Kudos to the weekend racers!
3.8 mile run this morning. As always, my favorite part of the workout was being done!
H is having a colonoscopy Thursday. Starting today he has to avoid certain foods. I took the list of what he can and cannot eat with me to the grocery store. When I got home he started grilling me on everything I bought – as if I can’t read the list? He’s not the best “patient” …
c3baker, that sounds like a brutal race to me. (I’m a wimp – anything unpleasant and I won’t run outside). Congrats on your finish.
MoWC – congrats on the promotion! Bunsen – glad that you’ll still be poking your head in here from time to time,
Classof2015 – it’s so interesting the way our significant others influence us. I know if my husband goes hiking and biking on our vacations because of me, and I’ve sat through plenty of baseball games. Sounds like you picked a good one.
I’m just back from a short trip to Las Vegas. I avoided casinos entirely. Barely spent any time on the Strip. Instead I found some great nearby state parks and a national recreation area – went for a rigorous bike ride, ran on a gorgeous trail, and did several hours of hiking. I’ve been to Vegas a few times before, and feel like I’ve seen what there is to see – and I’m not a gambler. This is where I ran: www.nps.gov/lake/planyourvisit/hikerr.htm. Flat and scenic, so perfect.
@fireandrain – so true – he is such a good influence on me, as you are on your sweetheart. After all, we love them – makes sense we want them to be heathy for many years to come.
Clicked on your link – that trail looks great!
Congratulations @Classof2015 and @C3Baker !
I’ve hiked/walked on that trail with my friend, but haven’t run there. I want to, though. I will be there this weekend, so maybe…
Congrats to all the racers! Great news on your promotion MOWC.
Short 2 mi walk today with my dog. Weather is still unseasonably warm for MA.
I tagged along with H when he attended a conference in Las Vegas. I did a couple of great hikes at the Red Rock Canyon conservation land.
@C3Baker --I find myself jealous of your trail run–well, not the part where you fell in the mud, but the rest of it. Congrats!
I spent three days this weekend at a dog agility thing where I learned a lot about my competitive nature. Hard to explain, but I would have said–before Friday–that I was giving it all I had. Then twice on Saturday my dog knocked down the bar of the second jump (of twenty or so obstacles, so very early in the course), and I changed how I felt about running the rest of the course. I ran harder, took more risks, and threw all caution to the winds, so that we had spectacularly fast and exciting runs (that didn’t count because of that early error) that I enjoyed a lot. So now I need to figure out how to do all that even without the early error–when that was what I thought I was doing.
Congrats, racers! Part of me wants to try trail running and the other part of me realizes what I’m doing now is enough mentally and physically, at least for the time being.
I have a four mile run tonight. Would have liked to have done it outside before it got dark, but I fell asleep for over an hour after I ate dinner. Which is not unusual, but I need to try to at least make my naps shorter. Anyway, I’ll be off to the gym in a little while.
I also just registered for a Memorial Day 12k that I have done with my mom the last two years. When I went on my little races document I’m keeping to make off that I’ve registered for it, I realized I had also registered for a race I forgot about. So I have three races in April, a 10k, then my half, then another 10k a week after that. Usually a 10k wouldn’t make me nervous, but I wanted to be past the “run to finish” goal and start working on my pace. I know I’m just too stressed and too tired and my goal right now should be to get exercise, but I also want to start getting some PRs! I know it’s not coming in the half, and that’s fine (I have another in November), but hopefully I can do something in one of the 10ks.
@nahnah12 – wow – you’ll be busy in April – good for you! Let me convey my own belated welcome to this great thread. I think you are doing great. Want to hear more about your training and races.
Just reflecting on what I’ve eaten today. I’ve found a new vice, sad to say. A Wegman’s opened up right by me, and my usual grocery store just closed (they were bought out). I’m going through this extremely long phase where nothing sounds good, and so I usually just end up eating junk. I’ve been trying to clean it up, but the iced cookies at Wegman’s have this hold over me. I don’t even like cookies that much, but I’ve been getting one (at least…) every time I go. And I go a few times a week! And I just realized how not good the fried rice is that I’ve been getting for my side for my lunches! Eek!
No training plan is going to make up for a bad diet. I need to figure out this appetite thing at some point, but I also need to just make myself eat healthier things. That’ll be my new focus these next few weeks. I figure the exercise part will get better with a better diet!
And I just realized a new stressor is coming up: March Madness!!! Will seriously need to rein in the bad eating for that!!! LOL
I had a good 5 mile run last night. Tonight is running club but we may get rained out. Normally running in a light rain isn’t a big deal, but they are talking about possible tornadoes. So we’ll just have to see what the weather is like tonight to determine if we get the run in or not.
On Saturday morning we had that trail half marathon that was pretty intense. Then on Saturday night we attended an annual black tie ball for our alma mater with a group of friends that we go with every year. One of the friends convinced H to bid on the Silent Auction on a 5K race up at our alma mater in April. So he spent $170 to win this 5K entry (at least it is for 2 people!) and didn’t think to check the date or ask me about it - we are already committed to a 10 mile race that day! Fortunately a couple of S’s friends were there as part of our group and were happy that we gifted the entry to them (it includes an overnight hotel stay). Scheduling issues!
nahnah12 - I hear you on the eating! I have a few treats that I just don’t want to give up.
dmd77 - I really enjoy hearing about your dog agility competitions. That is something I think I may want to get involved with when I retire. It’s interesting how differently you did the course when you were knocked out of the running - taking more risks and going faster. It’s got to be hard to balance how hard to push at the risk of making errors.
@C3Baker – that’s so funny – a 5K after a 10 mile race – glad you could gift it to your S’s friends!
nahnah – I wish I had a Wegman’s near me. I love that store.
I like hearing about the dog agility competitions, too - Sabapup seems to think our living room is a course as she enjoys leaping from the couch to ottoman to chair while chasing poor Sabadog who just wants to take a nap in the sun. She’s very high energy and agile - he’s the kind of Lab that’s always looking for the softest place to relax. I can always tell what they’ve been up to when I let them out at lunchtime based on the position of our furniture.
My Pilates guru is back from vacation and I had a great workout this morning. Felt really good to do some good stretching.
@nahnah12 - I think you’ve realized the most important part about food and exercise already - that you can’t outrun a bad diet! I really like the Run Fast, Eat Slow cookbook - I find with a lot of “healthy” recipe cookbooks there’s nothing I actually want to eat. Not the case with RFES. The other thing I’ve been doing is ordering through a meal delivery service - I like Chef’d, but others here have their favorites. Removes the temptation of the donut case (my vice) at the grocery store by having your food come to you!
Just had a conversation with a client this morning about diet, exercise and weight. He told me that a friend of his had been telling him about a “new” study concluding that diet is far more important than exercise for weight loss. I had to laugh, that “new” study is about 10 years or more late on something that’s been widely known in the fitness community for many years. The old “saw” is that 80% (or 85 or 90, depending on the pundit) of weight loss comes from what you eat. And that’s essentially correct, but like all things fitness and nutrition related, it’s not quite that simple.
Badic law of thermogenics is that if you take in less calories than you burn, you will lose weight. But your body doesn’t much care where that weight comes from. It can come from stored fats or from lean muscle tissue through what is called a catabolic process. In the absence of exercise, as you lose fat during weight loss, you will also lose muscle. What exercise does is enable you to maintain or even build muscle tissue as you lose weight from fat. At the end of the day, you are looking not simply to lose weight but to change your body composition, the ratio of fat to lean tissue. And not all exercise is created equal. The only exercise that will maintain or increase lean muscle tissue is resistance training. Cardio’s great but it doesn’t build or maintain muscle mass. For that you need resistance training in its many varied forms hopefully 2x per week and ideally 3.
And a problem frequently encountered by those who rely on exercise to lose weight is that they overestimate the calorie burn from exercise and then feel entitled to eat more due to the exercise and underestimate the additional calories they take in.
I wish we could bookmark this EVERYWHERE! ^^^ It’s what we have to be reminded of and repeat all the time to ourselves and everyone we know!
Michael wins Post of the Day. Key advice.
Beat the rain this morning. Well- almost. Last 1/2 mile it started to rain on me. My main concern was not to get my headphones wet! 3.7 miles in the bag.
Thanks, everyone, for the nice words about my promotion. For those of you who were here posting in 2011 when I lost my wonderful previous job and was in despair about getting another one in the recession, this is just a huge moment for me. I, literally, could be winding up my legal career sitting in an e-discovery center reviewing documents for $25 an hour. 2011-2012 was difficult career-wise, but to end up in the best job of my career at a growth Fortune 500 company was beyond any hope I had. I work with the most incredible people and deal with the most interesting and fun things.
Doesn’t get much better than that in the work world, @MomofWildChild!
45 minutes on the Cybex Arc this morning. Pup walk coming up this afternoon.
While H and I were in FL, my gym here got several new machines. Here’s a link: http://www.octanefitness.com/commercial/products/standing-ellipticals/xt-one/ I tried one for several minutes after the Arc. I could feel it affecting different muscles. Anyone use one of these cross trainers?
I think I’d like to try the dog agility thing too. Of course I worry that I’d become a show dad and put too much pressure on the dog to perform. My wife had to have me back off my daughter when she first started running or she’d have to go to therapy the rest of her life! Are there dog therapists?
Dog agility! Are you sure you want to get me started? Sometime DH asks about it and half an hour later I notice his eyes have glazed over and he’s falling asleep. Dog agility is a lot of fun–and very challenging. There are three essential elements. The first part is training the dog–which can take quite literally years. I work with the dog twice a week in addition to the fitness work we do pretty much every day (which is how I got into running). The really great people (who compete at the world level) train a couple of times a day for short bursts. Part two is learning the handling maneuvers that tell the dog how to do the course. Part three is showing up for competition, which has two parts. In the first part, the person is given six-to-eight minutes (depending on the sanctioning organization) to memorize the course, which can have as many as 22 obstacles (most commonly 18-20), and decide how to direct the dog around the course. Note that the course is different every single time. In the second part, you go out on the course and try to direct the dog around it as quickly as possible without making mistakes. This is a video of Daisy Peel running her dog Frodo at World Team Tryouts: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JeHq7Cwj-oQ She will be competing for the US at Crufts in a few weeks. (I have the great fortune to have Daisy as my coach.)
dmd, you must be incredibly fit. Those two are quite the team - I really enjoyed watching the video. I noticed on one of the runs Frodo came off the “see-saw” on the side rather than the end. Is that a fault or is that permissible? I’m assuming permissible or the run wouldn’t be on the highlights reel. I can already tell I would have a tough time - I doubt I’d be able to remember and recall the course. Impressive handler and dog. I worked on hand signals with our first Lab - takes a lot of work but nothing compared to this.