighborhood walk.
Thursday - 3.3 in 1:05 walk.  I walked to the dry cleaners and back to drop off the clothes.  Very hot out 88 with 85% humidity.  Nice to do an errand.
Friday - 3.05 in 40 minutes run (13:06) plus 1.00 walking warm up/down.  First chance to use the new/used treadmill.  It was too hot and still in the garage so I cut the running short.
Saturday - Strength training. I did the Coach Jeff total body workout for the first time in months.  Very challenging. I need to start doing some strength training at least 2x a week.
Saturday - 3.05 walking in 1:00.  Treadmill walk in the garage. My son watched an episode of Doctor Who, then came out to nag me to stop.
Sunday - 4.5 in 1:00 (12:53) plus .5 walking warm up/down.  A good run at 2:00/1:00 with the fan moving the hot/humid air around. I don't know if I could do this in temps 15 degrees warmer without passing out. I wanted to run longer but my son nagged the entire time for me to stop.  I was not feeling supported at all...

Weight:
Sunday 167.3 so I'm down .3 for the week and 2.7 overall.  Obviously I'd like to be seeing better results....

Steps:
Monday - 10,073
Tuesday - 10,829
Wednesday - 9,600
Thursday - 13,663
Friday - 12,387
Saturday - 8,032*
Sunday - 18,579

* Saturday I checked the step count while I was on the treadmill for an hour.  It recorded around 1000 steps.  By my calculation it should have gotten around 7200.  So that should be well over 13,000 or even 14,000 steps.

Activity 05/13 - 05/19

Yeah... that's what it looks like.  Let's detail:

Monday - Walked 3.15 in 1:00 during lunch. I came in early to take an hour lunch but it is getting too hot to do that until Fall.
Tuesday - Core Work - 30 minutes.  A good session. I was home with the kids all day and all evening. That's very unusual for our family. I think it may be the first time ever in fact that I've had both kids for 12+ hours.  ChocolateWife had a conference, we met her for dinner, and then she saw clients in the evening.  So there was no chance to do any other exercise.
Wednesday/Thursday - I woke up Wednesday feeling crummy with some sort of stomach bug, went work, worked 2 hours and came home. Spent the rest of Wednesday and all Thursday at home eating a lot of starches which were the only thing that sounded/felt ok and hanging out. 
Sunday - 4.5 in 1:25 hiking/running. Finally felt back to normal.  I went for a hike/run at Walnut Creek Park.  It was very humid and I was just enjoying being out and burning some calories.  Did 2:00 walking/1:00 running. 

Weight:
167.6.  I gained 1.8 pounds this week which doesn't surprise me at all.  The carbs/no working out combination is doom to losing weight.  I'm ready to get back on target though. 

Steps:
Monday - 13,247
Tuesday - 8,272
Wednesday - 1,530
Thursday - 4,638
Friday - 4,556
Saturday - 7,455
Sunday - 15,786

Total: 55,484

Also, I bought a used Treadmill on C r a i g s l i s t.  It was $100 and the guy actually brought it over in his car because I would have had to go home and take out the car seats from mine.  It's in the garage and I bought an extension cord.  Basically I want to have more flexibility to fit in a run or even just 20 minutes of walking when leaving the house isn't an option. 

Activity 05/06 - 05/12

I have a very medium week.  No big spectacular workouts but no crashes and burns either.  Not enough steps...

Monday - 1.6 mile walk at lunch time.
Tuesday - 4.0 mile walk at lunch time. I should have run but my stomach was not of the good from the moment I woke up and I didn't want to chance something ugly.  A very nice walk and good pace (17:00 miles).
Tuesday - 30 minute core work.  Very good work.  All the usual suspects.
Wednesday - Bike ride 13.37 in 59.  (13.7 mph). That's fast for me.  Now that I've got my mechanical issues resolved (for a few days) I am riding a bit faster. 
Thursday - 4.0 walk with running in 1:00.  Very slow.  Mostly walking with a bit of running.  I did not feel well before I set out.  Still, I'm amazed at how slowly I'm moving in these run/walks. 
Saturday - 5.05 in 1:20.  I intended to ride my bike but had a hole in my tire and tube so switched to a walk/run.  Felt run down and slow and I was slow.  Again, I find it shocking how slow I am.  Part of me doesn't care about speed because I'd prefer to walk but want the calories burned from running but another part wonders if I'm actually doing "damage" by doing it this way. 
Sunday - I went and volunteered at a race in the morning rather than working out in the morning. And then the family was going to hike but we decided to just not.  Instead we celebrated Mother's day by crafting while watching Downton Abbey and then visiting our friends. 

Weight:

4/8 - 170.0
4/14 - 169.5 (-.5)
4/21 - 166.7 (-2.8)
4/27 - 167.6 (+0.9)
5/4 - 166.2 (-1.4)
5/11 - 165.8 (-.4)

So it's moving and in the right direction.  I think I need to be more active and also eat less candy to lose more.  15.8 pounds to go!

Steps:
Monday - 10,614
Tuesday - 14,304
Wednesday - 7,095
Thursday - 12,613
Friday - 3,933
Saturday - 13,641
Sunday - 4,166

Total - 66,366

Exercise 04/22 - 04/28

I had another good week although I felt like I ate more (and worse) than I should. That probably shows in my weekly weigh-in (I gained 0.9 pounds at weigh in Saturday).  Still:

Monday - I feel like I probably walked around at lunch hour but I'm not seeing it on the graph.  I also did a 30 minute core workout. I combined exercises from pre-dawn and the box of cards I got. 
Tuesday - 4.2 in 50 (11:54) plus walking warm up/down.  The phone GPS showed less but it was obviously off so I mapped it and came up with slightly more than this. I sort of split the difference.  Ran 1:30/:45 intervals on the hills by the university.  Very humid.
Wednesday - 11.5 in 1:00 biking.  Easy heading out and then hard coming back. Either I hit the wind or was having trouble with my bike again.  Or some combination of the two.
Thursday - 4 miles in 1:00. Mostly just walking with a few minutes of running. Very tired legs. 
Saturday - 4.2 miles in 1:20. All walking.  Very humid out. 
Sunday - 16.28 in 1:20 biking.  Very nice ride but the ground was wet. I hit one spot of mud and started to skid out. I kept myself upright and was quite impressed. 
Sunday - 30 minutes core work.  Very challenging. I mixed the Pre-dawn and the box of fitness cards.  I was already feeling too hot in the house and was pretty much drenched by the end of the core work.  Later ChocolateWife wanted to try some core exercises and noticed that the box shows a few other core moves mixed in. 

As I said my weight was up .9 pounds as of Saturday. But I had worse diet as well as getting my period on Sunday so that probably had some effect. 

I'm still using my phone and Noom to count my steps. I find it very motivating but I'm also aware that it is not all that accurate.  I went for a walk on Saturday and did a few spot checks.  My actual step count was about 120 steps per minute and the phone was logging 70 steps per minute (a very big difference).  Still, it's fun to sort of note the steps and strive to reach the (increasing) goal every day.

Monday - 7,808
Tuesday - 15,320
Wednesday - 9,305
Thursday - 11,652
Friday - 9,502
Saturday - 12,013
Sunday - 9,007

Total: 74,607

As you can see, it is obvious that it's not an accurate count and it awards some steps for bike rides (Wednesday and Sunday) but it's still fun to look at.

Exercise 04/15 - 04/21

Monday - 1.82 miles in 30 minutes. Easy lunch time walk.
Tuesday - 3.7 miles in 1:10 walking. I was going to run but my stomach was very iffy so I walked instead.
Wednesday - 3.6 miles in 45 minutes (12:30) run/walking plus .65 in 15 walking warm up/down.  I started at 2:00 run/1:00 walk but ended up dropping to 1:30/1:00 and finally 1:00/1:00 because of the humidity.  I've got to acclimatize.
Thursday - 2.5 miles in 45 minutes walk to and from lunch.
Friday - Core work for 30 minutes. I combined the exercises from the Pre-dawn runner routine from the ones in the the cards I ordered last week.  It was a nice workout (or as nice as a core workout can reasonably be) and gave me some new exercises. 
Saturday - 20.4 cycling in 1:42.  Lovely ride. I feel like my legs are getting stronger. I'm riding more in 12th and even 13th than a month ago.  I think this was my longest ride ever. 
Sunday - 5 miles hiking/running at Walnut Creek part in 1:40.  Not fast but it was hiking so that's to be expected. The first hour I did 2:00 walking/1:00 running, then I just walked (hiked).  I was going to meet up with a friend and her dog but some days our phones/texting don't play nice together and this was one of those days. 

Other notes about the week:
* I'm really enjoying the combination of the meditation bell reminder to move around and the pedometer tracking.  It's hard to track at much at home because I don't wear pants with pockets that often and it's strange to carry my phone in my hand to get the laundry or get a drink.  Still, my steps according to the phone were:
Monday - 6724
Tuesday - 11,388
Wednesday - 11,199
Thursday - 12,001
Friday - 6,567
Saturday - 7,562 (biking not counted or sort of counted)
Sunday - 14,107

Total: 69,548

Obviously the goal is to get every day > 10,000. 

* I lost 2.6 pounds between my weigh-in 4/14 and 4/21! 

* My heel is acting up.  It gets tight progressively the more I've run and walked.  A day of rest helps tremendously but I don't want to rest my heel. I want to be active every day.  I actually suspect the issue is walking in my running shoes which are low (4 mm) drop shoes.  They are fine to run but I don't think good for walking. I need to just go buy new/more traditional shoes.

* As a part of the running community and the community of Americans and humans, I'm upset by the Boston Marathon bombings.  I think it's particularly scary because it could be anywhere: a race, a little league game, an art show-- any place people are gathered.  Nonetheless, I'm impressed and proud of the running community's reaction that the way to go is to be strong and proud and keep running and cheering. 

Exercise Report 04/08 - 04/14

Monday - I took a quick walk at lunchtime.  1.5 miles in 30 minutes and jogged up the stairs to end it. 
Tuesday - Walk/Run 3.5 miles in 55 minutes.  Again, I mixed in running with walking to do a 1:00/1:00.  I ran over at the track and it was just lovely. 
Wednesday - 1.7 mile walk in 30 minutes ending with the stairs.  It was 40 degrees and had just rained a lot but I walked over to the library to return some books and then to 7-11 for some bananas.  Perfect walk for lunch time.
Thursday - 3.5 miles running in 47 minutes plus warm up/down.  I went to Pease Park and ran on the trails.  Still a 1:00/1:00 so I'm not pushing anything but I'm increasing mileage and calories. 
Saturday - 17.5 miles riding in 1:28.  A lovely day for a bike ride. I adjusted my read wheel and cleaned the brakes so that it was a really smooth ride. 
Sunday - 15.1 miles riding in 1:15.  It was windier and sunnier than the day before but I had a nice ride.  I usually ride in 10-11th gear depending on hills and occasionally 12th.  I noticed that this weekend I was riding primarily in 12th with a few downshifts to 11th for hills.  So I have to assume that my legs are getting stronger. 

I'm maintaining my calories and calorie count. I think I went over calories one day last week by maybe 100 calories. Most days I'm under by 100-300 calories.  I get a baseline allowance of 1500 from the app and then whatever exercise I do, I get 1/2 those calories.  My clothes feel a bit more comfortable but the needle on the scale hasn't moved yet. 

One of my co-workers came by my desk the week before last.  She was one of the people really interested in the stand-up desk and she asked about it.  Then we were talking and she said that she read that you really should get up every 15 minutes - that even every hour is not enough.  Thinking about that I installed a meditation bell timer on my phone. On silent, it lights up every 15 minutes (approximately) and I try to stand up (at minimum) or walk around a few minutes (at best). 

I also started using the Noom app to count my steps daily.  That has some limitations including:

• Obviously the app only counts steps if you have the phone with you.  If you're going to the bathroom or shower or whatever, no counting.
• The step count does not seem accurate when on a run/walk.  One day I calculated that my steps during my lunch time run/walk should have been around 7500.  The app counted about 3500.  It seems to do better in a walk without any running and seems to do better if the phone is in my pocket than if it is on the armband.
• It adds some number of steps to the count when I ride my bike but it's not a # equal to my cadence.  My riding cadence is probably 170-175 per minute (10200 per hour).  It probably added 3500 - 4000 steps per hour to my counts. 

That said, I think for me the two things - meditation/move around reminder and step counting are good for me.  My step counts last week (such as they are were):

Tuesday (partial day) - 8689 (only about 3500 steps for the run/walk).
Wednesday - 7927
Thursday - 12,741
Friday - 7,586
Saturday - 8,482
Sunday - 5,029

So obviously you have to take the #s with a grain of salt when considering the bike riding as well but I think it's a nice measure and incentive, particularly when I'm at work.  Perhaps my goal should be 4000 steps while at work? 

Exercise Summary 04/01 - 04/07

Last week was a better workout week with an unexpected hiccup at the end. 

Monday - I walked 1.2 miles at lunch time. Then rode 8+ miles when I got home from work.  It was all I could manage in the time I had and I don't feel like my bike is as smooth as before I changed the tire.  I need to see if the wheel needs better adjustment.
Tuesday - 3.4 miles walking at lunch time. It was very humid.
Wednesday - 3.15 in 46 minutes.  I did mostly walking but with a little bit of running. 
Thursday - 3.15 in 1:01. Lovely lunchtime walk.
Saturday - Trail hike/run.  4.5 miles in 1:25.  Mostly hiking with a bit of running thrown in.  Basically 1 minute run for every 2 minutes hiked when I was doing that.  Took some time with just walking in the middle when ChocolateWife called to say that ChocolateDaughter fell and hurt her arm. 

I planned the day off on Friday after donating a triple of platelets on Thursday. I'm happy to be able to donate triples the last two visits but it takes longer and I need to account for the extra time.  Technically I could workout on the day after but I was ready for a day off anyway. 

Sunday I missed after being up part of the night and then the entire family going to the ER with CD who has a broken radius.  She got it splinted and we're waiting for a follow up with an orthopedist to get a cast.

My weight is unchanged but I'm optimistic nonetheless.  Even without my weight dropping I actually feel slightly more comfortable in my pants so that's always a good thing.  I'm tracking my food in Noom and my calories burned and trying to do little things that burn calories.  I'm probably nearing the point that I need to change my work schedule and either run/walk in the morning before work or the evenings because it will be too hot and sweaty to go at lunch (even with a shower).  Right now I'm mostly doing my lunch time as walks so I don't have to shower but if I want to intersperse any running, I need to bring my pack and shower. 

Need for Change

When I was a child, I had a pretty severe speech impediment.  I could not say Rs. I lived in a small town and the school system actually provided no-cost speech weekly speech therapy at the school. I don’t know and somehow doubt that this type of thing still exists in public schools.  There were no other kids at my school who couldn’t say Rs and the kids who couldn’t say Ws and I didn’t get along in the class so I had one-on-one work.  For many years I was not really aware of how severe my impediment was.  I only usually interacted with my family and friends and they were used to me and I avoided words with Rs in the middle or end.  Words that had Rs in the beginning allowed me "get a running start" at them and weren’t a big problem for that reason. 

But once my therapist tape recorded me.  I remember that it was right after Mother’s day and I had made my mom scrambled eggs but I didn’t know that you scramble them in the pan and not just in the bowl so they came out “rubbery.”  I talked about the day and my efforts at cooking and I specifically remember the words rubbery and scrambled.  After 3-5 minutes, the speech therapist played it back for me.  I broke down.  It was completely unintelligible.  I didn’t know I sounded like that. I couldn’t imagine how people ever knew what I was saying.  That was not what my words sounded like in my head.  I cried and cried and eventually the principal called my home and the housekeeper came and got me and took me home. 

I feel like I had the same sort of experience a few days ago.  My weight has been very steady and consistent for years.  I don’t particularly try to lose weight. I just workout and try to eat healthy and I fit into my clothes.  I am aware that if I lost weight I would probably run faster but I haven’t really been motivated to make that happen.  I’ll also admit that I feel like there’s some variable I’m not aware of.  When I go through periods of calorie counting, I always am under my recommended counts but don’t lose pounds. 

Whenever you run a race, there are race photographers and they snap thousands of pictures and then for weeks (months, more months) after the race they send you e-mails with links to let you buy the pictures.  I have never bought any because I’ve never thought I had a particularly good picture.  But this time I got an e-mail that there were 9 pictures of me from this race. I clicked through and just sat there in horror as I thumbed through the pictures.  I looked terrible.  Fat.  I looked like I was barely moving.  You know those shirts that say “In my mind, I’m a Kenyan” or something like that? In my head I am running well. I’m not fast and I know that but I love the feeling of moving and I feel like I look good when doing it.  And that I look ok in my running outfit.  But I looked terrible in these pictures.  My black shorts looked too tight. Or I was too big for them.  My long sleeve shirt was unisex so not fitted and my sports bra gave me a uniboob so from the waist up – yuck. 

I can’t look like that.  I can’t go on looking like that.  For the first time in my life I’m tempted to put that picture on the frig or door to the pantry or someplace that I see it all the time.  But I don’t want to do that because I don’t want to embarrass or shame myself.  I just want to look different.  And move differently. 

So Noom is my current plan.  I'm going to eat more healthy.  And less.  And I'm going to go from weighing close to 170 pounds to 155 or less. 

Workouts 08/13 - 08/19

I felt like I had a pretty good workout week last week. I missed one workout (Friday) but got the others done with some shifting. 

Monday - (not shown on the graphic for some reason).  3.5 miles in 45 minutes (12:51) plus walking warm up/down.  I wasn't scheduled to run until Tuesday but we had guests and it occurred to me that if I ran Monday evening I could avoid waking the household Tuesday morning early.  It had rained and the temps were down into the 80s but I ran through millions of gnats which was pretty gross.  Zone 2 run so pretty nice.

Tuesday - Arms/shoulders.  I went through the script of exercises 2x.  Definitely more doable with the weights than the last time I did it with books.

Wednesday - Chest & back strength training. Again through the script 2x. 

Thursday - 3.5 miles in 45 minutes (12:51) plus walking warm up/down.  I ran at lunch hour because I needed to work until 5:00.  It was 85 when I started and 92 when I ended but I ran at the (deserted) track where there is a water fountain.  Easy zone 2 and I worked on being relaxed and picking up my feet.

Saturday - 7 miles in 1:32 (13:08) plus walking warm up/down.  A bit slower but also longer than the earlier week runs.  Still mostly zone 2 but with 3 minute surges into zone 3.  This run was scheduled for Sunday but I went to Houston overnight to see my nephew in a play.

Sunday - Saturday's core workout and then foam rolling workout.  It should have been 30 minutes core but I got interrupted over and over by the kids and dogs and gave up after about 15 minutes.  I did 20 minutes on the foam roller which was both wonderful and terrible.  But watching the coaches' video did give me some tips on rolling that helped. 


Other notes:  My coach still wants me to work on eating more calories for breakfast and fewer for dinner.  I'm finding it a bit challenging, especially with the puppies pulling some morning time. 

I have not lost any weight since starting with the coach but then I didn't say that was my goal.  My goal is really to get stronger and faster.  I can't really tell if faster is working because how can I compare my times running in blistering hot weather to anything else.  It's very apples to oranges but I do feel happy with the coaching. 

Running 2/26 - 3/04

I had a pretty light running week.  I missed Tuesday entirely due to a funeral in an especially emotionally sad situation. 

Thursday - 3.86 in 47 minutes (12:10) plus the walking warm up/down.  I ran the hills near campus at a 3:00 - 1:00.  It was a good run.
Friday - 4.56 in 56 minutes (12:16) plus the walking warm up/down.  I went to Clark Field on campus thinking that I would do the three 1600 repeats (target of 10:50).  I did the first in 10:48 but knew 3/4 through the 2nd that it wasn't a good day for 1600 repeats - either because of the previous day's run or the heat (81 and Sunny).  There was a runner there named Tony who was "trying to get back in shape." By trying to get back in shape I mean he was running 400s (fast, very fast).  We chatted while I was running my run/walks and he was warming down in bare feet.  He was very nice running and then walking with me although my pace was obviously no strain on him.  He says he is trying to break 17 minutes in the 5k.  Wow.  Yep, that's my statement about that.  Wow.
Sunday - 10.29 in 2:19 (13:30).  LSR.  About 71-73 out.  My Galloway target for a training run should be 13:36 and I felt a bit slow until I realized I was beating the target and it was hotter out.  I concentrated on running tall and a good foot strike.  It was a very worthwhile run. 

I've been tracking my food on Livestrong.com and the Livestrong mobile app.  I really would like to lose another 10 pounds or even 15 mostly because I would like to see if it makes my running easier and faster.  ChocolateWife has had great success with Noom. I like Noom but prefer Livestrong because:

• Noom takes the predicted calories from your predicted weekly exercise and uses those to raise your calorie allowance averaged over the week while Livestrong leaves your daily average the same but adjusts daily by your calories burned that day.
• Noom will only do that adjustment by the predicted calories rather than actual.  I know from my HRM readings that my actual calories burned are 80-100% higher than Noom predictions.
• Noom doesn't assess workout or post-workout nutrition well.  When I do a long run, I will usually consume 2 or 3 energy gels and then a post-workout recovery drink.  Noom sees that as around 550 red calories which means that I will go over calories for the day and have way too much red.  Livestrong just lets me enter those calories but since I can also enter that I burned 2000-2400 calories running, it's no worry. 

Of course the real test will be whether I lose some weight.