A Day Without Rain

Happy Belated Thanksgiving!

No 5k Turkey Trots.
I thought about, but with my toe still sensitive and Las Vegas looming, it was better to sleep in this year.

No computer.
I'm stealing a few moments on my son's computer just to catch up on a few e-mails and blog reading. Sorry about not visiting your blog and commenting. I miss my daily does of catching up with everyone. My computer is rebooting every 3 minutes with an error message. We just shut it off and hope that our daughter's computer tech-y boyfriend can fix it.

No Black Friday Sales.
I worked too many years in retail where I had to open or close on Black Friday. I avoid the malls on Black Friday unless I absolutely need something.

No Rain.
It has been well over 100 days without measurable precipitation. Normally, a sunny day is a good thing, but it's so dry and the threat of fire is looming. Rumor has it that we might see rain over the weekend. I hope so.

However...
I am thankful that I was able to spend the holiday with my family, and that, in spite of things way beyond our control, we are happy. You just can't buy a day like that.

Tuesday's song:
Lost and Found - Taking Back Sunday - Run-DMZ

PEACE

New Shoes

Today was a non workout or running day, but I did buy new running shoes. There's a story there that I'll get into later...

Thanks for all of the kind words . Those words really help to keep the inside fires burning to keep on going.

Katiefeldmom - It's a lot of work, but it is worth it when it's all said and done. I could always say I wished I did this sooner, but I guess we all have to figure things out for ourselves.

Leslie - Yep. That was me. I looked like the frumpy mom in those mom jeans shorts. GAH! What was I thinking with those overall shorts??? The cool thing about changing so much is that people I know who haven't seen me in a long time don't even recognize me.

Barbie2be - Winner once again! I didn't know if anybody remembered Jethro Tull. As for that time in my life, I actually thought I looked okay. I thought I was more fit than I actually was. I was so wrong... I think people want to be nice and tell when we're not that big when in fact we are. Besides, even if they did tell us we wouldn't believe them anyway. We need to see it for ourselves before we can do something about it.

Cathy - At my 25th High School reunion, no one recognized me because I lost all of that weight. It was kind of cool when they found out it was me. They saw the fat me at the 20 year reunion. This year is my 30th. It will be interesting. Thanks for your on-going support, Cathy. You've had an awesome transformation, too.

Chantal - Thank you! It was reading your blog (about your fitness anniversary) that made me realize it had been 7 years for me. You're also proof that you can keep things going and stay fit!

Dori - I followed the book Body For Life by Bill Phillips for 3 back to back 12 week challenges. I followed the book to the t for the first round, then I changed things around for the next two, and that's when I saw the bigger changes. The workout schedule looked something like this:
Monday - Upper body Workout (UBW)
Tuesday - Cardio - High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT)
Wednesday - Lower Body Workout (LBW)
Thursday - Cardio -HIIT
Friday - UBW
Saturday - Cardio HIIT
Sunday - No workout/cardio
Then the next week is the same except you have two LBW's (Monday and Friday) and one UBW (On Wednesday)... All exercises are done on weight machines or with free weights and a bench -- but I've improvised with resistance bands and stability balls. The type of exercises you do should change every 4 weeks so you're less likely to plateau. There's also a list of "authorized foods." The food list is on their website but I would suggest following the list in the book first, just to get a better grasp of clean eating. A lot of people get amazing results right away, but it took me 9 months mostly because of age and a sluggish metabolism. BFL is pretty simple to follow, and you really don't need supplements (as the book suggests - I don't use Myoplex), provided you follow the nutrition guidelines. It's a good place to get started, and once you get going with it you can "tweak" the nutrition and the workouts so that it works to your advantage. I've done other workouts since then, such as circuit training. BFL set the foundation for what I do now. One down side, though, is that a lot of personal trainers do not like the BFL approach. Personally, I'm all for what ever gets a person going, whether if it's BFL or something else. I must say that it's rather hard to marathon train and do BFL. It's overkill. So, for marathon training I'm using a combination of marathon training plans I found on Runnersworld.com. When the marathon is over I'll go back to full on weight training, but probably keep it at circuit training. As for the size, well, that was a surprise. I had never fathomed being a 2. I just never thought that number would be in my wardrobe. It wasn't a goal. A healthy 4/6 would have been peachy.

Evelyne - I guess we all have to have those before pictures... That one with my brother was the defining moment for me, that I had to do something.

Donna - I got rid of all of my fat clothes so there is no going back! Those pictures are a gentle reminder of where not to go back to...

Anne - It will always be a battle, darn it, but at least I can now have some fun with it, especially with the running.

Pamela - LOL... Thanks! I don't even recognize me in those pictures...

Now, about the shoes...
I went to Road Runner Sports to take a look at the current Asics Gel Nimbus, the most current model, only to find out that they've already been put on the endangered list. I tried on a pair and I could feel the difference right away. The weren't as comfy as last year's model, the toe box is not as wide, and the eyelets on top are loops, not holes. Bummer. My biggest gripe is that they always have to mess up a good thing and change the shoe I like best. I tried on the Asics Gel Cumulus and the Asics Gel Kinsei. The Gel Cumulus was about $85.00. It fit okay but was a little wobbly in the heel. The Gel Kinsei fit perfectly. I just about had a coronary over the price of around $165.00. It figures. The shoe that fits best is the one that cost more than I want to spend. After some deliberation (in my head) I decided to just close my eyes and buy the Gel Kinsei's. I go to the checkout and the guy rings up my sale and it comes up to $82.42, tax included. I also had my 10% VIP discount, but it shoudn't be THAT big of a discount. I asked the sales guy to make sure I had the right shoes, and I did. Hmmm. Oh well. Perhaps it was a fluke , a never worn return or something? I dunno. Hubbie bought a pair of running shoes like that before -- a new style, a never worn return, but marked way down. So, that's my story. I got the expensive shoes for cheap. The running shoe gods were kind today.

PEACE

Everyday I Write The Book

No workout today. Went into work for training, but the piece of equpment I needed training on was down, so I did some lab work and left early.

Now, back to our regularly scheduled happy blog post...

Women Who Have Shaped My Life - #3

In the 8th grade we finally had teachers who were not Catholic Nuns from Spain, but regular folk, men and women. The whole concept in grades 7 and 8 was to prepare us for the high school years, so we had different teachers for each subject and went into different class rooms as well. For English, Art and Music, we had Ms. R... Ms. R was probably in her early 30's, petite, quirky, smoked cigarettes at break time, and was amazingly able to deal with unruly adolescents. I looked forward to her classes because it got me out of the classes with some of the stricter nuns that made all of our lives miserable.

In music class, she actually showed us how to use tone, harmony, rhythm, etc. Prior to that, music class consisted of learning church songs, well, except for once in Mrs. L's class, we learned "I Am a Rock, I Am an Island" by Simon and Garfunkle... My entire class enjoyed Ms. R's music lessons tremendously -- we would sing and harmonize so loud that teachers from the other classrooms would ask her to "tone it down." In English class, we did the required vocabulary tests and various book report assignments. In addition to those assignments, she introduced us to "creative writing." Because we had the nuns from Spain, we had no clue that writing could be creative, and that we were allowed to be free with our writing. What a concept! Our class had great fun with this creative writing thing. Several of us just lit fire with this type of writing because it was fun. Ms. R would have each of us read back what we had written, to the class. It amazed me that my class mates would ask to have the stories re-read because they were so interesting and fun. Words had became colorful and had texture, and meant something to us. Ms. R also introduced us to journaling, where there are no rules, and this, again, was new to most of us in my class. Art classes were the same. She came up with the most fun and unusual assignments and we just took off with it. This was the same year I actually tried out for the school newspaper and got in. I never really tried out for any sports or other activities at school before. While on the school newspaper "team" the most I did was a paragraph about "kite day" and drew a picture to go with it... The newspaper came out sporadically, so my article and picture was "published" in the last paper of the school year... The music class that we had in Ms. R's class helped in high school. I didn't know how to play any musical instruments, but I was given a flute to use and told to figure out how to play it. Really. (And no, I didn't attend band camp... LOL) Ms. R's lessons in tone and rhythm really helped, so I wasn't completely clueless. I figured out how to play the flute in no time.

Soon after we got into 9th grade in High School, we found out that the principal (the head nun) let Ms. R go. Perhaps they had different ideas about teaching? I do know that the principal didn't care for Ms. R on a personal level. I don't know what happened to Ms. R after that, but I sure would have liked to at least gone back to the school to visit her, and to thank her for making Catholic school a little bit more interesting. I had fun learning.

Thanks Ms. R!


Peace

Road Runner

I ran a 14 miler today, but later in the day when it was warmer out, just to be prepared. I ran with my hubbie at Lake Murray by our old house, just because we needed some small hills. The run at the bay is completely flat and the marathon route has a few hills, so it's good to get in those long miles there at the lake route. This may seem like a small thing but I diluted my gels in two of my 4 oz water bottles on my hydration belt, just to give that a try. So far, it worked. I used one Powergel and one Accel-gel. The Powergel seemed to dilute better. The Accel-gel did okay, but it was on the foamy side. I finised my 14 miles in 2:44:00, that's about a 11:24 min/mile. I sort of ran out of steam towards the end, and that brought my average down. At least I got the miles in, and that's what I needed.

My schedule is out of whack. I'm back at work again, but I don't know for how long. It definetly throws a kink in my workout and running plans, but I'm doing what I can.

Thanks, fellow bloggers, for all of the wonderful comments about my "Beautiful" entry. It will be a History lesson for my kids.

Peace

Thank You

Please check out this post from Sister Smile -- Februrary 22, 2007, titled "Homeless."

It makes you stop and think, and be greatful.

Peace