Running In Circles

I'm kind of wondering... what happened to Summer? I know other parts of the country are experiencing typical Summer weather, but we're not. Cool, blustery, drizzly, more humid than normal weather is what we have right now. It's actually perfect running weather if you plan on an easy run, but for everything else it's kind of a damper, pun intended.

My new workout schedule is going OK. The only problem I'm having is pool time. The pool I want to go to isn't opened when I have the time available, and now that it's summer the swim lesson sessions occupy most of the pool. The gym pool is available and usually crowd free, but every time I swim there I come away with irritated, red eyes, and I wear goggles. It takes a days to recoup from that! Ick! I'll have to start looking around for another near by pool that does not require membership.

I trekked out to the gym for intervals per my new schedule.  I thought it might be easier to keep track of the intervals on the treadmill instead of taking it to the streets.   One minute warm up, then I did 4 sets of intervals x 6 minutes moderate pace and  3 minutes faster pace. Lows at about 5.2, highs at about 6.5 and 7. It was just OK. I have a lot of catching up to do, but I'm taking it slow. I cooled down off the treadmill and walked around the gym track for 5 minutes. Stretched afterward. 
3.46 miles
37:00 minutes
10:41 pace

I'm still working on nutrition. Something is off kilter, but I can't figure out what it is, yet. In the past I could pin-point exactly what was throwing me off and make adjustments, but this time I can't. I'm attempting to eat as clean as possible, using less processed foods, eating out less, no fast foods, no junk foods, keeping on top of my water intake, and so on. I've been tracking everything on Daily Burn just to make sure I'm on top of the macro-nutrients. I'll probably track my nutrition for a month. I find tracking nutrition to be tedious, but it's helpful when trying to pin-point what my weaknesses are.

Robin over at Running Circles Around Turtles featured me on her blog yesterday.  (Check it out!) I was honored that she she featured me and what I had to say. Most of her interviewees give concise, short answers. Ummmmm... I was a bit wordy by comparison, but there's a lot of explaining to do. I was pretty excited to see the interview on her blog and how she took the time to enlarge and bold certain words and phrases. Pretty cool, Robin. Thanks!

 At the 4th of July run, I saw a friend from the track club who I had not seen in a few months.  She actually remembered my sea green and white Pearl Izumis, and asked why I wasn't wearing them.   They have been retired to gardening duty, and this is what they now look like:

They're so beat up, but still one of my favorite pairs of shoes!

Yesterday's Song:
Morning View - Greg Howe

PEACE

Life in Technicolor

This Week's Recap:

1. Taxes - Done, and with several hours to spare! Woohoo! Paid some to Federal, getting some back from State.

2. Healing - Still in progress. 4 more weeks, I hope. Still using the bone stimulator.

3. Doctor's/orthopedics visits and Rehab United - Back to both in two weeks.

4. Marathon - Switched to the half. See #2.

5. House - Clean. I had someone else clean it.

6. Work outs - A lot of upper body bands stuff, push-ups, abs work, plus some squat matrices within reason.

7. Nutrition - Back to tracking. Trying to stay with in 1500 calories per day so I don't turn into an Oompa Loompa due to the lack of running. Will fine tune the macros later. Calories first.

8. Sugar Free Jello - A lifesaver.

9. Muscle Milk - No longer works for me. I broke out immediately, even though it's lactose free. *sigh* Back to square one and soy protein.

10. Daytime TV - Still sucks.

11. Dreams - Been having some weird ones. I had a dream I was a shopping at Macy's in Chicago, went to the top floor, but could only get to the first floor by getting on a water slide. In another dream my PT Bryan carried me across a football field while I was sitting in a Igloo ice chest. The crazy thing is that I've stopped taking pain meds 2 weeks ago, so I can't use the drug excuse. Analyze if you wish, but on the surface it seems I have travel issues, but how in the heck did I end up in an Igloo ice chest?

Yeah, I look *just* like this when I sleep. *cough*

12. Lentil stew with brown rice and warm, crusty bread - It's what's for dinner.

Wednesday's Song:
Winner - Justin Timberlake

PEACE

A Pain That I'm Used To

RU
B switched up some of my regular workout, and since my left hip is still a little sore, he's easing me back into my regular workout. I still did the squat and lunge matrix with weights but not as many reps and slightly less weight. He also threw in a version of burpees that I was able to deal with.

Last night I met up with the track club at Balboa Park. We're having some humid weather right now. It's not quite Florida humid, but humid enough to start sweating profusely once out of the confines of my air conditioned car. We ran on the back trails again, which I really didn't think we were going to, which is going up and down steep hills, THEN run down and back up 6th Ave to our starting point. 6th Ave is a long, gradual hill. We did this course twice The entire course (done twice) is probably about 6 miles. It was one heck of a workout, and it even beat up the most experienced runners there. I had a bout of asthma during the second time around on the back trails. I had no choice but to walk. The people I was running with were kind enough to wait for me. (It's one of those areas where you don't want to be alone.) I skipped the last go round down and back up 6th Ave. I was toast and rested a bit. If that wasn't enough, I did strides (with most of the group) on the large grassy area at the park, and did an abs workout. Justin (who I've worked out with at RU a few times) attended the workout and even he said it was tough. Several people opted out of the several sets of strides. Like last week's workout, I was pretty gross when I was done, between the sweat and dirt from the trails. My once nice, very white shoes



are now a pretty good shade of light dirt brown.



I'm kind of disappointed because my GPS stopped working sometimes during the first loop around the back trails. I think I put in about 4 miles.

I was thinking that after such a tough run/workout, I'd be able to get some decent sleep. I was wrong. I'm pretty sure I got in enough electrolytes and liquids yesterday, but as I was getting comfy and dozing off to sleep, both of my legs cramped up something awful. I can't remember the last time something like that happened... maybe when I was pregnant with my daughter 26 years ago? Once I got out of bed I had to do calf stretches. I can understand one leg, one calf, but both? I had to get up several times during the night just to stretch. This morning I had bananas for breakfast, along with a calcium & magnesium tablet, and plenty of liquids...

Nutrition is very much back on track. I had some water weight gain from our little respite last week, and that's already gone. I'm working on getting in as much real food as possible, especially when it comes to the protein. I also need more veggies in my regimen so I'm going to make a big pot of the vegetarian sweet potato minestrone today. It keeps well and is actually good once it's cold. No need to reheat.

Saturday's song:
It's Five O'Clock Somewhere - Alan Jackson, Jimmy Buffett - AKA Alice

PEACE

Sunrise

A couple of months ago I was contacted by Schmap.com about a photo I had posted on Flickr from last year's AFC Half Marathon. They asked my permission to use the photo on their map page of San Diego, but it still had to go through their selection process. It wasn't a sure thing, so I didn't get too excited. I was contacted by Schmap.com today and found out that they are using my photo on their site. Now I'm excited! Woohoo!

This is the photo they've used.

This photo was taken on August 19, 2007 near the AFC Half Marathon starting area on Point Loma, looking east, towards the sunrise.

Last week I was feeling rather lack-luster, with little to no energy, and if I did have any energy it was quickly zapped with no rhyme or reason. I thought I might be coming down with a cold or dealing with an allergy -- who knows? This week I've decided to take a closer look at what I've been eating. Perhaps I didn't make the best choices last week. This week I'm making a conscious effort to eat more vegetables. I do eat a lot of salad, but perhaps I need to incorporate different vegetables into my salads, not just the standard green lettuces and tomatoes. It's not a huge stretch, but this week I'm adding more broccoli, carrots, celery and squash into my salads, or just steam a few of those vegetables together to have with my dinner. It's not like I don't eat vegetables, I just need to eat more. Of course, I am working on a balance of everything else, such as lean proteins and whole grains and fresh fruits.

For the first time since the surgery, I've been able to do push-ups. I was able to do one set of 10 - knees up, then 3 sets of 20 - knees down. Before all of this hip stuff, I could whip out regulation knees up push ups with no problem, probably about 50 to 75 reps at a time. I tried doing push ups a few weeks ago and it was way too difficult and stressful on my hip/leg and core. I couldn't even do one. I used The Bean to do push ups, which helped to keep everything going, but those are way too easy and only use the upper body. Today I could do 10 reps -- it's better than 0 reps.

Yesterday's song:
No Sympathy - Bob Marely - Run-DMZ

PEACE

Vegetable photo from Wikipedia.org

The Hardest Part

Bean push-ups - 5 sets of 30
Bicep Curls - 4 sets of 25, using two 5# dumbbells
Bean abs crunches - 2 sets of 50 and one set of 100
Triceps - dumbbell extensions - 3 sets of 30 using one 5# dumbbell
Pelvic tilts

I'm feeling rather wimpy with the 5# dumbbells, especially when I used to think nothing of using 30# and higher dumbbells for the same exercises. Right now it's baby steps. It's all about high reps and low weights, until I can get the muscles used to everything again. I suppose I can go up to the next weight increment, but I want to make sure I have this all down to the point it's super, super easy and can do double of what I'm doing now with a 5# weight.

I'm making an attempt at yet another protein powder. I've tried Muscle Milk Lite because it's lactose free and it seem to be working out OK. No splotchy breakouts or other weird reactions. I'm keeping my fingers crossed on this one. I've tried several brands but most are made with whey protein, and that's the main culprit of my breakouts. I also do OK with soy protein, but I have to get creative with how I use it.

This past weekend was also a big weekend for run events. Kudos to Michelle who participated in her first triathlon and probably still has a huge grin on her face, to Anne and her daughter for running as a team in in the Aflac Iron Girl 5k, to AKA Alice - who was also at the same event and ran the 10K, to Barbie2be who participated in the American Cancer Society's Relay for life, and to Waddler26.2 for doing an amazing job at her Triathlon and finished strong. I was able to live vicariously through them and their event stories on their blogs. I wanted to be there, too.

"The hardest part is letting go, not taking part."

Yesterday's song:
Heat Of The Moment - Asia - Step Away From The Cake

PEACE