No real “laboring” for me during LDW – feeling a little like a sloth. The rain finally arrived last night, and looks as if it will be around through tomorrow. (Which is fine – we really need it!) The wind has died down some, but has kicked up some pretty rough surf. We periodically walk down to the beach for a look-see.
My golf course is closed for the next 3 days for maintenance, so for the first Tuesday morning all summer I’m not out on the links. Feels odd.
Yup, helmets are all about fit, weight and ventilation. The more you spend, the lighter and more ventilated but, surprisingly, not more protective. In addition to Bell and Giro, if your local bike shop carries Specialized, look at those helmets too. Each of those brands has a different form factor to the fit and between the 3, you are bound to find one that fits comfortably.
Ohio, If your focus on new electronics is cycling, I would look at the Garmin Edge 520 or 820. They offer a more complete cycling package than the watches and are much cheaper too! The 520 and 820 are at their core the same except the 820 offers full map based GPS navigation. For shorts, I would highly recommend bib shorts as opposed to regular bike shorts. The lack of a waistband on bib shorts makes them incredibly more comfortable than regular shorts.
Ohio, here is a nice helmet! 
Pbj’s are a weakness of mine (I could eat peanut butter by the spoon) but you know what’s good? Instead of jam, just put raspberries in the sandwich. I guess you could do so with other fruits too.
Minor vent here - I feel like as I hit my fifties, my shape has changed. Not so much weight - but I feel that literally in the past few months, my waist has thickened and gotten smooshier. I know my core is strong underneath but I’m having trouble buttoning pants. I know there are no simple easy solutions (darn!) but any suggestions would be helpful. I was always a straight up and down top who carries weight distributed pretty evenly everywhere and now I feel like I’m becoming more apple-shaped even with weight staying stable. Wth??
Ohio- This ride is going to cost you! 
Pizzagirl- that’s a common problem for the 50s and over. Hard to fix.
I’m on my way to the walk in clinic for what seems to be fluid in my ear or ear infection. It hurts, I can’t hear and it’s annoying as heck. I’m afraid they might tell me I can’t fly this week which would mean no half marathon. I’m not sure I care. I feel like I’m 2 years old.
Wow! Coming back to 80 posts to catch up. Love it!! I am working on a presentation to a grant committee for tomorrow so will allow myself small breaks to catch up on those 80 over the next few hours!
Marvelous weekend in Canuck-land. Possibly the best weekend weather wise of the summer. Literally, never saw a cloud. Lots of beach sunning, walking, swimming, kayaking, even some water walking/jogging as the water was glass-calm and nicely sandy. All that countered with a big of splurging - brunch courtesy of me overlooking the water, a burger so tall it was not fit for a human mouth and the sharing of some good ole Canadian poutine. Shared some white chocolate raspberry ice cream along with some (the BEST) birthday cake ice cream.
My girls left the house at 6am this morning to get back to their respective nests, so I laced up and said goodbye to some of those splurge calories with a morning run with a little bit of interval work. 90’s for the next few days so I knew I needed to get it done early. And done it is!
And remember, September is STILL summer!!!
PG, I have the SAME problem. I’ve actually lost weight but my waist is unfortunately thicker.
Sounds like a wonderful weekend, abasket! I was chatting with a coworker this morning and we agreed that all we did was eat over the weekend. Happily I exercised too or I’d really be in trouble.
I hope your ear is okay, MOWC - sounds painful.
6 mile easy run this morning. I like days when I can just run how I feel instead of worrying so much about MAF.
Great to catch up on everyone’s activities. How fun that we currently have so many of “us” in international places - and still reporting in - dedication, I tell ya!
Ohio, good job to your wife for joining the fitness train - and good luck to you on your bike ride here in NW Ohio - Findlay perhaps??? I personally vote (and bet some of my fellow CC’ers would join me) for this bike race:
http://www.thetourdedonut.com/
I’m convinced that the middle age “middle spread” can only be controlled (controlled is DIFFERENT than solved) by lowering carbs - particularly bad carbs, bread carbs, etc. And exercise of course is helpful. I am super sensitive to any middle area bloating or “squishyness” as PG says - I definitely have some, but if it “grows” a bit, I am quick to remedy it with a real careful check of my diet.
Ugh. Eustachian tube is completely blocked- probably due to ragweed allergies. I just started my nasal spray for my Sept/Oct ragweed allergies. The doc said ragweed came early this year. Ear drum is red and bulging. I got an antibiotic (which will tank my half marathon on Sunday) and a Sudafed prescription (that’s one of the ones where you have to certify you are allowed to have it and not going to make meth) AND a steroid shot. She said normally they would wait a week on the steroid shot to see if the Sudafed and nasal spray did the trick, but since I’m wanting to fly on Thursday, this was my best shot. She said it should open it up enough for me to fly. If it doesn’t, flying would be risky.
This is just so random. I wonder if I can blame my race time yesterday on this?
Interesting stat on the race. The Oiselle teammate I ran with in our 8 mile training run a couple of weeks ago only beat me by less than 1/2 a second in the race, so I guess we were a good match to train together! She’s a lot younger.
Sounds pretty unpleasant, MOWC, and I was actually thinking the same thing about your race yesterday, so yes - you can blame your time on it!
I’m pretty good on the high quality carbs and I was going to mention to @MichaelNKat that I actually feel a lot better running now that I’m not restricting carbs so much - so thanks, Michael, for those helpful articles on the importance of carbohydrates while training! I’ll just have to live with the tummy problem, I guess.
A little off-track but not really…
I have noted during races - even races beyond 5K, that there are MANY runners who don’t present the perfect physique. I’m not talking largely overweight but plenty of apple shapes, middle age spread, muffin tops, etc. Those some might say “could lose 10, 15, 20_ pounds”.
Point being, you can be in very good shape, have good cardio abilities and NOT be what many might call “lean”.
Thank goodness! I don’t think I have ever or will ever think of myself that way. But I can still take care of exercise business.
MOfWC, ugh. The ear/allergies/etc. affected your race - no question about that. Hope you will get cleared to fly!
Yes, hoping those meds work real fast.
Abasket - yes it is the Findlay ride.
@sabaray, the trick with the carbs, I think, is to plan your carb consumption around your training schedule. There will be days that you will train hard and therefore eat more carbs before, perhaps during and after your training. There will be days when you are not training hard and therefore will reduce your carb consumption. I think that by moderating your carbs, you can meet your needs for training and still avoid gaining girth. Also, and this could be a critical aspect of what you are experiencing, are you regulating your overall calorie intake each day and making adjustments on days where appropriate. The amount of carbs you are eating is a function of macronutrient ratios but the sum of all your macros must still fall within your caloric limits. If you are increasing the amount of carbs and not cutting back with other macros, you will end up eating out of “energy balance” and gain weight and girth. What I do for myself, and I think I’ve mentioned this before, is to eat the number of grams of protein and carbs I need each day and then fill the balance of my calories from healthy fats. The protein remains pretty constant from day to day. I vary the carbs based on my training needs for that day and then fill the rest with fats.
Thanks, all. I think it is going to be fairly warm for the VIA half marathon on Sunday. I’ll handle it better than some since I’m coming from the Inferno that’s been Middle Tennessee this year, but I was hoping for a cooler day on this nice, flat course. Oh well- I better just worry about whether I can actually fly up there and how I do with these meds.
There is so much hiking one can do in NZ, but the entire bod is screaming. I feel ancient and decrepit. But they do know the proper way to make flat whites here!
MoWC – hope the meds work, but only fly if you’re better!
abasket – I have a good friend who loves to run – she is quite overweight, runs very very slowly – but she enters races all the time. I think it’s great. And yes, you see many body types out there.
Add me as another person whose waist is thickening. Yup, sucks to get old. I’ve never had much waist definition anyway, so this trend is not welcome. I’m one of those people who like low-waisted pants. Back in the old days, in order to find a pair of pants that I could button meant having tons of fabric around my hips.
The fitness center was packed today – I use a college gym, and the students are back and have time to work out. They’ll slack off once classes start and then disappear around midterms, but this week will be rough.
Hope those meds are working MOWC.
3.1 this AM. Just finished signing up myself and D for a 5k in a few weeks. This will be an evening run with glow in the dark shirts and looks like fun. The cool thing is that it is sponsored by a credit union that we belong to and supports their foundation which awards generous scholarships to HS seniors based on academics and community service. Seven years ago one of the scholarship winners was D.
^^Sounds fun FallGirl and bonus that it is for a good cause - which your D once benefited from!
I have a 5K this Saturday too for a local organization here that I work with. Suppose to be warm, humid and chance of thunderstorms. Lovely.