I guess I run now

Okay, new-ish shoes. I found the brand/type I’ve been using at a discount place for $49.99, which is about $50 less than the last (first) pair cost me. So I picked them up & I’m going to wear them on my run this morning…confident that at least I won’t come home with new shoe blisters & shin splints.

My plan for a run yesterday didn’t happen. Hubby got out of his class & wanted to go for lunch again. Twice in one week? Not exactly the frugal living we’d hoped to achieve, but after my series of lunches with colleagues next week, I’ll be brown bagging it for a while. I wasn’t exactly sore from my workout on Thursday, but I was pretty run down yesterday, so I decided against a run. Which means I need to get it done this morning.

Breakfast: usual

Lunch: salad with hb egg

Dinner: talapia, corn, green beans

Snack: beer while putting together enormous Ikea kitchen island…hubby’s still at it 6 1/2 hrs later

Exercise: goal for today was a mile & then walking, but I got inspired by my new shoes…decided to run 1/2 of the 5K in a row. So, walk .1 mile, run 1.55 miles (first .5 at 4.4 mph, next mile plus @ 4.6 mph with a .1 sprint at 5.4 at the end), walk .2, run .25 @ 4.6. Rounded it out to 2.25 & got off the treadmill cause some toothpick grabbed the treadmill next to me, running at 6.8…very demoralizing & given that there were only 3 of us using the 14 treadmills at the Y, I can’t imagine why she got on next to me if not to make herself look even thinner & faster. Gee, bigprof, bitter much? Walked another .25 on the track.

Happy weekend everyone!

P.S. Eryn, I add colors using the html screen. So when I write a post, I have a word processing type of box with Bold, Italics, Strikethrough, etc along the top. I assume you have something similar. But in the far right corner, there are tabs where I can choose between working in “Visual” (the default mode) or HTML. When I want to add color, I switch to HTML & use the following code:

<font color=”red”>words I want colored red here</font>

So if I wanted to make the words “green ball” green, I’d switch to the HTML screen/mode & write the following:

<font color=”green”>green ball</font>

Then I switch back to the Visual screen/mode to make sure it worked. & that’s just about the extent of my knowledge of HTML

now in technicolor…

I teach today, but I’m out by noon & plan to get off campus as quickly as possible so I have time to go to the Y. I really need to cover a 5k today, Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday: I have a race next Saturday (eh gads!). I’m nervous about this race because I’ve been having a lot of trouble running lately…I wonder if my time is going to be even worse than my totally unimpressive time from May. I don’t feel like I have as much stamina as I did in May.

This is one of those weeks when I seem to be questioning why I want to run a 5K or 10K anyway. Am I enjoying running? These days, I just don’t know & that scares me. There’s another 5K in October that I was thinking of running, but now I don’t know. Aaarrgghh!

Breakfast: usual

Lunch: with hubby. 2 pieces of bread, crabmelt (crabmeat, english muffin, tomato, cheese), 3 bites no-mayo cole slaw

Dinner: still full from lunch

Snack: 10 cashews, half peach

Exercise: N/A

Boring one with only obsessive food talk & a record of my exercise. Oh, but I did reserve my space in boot camp. Yay?

Breakfast: blueberries & kashi

Lunch: HB egg & small salad

Dinner: baked chicken fingers (3 small ones), small salad, green beans, corn-on-the-cob

Snack: 10 cashews & a peach

Exercise: 40 mins upper & lower body weights, 1 mile run, .5 mile walk at 3.6 and an incline of 3.0

Went grocery shopping. Lots of things to adjust to…like hubby doesn’t like to have the same entree two nights in a row & I could eat the same thing for a week. So I had to plan a menu for the next few days (or else there’d have been a pizza delivery in my future): chicken fingers tonight, pork chop for him tomorrow (and talapia for me), whole wheat pasta with broccoli & remaining chicken Saturday, pork chop for him (talapia for me) Sunday, chicken sausages Monday, maybe I’ll have a pork chop with him on Tuesday. Yeah, pork chops were on sale…I’m freezing the rest.

Picked up fresh corn, amazing green beans, and peaches from the farmer who brings his stuff to the local feed store. Then went to Trader Joes for salad fixings and nuts. Then to the grocery store for the rest of the stuff. A miserable shopping day, but we’re ready to face the weekend. Or…I’m ready to face it & make it healthy. Another adjustment: when we didn’t live together, I loved shopping with hubby cause it was one of those domestic things we rarely got to do as a couple…but I’ve learned that shopping with him means loading up on the carbs, snacks, & crap.

Cheers to everyone else who is “new resolving” it this week!

to lose this stupid weight. Yesterday I wore a skirt that I’m always worried is too tight. Instead, I spent the day with it rotating around my waist and fighting to get it back in place without too much of a public production. That I like; that I like a lot.

But I need to lose a lot more. I’m not one of those, “oh, I just need to lose 5 pounds so I can get back into a size 6″ people. I’m fat. I’m obese. It’s time to get back on track.

So here’s what I need to do:

* post here & read here every day.
* hit the gym at least 5 times a week.
* sign up for a month of bootcamp.
* get back to my rules & stick to them so I can get control of my eating.
* thank all of my friends here (you know who you are) for your amazing support.

I don’t especially care that this is like the 12th time I’ve had a new resolve in the last 7 months. I’ll take as many new resolves as I can, & string them out for a lifetime.

It’s time to get serious!

& it’s all promise and possibility. When I was in school, I was the kid in class who couldn’t shut her desk cause it was so crammed full of disorganized mess. But I’d start off every semester determined to do things differently: to take good notes about the assignments, to keep handouts stored carefully, to file things away, to be the perfect and perfectly organized student in the class. Never worked…eventually things would get messy, papers would get stacked up, a banana from my lunch bag would go missing somewhere in my desk & the fruit flies would signal the end to my latest bout with good intentions.

Things are a little different now: since the papers I’m keeping track of are my students’, not my own, I have to be more organized, but I still feel all that promise of a new semester this morning. This semester I can be the perfect teacher.

Food was good all weekend with the family. Hubby made a pound cake (eh gads) and then a trifle with parts of the cake, homemade custard & whipped cream (so not the way we make them in my family at all), but I can usually put the brakes on sweet food easier than the savory ones, so I had small samples of these only.

While my food was good & we got some nice long walks in there, my exercise this weekend was bad. So I’m reconsidering signing up for boot camp. It starts on the 22nd & they do fat analysis & measurements before and after so you can see “how much difference a month can make.” That’s starting to sound really good right now.

Today I teach, tour our new offices, and attend our first dept. meeting (with hubby!). Food:

Breakfast: kashi & blueberries

Lunch: Indian buffet with hubby

Dinner: mac & cheese from the box…not pretty

Snack: pretzels

Exercise: does walking in really uncomfortable shoes count? No? Okay then.

No major plans for exercise today. I may try to hit the Y tonight, but for now it’s a mad dash to get everything done for the start of school. My inlaws (including BIL and grandmother-in-law) are coming to visit on Sunday & Monday…not a long visit at all (and I really like these people), but one that will require house cleaning & that will put me two days behind in my course prep & writing. Still, they haven’t seen the new house & they’re low-maintenance guests & it’s been a while since we saw them last, so it’ll be a lovely visit. I just have to put my head down & muscle through the next two days.

Okay, food:

Breakfast: (no milk in the house, so) 2 slices whole wheat toast with homemade jam

Lunch:

Dinner:

Snacks:

Exercise:

to school next week? huh? Forget the academic calendar, what about my needs?

Yeah, so yesterday was a long day of getting my course materials readied & online for my classes that start next Wednesday. The first day of school, I’m always a nervous wreck. I never know what kind of first impression I’m making, so I have to trust that the kids are more nervous sitting in their first college writing class than I am standing in front of them. With luck, they don’t even notice what a total geek I am…although they notice that eventually. How could they not?

Okay so tiny2b had a great idea for how I can get my speed up to what I think is my most comfortable stride. She suggested I try the c25k program again at that speed. So I think that would be 4.6 as a “walk” for 60 seconds, followed by 5.4 as a “run” for 60 seconds, and so on. I might give that a try this morning. I was thinking last night that if I can do 2 miles at a decent clip, even if I have to walk one mile, I’ll still have an okay time for my 5k on the 13th.

I’ve also been looking into boot camps, but the one that’s closest to home is pretty dear & I haven’t done a class in years, so I don’t know if I’ll even like exercising with strangers. Also, it meets at awkward (for my schedule) times. How’s that for a slew of excuses? So I’ve decided to buy a punch card for the express workouts at the Y instead…these are 30 minute pilates, bookcamp, and etc workouts scheduled in the middle of the day, usually around lunch time. I’ll see if I like attending classes & then sign up for the next boot camp if I’m sold on it.

Okay, I really need to get to the Y.

Food:

Breakfast: instant breakfast shake with protein (so there, I shook up breakfast a little)

Lunch:whole wheat PB & homemade J

Dinner:hard taco & tabouli with squashes & tomato

Snack: peach, chocolate pudding.

Exercise: Was lame…my stomach ache from last night returned. So I managed to do about 25 minutes of upper body work before I decided to call it a day. Not a day, really. A morning. I’ll have to make up the lost treadmill work tonight.

Don’t know.

First a couple of shout outs to a few of my peeps (is that the way the kids say it these days?): has everyone seen getupnow’s runner’s version of “Stayin’ Alive”? HILARIOUS! Feathers is recovering from her post-op cold & sounding very contented and resolved. And Eryn, the cheez its in question were a box of both White Cheddar & (wait for it) Queso flavored its….queso flavored Eryn! I should say no more about them, but I believe they may have been laced with heroine cause I’m addicted.

I need to get to the gym, but I also want to stop for a moment & reflect on “Back in the Day/But Now” stuff. I’ve not been great this past month & have seen basically no changes on the scale this summer, so I need some positive reinforcement to get me moving. So Back in the Day when I’d go for a walk with hubby (rare, mind you), I’d never be able to keep up with his long (6′2″) strides & I’d complain & get impatient to get back to the house to sit in front of the TV. BUT Now I’m the one suggesting (and nagging) about walks, I want them to be longer, and I’m the leader of the pack (or at least not having any trouble keeping up). Back in the Day, I’d have a gym membership, but never use it. But Now, it’s time to get to the gym.

Food:
Breakfast: usual

Lunch: chef salad

Dinner: 2 lean beef hard tacos with cheese, tom, lettuce

Snack: about 25 pretzels

Exercise:

• 20 mins lower body weights
• 2 mile walk/run

First mile run in 12:45 (speed of 4.6 until last .1, which I did at 5.4), second mile walking at 3.6, but with an incline of 2 for .15 and 4 for .35 miles. Threw in a .25 mile run during the “walking” mile at 4.6 & 5.4 and a .1 mile run at 5.4. I really do like the way 5.4 feels, but I can’t maintain that speed for very long at all. Total time for the 2 miles was 28:40, so I’m averaging just over 4 mph for the whole trek.

I need to get going to the gym. Today will be upper body & a run of some length or other (how’s that for noncommittal?). I’m going to try to keep eating on the natural side of things today, which to my mind means no dreaded cheeze its!

Food:

Breakfast: kashi & blueberries (I should just post about breakfast if it’s ever something different from kashi & blueberries, huh?)

Lunch: chef salad (so egg, ham, cheese, lettuce, tomato, low fat dressing)

Dinner: chicken sausage on whole wheat bun and pasta salad.

Snack: gee, let’s do try to keep it natural & vitamin-packed for a change…those peaches in the fridge aren’t going to eat themselves! A peach, a 100-calorie bag of popcorn, and a chocolate pudding (fat/sugar free stuff).

Exercise:

• 30 minutes with weights (upper body only).
• 2.1 mile walk/run.

1 mile run in 13 mins, then walks at 3.6 on an incline of 1.0 (first incline ever…so something new) for a total of .75 miles. Did .25 mile run in there with some of that run at 5.0 & 5.4 (I love my strides at 5.4 & it feels natural, but I can’t keep it going for long), and .1 at the end of the 2 miles at 5.2. An okay run. Started out wanting to stop at .25, then at .5, then at .75, but once I hit .75, it seemed silly not to finish the single mile. I feel like I’ve gone back in time here…rather than getting more endurance, I’m ending up with less. UGH!

• 2.5 mile walk with hubby and dog in the evening: overall, a good exercise day.

Have a great night ya’ll!

I wanted to get up early to run before hubby & I have a day filled with annoying errands…the spirit was willing, but the flesh was weak & the muscles under the flesh were very ouchie. So the plan now is to run errands & then either run or swim in the late afternoon. There, writing makes it so.

Food:

Breakfast: kashi & blueberries

Lunch: on the go…but I did okay: 1 1/2 cup of bean soup at the campus caf with 2 bags of oyster crackers

Snack: peach

Dinner: chicken sausage, whole wheat bun, corn on the cob, kale

Snack: hubby made bread pudding out of the remaining buns, so 1/2 cup bread pudding with 1 tbs peach jam; AND 1 cup cheeze its (DAMN IT!)

Exercise: none…but we left the car in one place & walked everywhere we needed to get to on campus, including 3 trips to 3 different buildings to pick up 3 of the keys hubby needs for his office & classrooms…yeah, they gotta make this process easier for new faculty!