<p>I had a bit of adventure last Thursday on my bike ride. I was planning a nice 85 mile trip over to the coast to my favorite bakery and back. I made it to the bakery, had a good lunch and started on the return trip. Ten miles in, in the middle of a long climb, the road was blocked, construction equipment, bridge out, no way to get through. so I had to retrace my path. I ended up doing 105 miles and maybe 5500 feet of climbing. surprise! good thing I laid in some provender at the bakery.</p>
<p>Chintzy that’s amazing! Such an accomplishment. Are you still doing the C25K? You are the one who got me interested in that.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, today is the first day I’ve been able to walk normally with only minimal pain. I am to start working with a sports therapist (or something like that) on Friday to assess my knee situation and hopefully work on a plan to get me running again. I think my doctor is a madman.</p>
<p>Chintzy- very nice work!
Cardinal- what a ride! </p>
<p>I have now signed up for the Jack and Back MS 150 ride Oct 2-3 with my company “team”. It’s actually “Company X and Friend” because we have spouses, friends, kids etc on the team. I hope I survive. Camping between the 2 days of the ride also doesn’t particularly appeal, but that’s the way it works.</p>
<p>chintzy–Absolutely terrific. Good for you. I’ll bet those who don’t see you on a regular basis will notice your weight loss. Mind sharing how long it took to accomplish this milestone?</p>
<p>Hi parents! I hope you don’t mind my butting in here; I’ve been reading this thread for a while now, and I just wanted to say that I’m in complete awe of some of the things you guys have accomplished. I’m fairly overweight and really quite unhealthy, and while everyone (including myself) keeps telling me to lose weight and get into shape that seems like such a non-quantitative and therefore immaterial goal. Reading about the actual things you guys are doing has really motivated me to make some small changes in my diet, and I plan on starting to exercising on a regular basis once I get to college in a few weeks. Thank you all, and I wish you all the best!</p>
<p>Good for you teenage_cliche. Don’t let yourself get overwhelmed by the enormity of your goals. Just focus on one week at a time. Set a goal of exercising, in any kind of way, three times this week and eating less when you can. Skip a snack. Go water instead of juice, whatever. Take motivation from what you accomplish this week and let everything else take care of itself. It’s too easy to let the total challenge (loosing x amount of weight) be a negative motivation. Prevent that by declaring victory in accomplishing a small goal, and then another. The bottom of my weight graph has never once been more than five pounds below my current weight. That next five pounds is all I care about.</p>
<p>Ankle is fine. Didn’t bother me a bit on a hard iPod workout today. Well, maybe one little twinge during lunge walks with shoulder press, but everything “twinges” on lunge walks for me.</p>
<p>Felt really strong on the exercises today. Trying to go a little deeper on the lunge walking and squat presses now that I have a little leg strength. </p>
<p>Changed it up again on the Airdyne intervals. I try to do them differently every week. Did 30 seconds hard (70+ rpms) and 90 seconds recovery. 30 seconds at that pace is enough to get a lactic acid burn in the thighs and very high heart rates.</p>
<p>I was glad today’s workout didn’t have any side bridges. I think they would have been a little tender on my scraped up elbow.</p>
<p>Thanks all, for the kind words. missypie, the neighbor was out for a fitness walk, but probably only needs to lose 20 pounds. I’ve known her long enough to not be surprised by anything that comes out of her mouth!</p>
<p>blankmind, I’m up to the full 5k distance now and signed up to run my first race next month. Good luck with your rehabbing!</p>
<p>rutgersmomma, I started on March 5th. The one “advantage” of weighing 244 pounds is that you can lose weight in pretty large amounts in the beginning.</p>
<p>MoWC, the MS 150 will be a piece of cake for you, and great fun. Don’t forget to drink plenty of water. Big Agnes makes a fine camping air mattress.</p>
<p>teenage_cliche, you can do this. I think interesteddad’s idea of just looking at it in little tiny increments is the right approach to take. No one can imagine losing, say, 50 pounds, but you can imagine losing five pounds, ten times.</p>
<p>Slow and steady wins the race. And losing weight and getting fit aren’t really a race, just a destination.</p>
<p>Kudos to chintzy! What an accomplishment! So many on this thread making healthy choices and losing weight … I wonder what our combined total of weight loss is since this thread started 7 1/2 months ago?</p>
<p>toneranger, Thanks so much for the bike trail suggestions. Looking forward to checking them out. H and I recently hiked part of the Appalachian Trail near Lehigh Gorge with our dogs–beautiful scenery, but a much more strenuous hike than we were anticipating with two dogs in tow! </p>
<p>chintzy, Congrats on your tremendous accomplishment!</p>
<p>Cardinal Fang, A 5500 foot climb and 105 miles? Wow. I am in awe of your biking ability.</p>
<p>And to everyone: Your positive, healthy lifestyle changes are an inspiration to everyone who reads this thread, especially those of us who are entering a new phase of our lives. A heartfelt thank you, and keep up the good work!</p>
<p>I got some exercise while vacationing in San Francisco and Vermont, but ate far too well. I haven’t checked on the gym scale, but I don’t like what other scales are telling me!</p>
<p>Mapsey…we did a trail near the Lehigh gorge a couple of years ago. More of a long rock scramble than a hike. All up and then really hard going down. Lots of great waterfalls. My thighs hurt for days. </p>
<p>If you’re looking for a short hilly ride, Valley Forge Park has a nice bike/walking trail.
Thanks to Idad’s inspiring “hilly walks” - I’ve been getting out to do walks there on a regular basis. It really makes a difference especially at a fast pace. My heart rate is up there! </p>
<p>I hope we can keep this thread going for years!!</p>
<p>toneranger- Thanks. I’ve gone towards Schwenksville a couple of times but I tend to like the Oaks route a little better (for running). I have done the Phoenixville leg before, too. I used to do some running at Valley Forge, too. I thought it was impossibly hilly when I lived in Dallas. Now it wouldn’t seem nearly as bad.</p>
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<p>That’s a stunning drop - 15 pounds per month.</p>
<p>If someone that I knew lost that much weight, I’d notice it. You can see it in how clothes hang off people when they start losing weight and when they ratchet down clothing sizes. I have before pictures for objective proof if I need to show someone the difference.</p>
<p>Ran 6.5 miles yesterday. Muscles were a bit sore at the end.</p>
<p>mowc…there’s an article today in the WSJ about trail running and how lots of traditional runners are taking it up as way to prevent nagging injuries from running on hard surfaces. Not sure how running up mountains and through rocks and roots prevents injuries…but I thought I’d mention it. The races they were describing sounded crazy strenuous…right up your alley :)</p>
<p>Yay! The upward tick from the weekend is back down today. Whew! Will be more careful with the entertaining and weekend drinks! 
Just did an hour in the gym today as I have a workshop later this morning. I felt like I was cheating when I left! Think I need to adjust when I am eating or add some more calories as I am a little tired during my workouts lately. I roll out of bed and just have water before I hit the gym and I may need to eat a little something before I go. </p>
<p>MOWC or idad…can you recommend a good HR monitor?</p>
<p>I saw the article but didn’t read it. It may be that the uneven nature of trail running results in better overall strength, kind of like how a stability ball works. It does seem counter-intuitive that running on uneven surfaces is safer as it does seem easier to have an accident.</p>
<p>toneranger, We frequently walk in Valley Forge NHP, including two of the past three weekends, but we’ve never done the hilly trail. We usually walk the river trail so our dogs can swim.</p>
<p>“A long rock scramble” perfectly describes our hike near Lehigh Gorge. Can you imagine doing it with two large, energetic dogs on leashes? :)</p>