Your posts are all so inspiring. They really give me some goals and motivation. I hope it sticks, because inertia is hard to work against. A body at rest, stays at rest,…,so admirable what you guys are doing. Congratulationa on the races and swims! @dmd77 , what trail run are you thinking of?
Glad MOWC’s son is doing okay, that sounds so traumatic and painful!!
I have stayed away from this thread for some time, as it is very overwhelming, and every time I come on here I think of a valued member who is gone, and it upsets me. But I need to get over that, and keep checking in, because you all are truly motivational!
Bus, do as most of us do - skim, flip through, post. I suspect that the vast majority of the posters posts here not to brag or to get congratulatory notes from others but to simply keep ourselves accountable. Like “I ran a half. Off to the next training goal. Phew.”
My exercise tonight: backyard sprints!!! Racing with a deer couple that somehow got into our fully fenced backyard!!! Shoo!!! Blasted pests.
Gertrude- you are doing great with all the half marathons. I think half marathon is a very challenging distance.
Boy, dmd- that looks tough! Go for it!
61 degrees (finally) back here in middle Tennessee this morning. Feels humid to me after Colorado, but still wonderful. I am very tired from the travel day and the anticipation of diving back into work (not that I was able to really let it go while I was gone).
I’ve been a swimmer the past three days. Been utilizing a TENS unit on my knee plus more icing. I’ve delayed scheduling a sports med appointment because my old doc moved. Think I might schedule with chiropractor as he is pretty good at diagnosis. I’m suspecting meniscus problem.
Garmin still the black face of death. Makes strange buzzing sounds. Hopefully I get a replacement.
Has this been posted yet? It’s a few days old. Very, very good read. To me. Though I am at a different level than many of you (and ok with that!) I can speak for myself in saying that I know in my head that I have a “fear” of if I stop working out for a period of time - even a week - sometimes even just skipping a couple days! - that I will lose what I have built up and fall into a “do nothing” slump.
I’m surprised this writer went from such a high level of fitness and competing to just a couple workouts a week - but some of her results are worth thinking about. Thoughts?
I’m afraid to suggest to people to “set the bar low”.
NEWFLASH- When you eat and drink everything you want on vacation, you gain weight! Back to more disciplined eating this week. I’m at my high for the year. Hopefully, some of it is the “travel day” weight and tomorrow will look a little better. Of course, one of my young co-workers brought in “skinny” banana-chocolate chip muffins today and was eagerly looking for my approval. I took a few bites and wandered off and tossed the rest (even though it was good).
So what makes those muffins “skinny”? The banana in it?!
“Set the bar low” - yes, I do think there is perhaps a happy medium between high and “low” bars. I think it also depends where you are at when you change the bar. I personally think that 30 minutes of “activity” - browsing stores at the mall doesn’t count - daily is not too much to ask for anyone to do on a fairly regular basis. It depends what you want to achieve.
THIS! I’m sure her two workouts a week are as intense, if not more intense than the five days I do. I saw something on FB this morning from Meredith Vieceli (she’s a coach that I follow) about the importance of speed work, something I definitely neglected in the past. All my runs were one pace. Not slow, but not fast either. If you want to get faster, you have to train your body to get faster. Run easy on easy days and run hard on speed days. No more in between. I don’t know how lowering the bar would help me achieve my goals.
This morning was hard. I am still working on my cadence - if I’m running fast, cadence isn’t a problem. But when I’m just slogging along, I have a hard time with cadence. So this morning was dedicated to that type of workout. After Pilates. Which was also very hard. No banana-chocolate chip muffins - two hard fried eggs and a piece of Dave’s bread, toasted.
My take on that article is: consistency matters. If you can only work out twice a week, work out twice a week, but do it every week, without fail.
Weighed myself this morning and am feeling horrified. Definitely up over the last six weeks, and I have no idea if it’s temporary–too much salt? Inflammation from hard workouts?–but I’m going to spend the next month or two being very rigid about my nutrition!
Re: nutrition - I am trying to follow an 80/20 rule and it seems to be helping. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I’m pretty sure that’s been @abasket’s diet philosophy all along! I lost weight on vacation, which has never happened before. And I ate and drank a lot! But, not a lot of sugar or processed carbs (hmmm…is beer a processed carb? might have to rephrase that!).
People often complain about weight gain during the winter months - holidays and all…but for me, summertime is a more evil culprit - vacationing, more dinners outside lounging where you eat more, celebrations that call for cake or ice cream store trips or donuts on the way out of town! Lots of fruits and vegetables but also just more eating in general!
I don’t know Dave’s bread Sabaray, but nothing like eggs and buttered toast (my toast WILL have butter!). Assuming Dave’s is a whole grain hearty option???
Dave’s Killer Bread - only the most delicious purchased bread ever. They have a number of varieties - but yes, whole grain, organic, just really delicious. Look at Costco - I can buy a two pack there. I cook my eggs with a spray of olive oil - also very tasty.
It’s a shelf product but I will warn you it’s very perishable. I keep it in the refrigerator - if I buy a two pack I keep one in the freezer. It really is delicious.
sabaray, yes, absolutely, if you want to be fast, you must run fast, run slow and very little in between! The in between stuff is wasted time and energy if your goal is to get stronger and faster. It’s not intense enough to make you faster and too intense to be a recovery or base miles. Was something that was drummed into a long time ago by a pro level cycling coach about my cycling training.
Same for us on the Dave’s Killer Bread. Great! I think it may be so perishable (especially from Costco), because the bread is always close to it’s expiration date when I purchase it there. QFC seems to have fresher Dave’s, but it costs more.
Watching your diet is such a pain, I really hate it, and sometimes it seems to do no good. South Beach Diet for about 10 days (low carbs, super healthy, very hard), lost only two pounds, down to 128, doing it consistently. Gave up, went back to normal eating, including some sugar and breads, eating what I wanted, but not pigging out. A month later, I’m still at 128. Makes no sense…weigh the same whether I’m ultra healthy eating, or eating the good stuff. May as well enjoy!
Better than bears.