<p>7 miles today. Haven’t done that in a decade.</p>
<p>It was an okay run until around 4.5 miles and then the body said that this is easy. I felt a rush of additional energy, and just kept running. That usually comes on around 2 miles but it was late today.</p>
<p>I decided to take the leap of faith and go see the running coach. I was able to do a 30 min walk/run with the running part only being two, two minute segments. And no pain! It is really interesting changing how you walk and run, but I don’t think it will be too bad after all. Tomorrow I must rest, only stretching allowed if I feel I must do something. I’ve got my fingers crossed that I will stay pain free.</p>
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Exactly how is your gait off? What is the coach having you do differently? (Curious minds want to know!)</p>
<p>CBB, I walk and run as if I am on a balance beam, so my feet are crossing over each other every time I take a step. Each time I step down, my knees are forced inward, and a lot of stress is put on the inner ligaments. I now have to consciously try to walk with my feet on either side of an imaginary line, and while I’m on the treadmill, the coach watches and tells me when I start to cross my feet over again so I can correct it. I also have to raise my knees a little higher as I run and try to keep my upper body from bobbing side to side too much, which is happening because I am over-compensating while I try to fix my gait. By the end of today’s session, I was doing pretty well with keeping it all straight.</p>
<p>I also have to do a bunch of exercises for my quads & hamstrings, and core. Bleck. But as I like being pain free, I will do them faithfully.</p>
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<p>Me, too. I do them faithfully because I have the iPod nazi in my ear telling me I’m a wimp if I don’t. Today, during the one legged hamstrig roll-ins on the stability ball, he asked me if I wanted flabby thighs? I mean, what am I gonna say? “Yeah, give me some of them flabby thighs!”</p>
<p>New circuits today. Basically a combination of the last two circuits I’ve been working on. I’m really seeing some progress. I did a whole bunch of my 45 big boy pushups today getting my nose all the way down to the ground. Stepped up the reps on the step/press, the reverse flys, and the squat/curl and press. Felt good. Tried the side plank on my scraped up elbow (with a pillow) and ripped the scab off, so I bailed on that side for the second two sets. C’est la vie.</p>
<p>Did the hard intervals at the end. Ten intervals, ten seconds hard (75 rpms) with 20 seconds to “recover” (which is basically no recovery at all).</p>
<p>With any luck, maybe I’ll drop an ounce or two this week. Sheesh…</p>
<p>Steamed lobster and salad for dinner. That’s diet, right?</p>
<p>NorthMinnesota- that is “fake weight”. I frequently show an absurd weight the first day (or even two) back from a trip- even if I haven’t particularly pigged out and have been active. I think women in particular retain fluid during travel- different foods, different everything. You’ll be back down in a couple of days.</p>
<p>Ran 4 miles at 9000 feet. Stayed pretty flat. Felt challenging but not impossible. Tomorrow will be a 6-7 miler and will be tough.
H and I rented mountain bikes and rode about an hour and a half this afternoon. Mainly paved path but a little single track. I didn’t fall or yell at him! Progress.</p>
<p>I love Colorado so much. I think I need to retire so I can spend more time here. Oh, wait. I can’t afford it!</p>
<p>Happy to say that I seem to have been the victim of some “fake weight” too. That said, I didn’t get to the gym enough last week, couldn’t find my weights at home when it turns out they are closed on the weekend for the next two weekends and had an abbreviated time today, because I couldn’t escape the office.</p>
<p>I interrupt the regularly scheduled fitness talk to say that I just ate maybe the best thing I’ve ever tasted in my life.</p>
<p>Our tradition, here is New England, is for dad (me) to cook the lobster (thank-you Julia Child for working with Jaspers Fish Shack to nail the cooking times for everything up to 7 pound lobsters!).</p>
<p>Then, I clear out the sink, don an apron, dump the lobsters in the sink and go to town with an assortment of shears and hammers and whatever else is required to crack and extract the meat. This gets divvied up on plates with the usual melted butter so everyone can eat lobster instead of wrestling with it at the table.</p>
<p>So, my wife and I are both trying to skip a few calores. Rather than serve up a stick of melted butter for dunking, I took the duly extracted lobster meat (slightly undercooked by Julia’s chart) and threw it in a hot sautee pan with three tablespoons of butter and the juice of one lemon and the lobster juice that had collected in the bowl of lobster meat. Sear it all, toss it around, let the liquid reduce, heating up the lobster, coating it, and leaving this red butter/lobster/lemon sauce to drizzle over the top. Oh, my god. It was seriously the best thing I’ve ever tasted. Maybe 150 calories each from the butter, plus probably 220 calories each in the lobster meat, and whatever is in the lemon juice. Wow. Under 400 calories and way better than half a cannister of Pringles!</p>
<p>Not bad. Live lobsters for $3.99 a pound. I bought three 1.25 pound “chix” for the two of us. 4 pounds total. 16 bucks.</p>
<p>^^ What time is dinner tomorrow night and what’s your address? It sounds awesome. Lobster without all the work and without the butter calories? Perfect!</p>
<p>I’ve cooked some good stuff before, but this took my breath away. I don’t know why I never thought of it before. </p>
<p>BTW, for those who want to cut and paste for future reference, here’s Julia’s cheat sheet from “Cooking with Jacques and Julia”:</p>
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<p>I’ve tested these times up to and including 7 pound lobsters. Julia nailed it. Takes all the guesswork out. I steamed the 1 1/4 pounders for 10 minutes, knowing they’d get a quick sautee at the end.</p>
<p>That does sound good, but where am I going to find lobster at $3.99 a pound?</p>
<p>This was just a weekly special in the local “DeMoulas Market Basket” chain of grocery stores. I don’t know why lobster prices are down. The catch must be abundant these days for some reason.</p>
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<p>Back to fitness: please stop raining so I can go for a nice easy, relaxing walk tomorrow. These Airdyne intervals and iPod workouts are wearin’ me out.</p>
<p>Am a king crab fan myself… last time we went to Bob Chinn’s for dinner (hosting a husband/wife team that H’s work was trying to lure to work for them) I ordered it. The waiter came out and began to give the usual spiel on how to slit the shell and pull the meat out, except he showed me a new technique… he cracked the claw at the joint and with a quick flick of the wrist, was able to get the whole lump of meat out of one side, and with another flick, get the whole lump out of the other side. I was duly impressed and said, “I don’t think I quite got it the first time around… you were so adept and skilled at it; could you show me again?” So he proceeded to do the same with the two remaining claws I had on my plate in about 20 seconds, so I had a whole meal of king crab without having to dig anything out of a shell! By far, hands down, the best meal I’ve ever had!</p>
<p>For the first time today, I almost fell asleep on the massage table. It was all made (almost) possible because I just don’t have the painful massages I used to now that I’ve done so much strength and weight training. My muscles have responded nicely. She said my right forearm was a little tight, but I know that’s due to an lot of vacuuming of the pool this last weekend.</p>
<p>Went to Ravinia (outdoor music venue in the Chicago area) both Saturday and Sunday nights. Saturday night was Counting Crows and last night was Crosby, Stills and Nash. Did quite a bit of dancing Saturday night… not so much last night until the last few songs, but it did get me up on my feet and moving.</p>
<p>Also had a set training session yesterday (after vacuuming the pool again and before heading off to Ravinia), so he challenged me on the weights. Kind of interesting… the last big weight training news I shared was that I incline bench pressed 100 lbs., although I only did 5 reps. Yesterday he had me do 10 reps at 80 lbs., 8 reps at 90 lbs., 3 reps at 100, then two sets of 3 reps at 105 lbs. So in all, in about a three minute time span, I did 9 reps of 100 lbs. or greater. And I’m not sore again today! But, omg, after two nights at Ravinia and the workout, I was exhausted. Hence, I almost fell asleep on the massage table. Was going to come home and take a nap, but nooooooo. The pool called my name again (we’re fighting some sort of algae problem) so I was vacuuming again tonight. Thankfully, my work schedule is flexible and I plan on working an afternoon shift tomorrow, and sleeping in!</p>
<p>Oh, forgot… am REALLY excited about our upcoming plans this weekend. We lived in Madison, WI for five years while H was in grad school and I used to go to their infamous Farmer’s Market as often as possible. Have yet to find one anywhere that matches it.</p>
<p>This Saturday, we’re going to go up there with friends (whose D will be a sophomore there and who happen to lurk mostly and occasionally post on CC) for the day and I’m sooooo looking forward to the fresh pickins’ and selection. For anyone who’s been to Madison and their Farmer’s Market, you’d know what an extravaganza this will be!</p>
<p>I LOVE farmer’s markets! I go to the Minneapolis one and the one in my suburb. The veggies are fantastic and I can get huge bouquets of flowers for only $5! This spring the asparagus was perfect and the radishes wonderful! YUM!</p>
<p>NM - the only drawback to going at this time of the year is the bees!</p>
<p>Hard to keep up with all the posts … Thanks for the info, blankmind – hope your gait retraining goes well. When I first started running in the spring, my knee hurt quite a bit. My “research” turned up many references to the need for strengthening and stretching the hamstrings and quads. I’ve been doing that and so far, no pain.</p>
<p>idad – LOVE lobster! We’ve had it several times this summer. (Especially yummy when accompanied by champagne.) Everyone’s on their own for attacking their own lobster, although your way may be worth a try, considering the calories saved.</p>
<p>CBB, I don’t think it will be as hard as I thought it would be. It’s funny, even when doing my exercises, I have to change how I move. Things like lunges and reverse lunges I have to do in front of a mirror so I can make sure I place my feet at a proper distance apart. It really changes your balance, so all these simple exercises have become very awkward for me.</p>
<p>The local news showed “back to school” pictures that people sent in. One was of a mom and dad walking their tiny kid to school…all holding hands with the kid in the middle…taken from the back. Both parents looked like they were a normal size BUT both were wide in the rear. LOL, I bet they were horrified at how they looked from behind.</p>