My Family and My Life at Castle Lynn

We love you Lucy. The only dog I ever knew who would give up food in favor of a pet or a hug.

Thank you to all my facebook friends. I wanted to save your sentiments.

Carolyn Norulak

Oh Gail, my heart is with you...anything I can do, let me know

Lynda Clark Nansel

I'm so sorry, Gail! It is like losing a kid when you love them so! I'm certain Lucy knew she was loved!

Carol Clark Spangler

Awww how sad! I am soooo sorry!!!

Liza K Redheart

I'm so sorry for your loss Gail, I know how much your dogs are in your heart and life. Sending you hugs, Liza

Melinda Erskine Proza

Oh Gail, I am so sorry. Please take comfort in the fact that Lucy had a wonderful life with you, and she definitely knew she was loved.

Deborah Anne Schneble

((((((Gail))))))) My thoughts are with you.. I know it is hard.

Karen Fackrell

Soooo sorry to hear about your loss Gail! She looked like a happy go lucky girl there

Jackie Tyma

I love you Gail and Richard

Colleen Welch Hadley

Gail, I am so sorry for your loss. I hope you find peace in your many memories of her.

Becky Bergsma

Gail, I am so sorry for your loss.

Joanne Comer

I'm sad, too. I still miss my own dog and it has been 2 1/2 years...

Margie Hight

Gail, I am so sorry for your loss. What a great life Lucy had with you....crying with you.

Peggy Bennett

I'm so sorry Gail.

Brenda Soyars Cox

RIP loyal Lucy! You were loved!

Jacqueline Gerardi Brunetto

hugs to you Gail -- sorry for your loss....

Mary Jane Flynn

I'm so sorry Gail. We do love our pets!!

William John Christian Miller

Gail, we're sorry for the loss of your loved one.

Rikki Rios

Gail I am sorry for your loss of Lucy. I am sure she is in doggy heaven getting lots of pets and hugs.

Connie Leonhardt Gauer

 ((((Gail)))) so sorry for your loss.

Linda Schwartz

Gail sorry, losing a pet that is so loved is so very hard.  

Yesterday in yoga class one of my classmates, a very sweet woman who I’ve known for quite awhile, asked me why I keep running when it is so bad for me. She said she used to run every day and loved it, but then her knees started bothering her and she had to give it up even though she hated to do so.

My answer to her was of course that I like running. That it makes me feel great. And nothing else like walking, or riding a bike, or swimming makes me feel that way.

But to be honest with myself I have had some doubts and many dialogs with myself about this. Really I do love it, I love the high, I love the fact that I can run, I love how it makes me feel superior to the person I used to be who didn’t do anything. Actually after a run I feel better than any other time in my day. To quit now would make me feel like a failure to myself and to my family and friends.

But is all of that a good reason to keep running? Am I hurting myself by running, and possibly creating worse long term problems?

I read lots of articles about people who get hurt and they get better and go back to running. I see lots of women my age and older running. I believe in my heart I can find the balance of running and not injuring myself.

I love talking about my runs with other runners. I post daily on a runners board with other women who are also new runners and have similar issuse. Maybe if not for them and their great examples I would have given up before this. That could be bad or good depending on one’s perspective.

I just don’t know.

But what ever...

I’m running.

I did do something REALLY fun this last Sunday. I volunteered for the Longhorn Iron Man, which is an Iron Man qualifying race; 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike ride, and 13.1 mile run. From my last experience volunteering I thought to wear my running shoes just in case and it is a good thing I did. On Saturday the person who I had been dealing with decided I was no good for him since I had to leave at 10:30 to make it to our nephew’s baby shower. So he swapped me to another person, but he did not give me her contact info. I got to the Park where they were holding the race 30 minutes early, (about an hour and a half before the swim started) but it took me 20 minutes to park the car because there were so many people there. It took me another 40 minutes to find my person, because no one knew where she was, and they sent me to various locations about ½ mile apart each time, I did get to do quite a bit of running.

Anyway the best part…

They put me in the wetsuit stripping area. As the swimmers come out of the water they are supposed to pull their wetsuits down to their waist, lie on the ground, and then we rip the wetsuits off their legs. This was so much fun but very demanding.

Of course the elites just kept running by, no time to waste on us, but most of the rest of the swimmers were happy to have help. They showed us a technique that if all went right we could have them stripped and up and running in about 3 seconds.

Oh yea and we are talking about iron man athletes you know. (Wink) No really it got to be so mechanical it really was not like that. There were about 15 of us and we had quite the competition to see who could strip the most and the fastest. Those poor folks did not know what hit them, one minute they were running, the next they were flat on their backs being stripped. No accidental losing of the shorts/swim suits as far as I know. One woman I stripped was wearing bikini bottoms, but she grabbed them up before I started and nothing was exposed.

In about 2 hours I think I stripped about 50 people, maybe more. I was exhausted, soaked, and muddy from the wet runners churning up the path to the stripping stage. We did have artificial grass/carpet for them to lie on, but by the end it was wet and muddy as well.

By the time the last swimmer came up it was 10:15 so I headed toward the parking lot. They did have buses, but by that time the elites where running the marathon portion of the race, so they had closed the road and stopped the buses. At least I got in another mile long run back to the parking area and got to wave at the elites as I ran by them going the wrong way. My pedometer, which is set for walking, said I ran about 3 ½ miles total, but it would be more like 4.

I am definitely doing that again.

So I have not posted all summer. Mostly I have been very busy and having a good time living my life. So I think that is good.

TRIPS 

We went to Florida in May and went on a cruise with my step-family for Pop's 80th. That was a lot of fun and there are pictures to prove it.

Then in July Richard and I took the RV and went to Colorado for 3 weeks. Yes Richard went too, because as of July 1st he was laid off from his job of 13 years. Well there are good things and bad things that come from everything, and I have loved having him at home with me.

We visited family, went sightseeing, and spent a week in Creede carving with the woodcarvers. More pictures to share about that as well.

WOODCARVING

My sister, Jackie, and her daughter went with us to Creede and they both carved with me. They are now hooked and are carving in Golden with the club there as well. I love it!

PROJECTS

Now Richard and I have taken up all of the carpets in the house, and are putting down Pergo. We are nearly finished and we love it already. More pictures.

It turned out to be a great way to spend August, working in doors. August has very nearly been the hottest August ever in Austin. July was the hottest every July. So far we have had 67 days over 100° for the year, the all time record was 69 days in 1923. We are starting to have some cooler days, today has been in the low 90°s and it feels great. But there is a pretty good chance we could still beat the record.

RUNNING

My injury from May has not yet healed 100%. But it only hurts for a few hours after my run and I am able to run pain free. But I've only been running about once or twice a week so I'm back to running only about 3 1/2 miles each time. I also run 1 minute and walk 1 minute. This week I am going to start increasing each run about 10% and hope to get in a 5k in September. The Nike+ Human Race 10k is in October, which I also plan to run. If all goes well I'll start training for a half marathon in January.

WEIGHT MANAGEMENT

I have managed to find at least one day every month where my weight was in goal range and kept my Lifetime Membership with Weight Watchers. There have been some challenging moments though.

So just to let you know, maintenance hard!

For one thing, once you get to goal you want to feel like you are done tracking, done worrying about points, done not eating the things you want, etc. No matter how much you tell yourself, "It?s a new lifestyle of eating and its forever."

Also no matter how careful I am, when I allow myself to eat, ok one little piece of key lime pie, then I think maybe one little ice cream cone, and so on.

Denying yourself some things is hard, but somehow I found the fortitude to do it and to lose the weight. But allowing myself to eat just one goody, once in awhile seems harder.

And really, who wants to walk around counting points for the rest of your life? Surely I can just keep track in my head of all the GHG and not eat what I know I should not. But really that just does not work ether.

So I'm good one week and bad two weeks and somehow I manage to keep close to goal but it feels like an ongoing struggle.

I'm trying to find my way back to, "It's a Live-It, Forever!", and enjoy being there at the same time.

Elvis came back to sing the National Anthem before the race. Some of you may not know that Elvis is an icon at Chuy's.

Stats: 3.1 miles, 34:46 min, 11'13"/mile

Food: cereal and grapes, with kefir and decaf coffee

Time ate: 6:00am

Time ran: 8:15am

Weather: about 76° and high humidity

Location: South MoPac and William Canon Dr.

The race today started with a slow gradual raise in the 1st mile, then easy downhill for the last 2 miles. I was so sure this was going to be an easy route, I was really looking forward to the run, and hoping to do better than 30 minutes.

I tried hard to keep my pace easy and my breathing controlled up Convict Hill. I did run all the way up the hill without too much stress, but was relieved to reach the top. The Plantar Fasciitus injury that I agravated last week had improved all week and I hoped would not bother me. I noticed a few twinges at the start of the race, but I concentrated on hitting my stride on the center of my foot, and it went away within the first 5 minutes.

After running another 100 feet or so past Convict Hill, I realized that I was not recovering my breath or heart rate as fast as normal. Then I got a stitch in my side. At that moment I could not think why I was subjecting myself to this ridiculousness, and lost my will to keep running.  I had to walk 3 or 4 times during the 2nd mile. I don't know for sure why it was so hard. But I forgot to drink water just before the race and did not carry any. I was really thirsty long before the water station at the halfway mark. Maybe the extra heat and humidity, and no water did me in. (Also the stinking thinking did not help.)

By the 3rd mile I finally started feeling better and was able to run the last mile at a pretty good rate. I felt much better about the entire race at the end.

 This is me after the race.

This was the 5th race of a 5 race series sponsored by the Austin Running Club. According to my calculations it looks like I am second in my age group for the series. If this turns out to be correct I will get an award for running the series and one for 2nd place, age 50-54. I'll post the exact times when they are official. Or you can see for yourself at the Austin Runner's Club website.

 http://www.austinrunners.org/7822985_74071.htm

That was the most fun race I have ever run!

Here I am, all decked out and ready to run. See my lovely Brook trail shoes.

It stopped raining before we got started so that was good. It was a little cool, around 65°, really just perfect. 90% of the race was under tree cover, so it never got hot.

7:00 and the 30k runners are off.

The trail was muddy, but I guess 2 years of drought had compacted the trail so hard that it was barely noticeable. Except at the water crossings. The 1st one was pretty narrow and there were stepping stones, but when I got there a long line had stopped to cross. I just passed them by and went into the water ankle deep and kept running. HA!

I knew that there would be at least 2 more water crossings that we would have no choice but to get wet, so why not start now. Amazingly, wet feet were not a problem. But after the water crossings, the trail was thoroughly soaked, slippery, and muddy. But so what! I just ran on through.

I finally had to stop running when we hit a trail that climbed straight up about 45° for 100 feet. It was very rocky and seemed more like a hike than a run. But I can tell you no one ran by me on that hill even though I was walking.

I started out about the middle of about 200 runners and probably ended up in the last 20. I forgot to look at the clock, but by my watch a few seconds later showed about 1hr 15 min. The 30k folks started at 7:00, we started at 7:30. The 1st 30k guy passed me on his 2nd loop at about 3 miles, just before the half way aid station. (Last minute update, my final time was 1:17:08, a pace of 12:26 min./mile. Slower than my normal race pace, but way faster than I felt like I was going.)

I am very familiar with the park and I knew when to conserve energy and when to run full out. So that was helpful to me. But still most of the folks there had run the race before and are experienced trail runners. They were mostly just flying by, really just amazing to see as these where the ones who had already run 10k plus at that point.

A couple of places where we had some steep gullies, running down hill was a little nerve wracking, it looked like a dirt slide. But I made it without injury. Knock on wood! In all I think I had to walk up about 3 long inclines, waded through water 4 times, and sit on my hiny and slide once. I only passed 2 people running but a handful walking, and finished the race able to stand on my own. It was a winner and I can't wait to try another.

 One of the 30k runners coming around for his 3rd loop.

Only one problem. At about the last ½ mile I could feel my left arch and heel starting to hurt each time I hit the ground. Now I can hardly walk or stand on that foot. It's the dreaded planter fasciitis acting up. I'm downing pills and living with ice nearby. I HAVE to run next Saturday.

I ran in the Texas Round-Up 10K today. My stats are 6.2 miles, 1:10:46, 11'25"/mile. It was about 74°, overcast, and high humidity at race time of 8:00am.

We started from the back of the Capitol, North on Guadalupe, East on Dean Keaton, South down Chicon, West on 11th, and back to the Capitol. A very senic tour of the Capitol grounds, UT campus, and a newly upgraded East Austin.

I guess from the humidity, I did not have the "go power" to run up the various hills. There were about four big ones, mostly gradual, that went up 50 feet. So I walked a part of those hills. 3 of these where in the first 3 miles.

I walked a few seconds and drank water at the first 4 water stops (located at each mile). I took string cheese with me and ate about ½ of it at 3 ½ miles.I forgot to buy some GU or other energy food for the race. It seems to me that I did have more energy at the end of the race.

The 4th hill was very short and very steep at about 5 ½ miles. Go West on 11th from IH35, you'll notice the hill right away! I actually did run up about ¾ of this hill and felt better about it than the others. Probably because of the cheese and the "2nd wind" thing.

Then all the rest of the way in to the finish line was downhill.  I finished up racing at top speed across the finish line.

I thought (hoped) I could do the race in an hour. But based upon how hard it felt, I'm happy with my time. It is just a tiny bit slower than my PR of 1:07 for my last 10K.

The race on Sunday was fantastic! One of our very good friends has been running for years and he gave me some very good tips for this race in particular. Thank you Ed! His tips made it easy for me to run the entire 6.2 miles, injury free, have a good time, and finish in 1 hr and 7 min which was 5 minutes faster than my most daring dream finish time. Those were my goals, yahoo!

Pre-race Ed and I planning to be #1 in each of our divisions.

My total time was 1:7:26,  so I ran an average 10'53"/mile. There were 6648 timed racers, and maybe that many fun runners and walkers. I finished 4888th. In my division, females between 50 and 54, there were 181 and I finished 82nd. I'm very happy with that.

The 1st 3 miles were uphill and I held back as instructed. My goal was to run in 1 hour and 12 min, or about 12'/mile. So I figured I should run the 1st 3 miles at about 13'/miles. Every time I looked at my Nike+ SportBand I was doing 9' plus per mile, so I would try and slow it down some more.

At first EVERYONE was passing me by. But then when we hit the peaks of those last 2 hills, I was one of the few still running. A team was running near me and each time we hit a downhill section, their coach would yell at them to keep it under control. I took her advice and used that as recovery time instead of using it to reclaim lost time for running slow as I normally do.

I tried something new on the race, Shot Bloks. This is a fuel block of gummy bear like chews. I calculated that if I ate one at about 20 minutes into the race and another at about 40 minutes this should give me a little extra energy for the end of the race. The directions say to be sure to drink water after eating, so I planned it for just before the 1st water stop. I popped that chew into my mouth, bit into it and realized that I had just glued my jaws together, filled my mouth with chewy gummy goo, and I could not breathe.

Ha, I had ignored the cardinal rule, don't try anything new for the race. Try new stuff during training. This is why. I did not think eating was a new thing. After I finally managed to chew up the Shot Blok, catch my breath, and climb half way up the final hill I realized that I had just passed the 1st water stop. It was in the left lane, I was in the right, and there were just so many people I did not see it until I was past it. No way I was going back, oh well I got 2 cups at the next water stop, about a mile away, and I was fine. I don't know for sure but I think the Shot Bloks did help.

After the hills I started speeding up a little bit each ½ mile as I still felt fresh and ready to go. At the 6 mile marker some coach was standing on the sidelines yelling, "Now is the time to give it everything you've got left. Anything you have left, USE IT!" I don?t think he was talking to me, but it sounded like great advice so I started running full steam ahead.

As I came around the last corner I could see that the finish line chute was a little longer than I expected and I began to think maybe I started my final push a little too early. As I started to falter someone else yelled, "GO, GO, GO! Don't let up now!!!" What else could I do but keep running as fast as I could? I wish I could thank all those nice people out there for helping me Sunday. LOL

Here we are at the finish, both happy our runs.

Ed took 9th in his division!

 His goal? To be in the top ten.

See my album for more pictures .

THE WEATHER

We had such a beautiful weekend the week before, with temps in the 80s° several days in a row. I did a lot of work in the yard and twisted my knee Tuesday night. You can see my piles of limbs.

Then it turned cold and wet. We fortunately had 3 days of constant drizzle and more off and on rain through Sunday. We had more rain last week than in all of the 18 months before, put together. But it came down all gentle like and soaked in instead of washing away like it usually does. That was all well and good, but I could have done without the cold part! Now today it is already sunny and 80° this afternoon. I love Central Texas weather.

EATING

Anyway since I hurt my knee I sulked in the house for 2 days icing and resting my knee and mostly eating everything in the house. Fortunately I had already devoured all the candy and sweets the week before, so I had to make do with gorging on healthy stuff. Still the points can add up fast, and I counted each and every one of the damn things and kept on eating!

But finally on Thursday my knee felt better and I did some house work instead of eating. And my Friday morning yoga class was excellent, my teacher concentrated on poses that would be knee healthy and healing, as all 3 of us in the class plus my teacher had knee issues that day. The 3 of them always do and mine were just temporary.

RUNNING

So on Saturday Richard, Penny, and I headed to New Bruanfels and spent the night. Our neighbor watched Lucy at home for us. Then Sunday morning I ran in a 5k. (Get Your Rear in Gear 5k a benefit for colon cancer, Ha Ha very funny name.) This is me coming in to the finish line.

Richard is so sweet, he takes me to all the races and stands around while I run, and then puts up with me hanging around for no reason except I just want to be part of the crowd for awhile. He even went to the car to get me a blanket because I did not bring any cover ups or clothes to change into.                  

It rained pretty good off and on all morning so that we were all pretty much soaked before the race even started. The temps were in the mid 40s° and it seemed pretty cold, even Penny was shivering. But once I started running I forgot about the cold and just really enjoyed the run. After a week of rest, running felt easy and really good. I had no trouble with my knee at all, and I ran my best time ever. 3.1 miles in 29'59", that means I ran 9'40"/mile.

The Capitol 10,000 (6.2 miles) is on the 29th. The longest I've run so far is 5.5 miles and I had to walk some of that. So I have a couple weeks to get my distance up. But I cannot be "training" the week of the race, I'm supposed to "taper" off. (The exact details of what that means are elusive, but basically I should run less that I have been before to rest for the race.) I'll just have to do the best I can the day of the race.

Last year's winners ran the 10k in the same time or less than I ran the 5k this weekend, so I'm not even thinking about speed. The first 3 miles are mostly uphill, rising and dropping about 50 feet twice in that period. After that it?s mostly downhill. There is one famous view where we top the first hill and the road drops down to an overpass and then rises back up. 6 lanes of road are visible for about a mile, and it is filled with runners. It is a fantastic sight. I'll try and get a picture.

This is a very popular race and lots of people wear costumes and there are always lots of  walkers too. Richard and I have walked it several years in the past.

KEFIR

I put my kefir in the refrigerator Saturday morning just after I feed it, and got it out Sunday late afternoon. This morning it was ready and tasted pretty good. I?m only making 2 cups a day, which is all I can use, but it is ready in about 18 hours. Mine is still not real creamy, just a little lumpy, but it tastes real good. My neighbor liked it and she is very picky about food. But she is on a health kick, so I split up my grains this morning and started 2 batches. As soon as I am sure that it has a good start, I will give her one. That is my 2nd gift kefir. My yoga teacher has not commented on the kefir yet, so I am not sure how hers is doing.

The kefir cheese ball I made looks kind of funny and it smells pretty strong. It has only been about a week, so it is not suppose to be ready yet. Maybe in another week. It seemed pretty moist to me, so I have not covered it in olive oil, but I think I will today.

GOALS AND CHALLENGES

Today I am suppose to weigh-in at the Weight Watchers meeting, but I am about 4 pounds over goal, so I'm not going. I'm not doing so great with any of my goals or commitments to get back to goal. We found a couple a great restaurants while we were out of town this weekend, and I did splurge some. But I thought I did ok and I did run. But obviously sitting around the house all week and eating is not On-Plan.

Well I started fresh today! I am OP so far today and this week! One day at a time I WILL get there!

I keep extensive charts and graphs on every facet of my weight loss and exercise program. After reviewing the record of my points eaten each week for WW, I realized that I have made a habit of NOT staying within my points limit each week. And the scales have been reflecting this.

In an effort to get myself back on track before it is too late I did 2 things.

1) I started keeping track of my weight publicly here on my web-site. (See the Charts tab.)

2) I started reporting my daily points consumed to my friends on the WW Roll Call message board. Here is what I had to report this week.

Average Daily Points Goal: 32-34        (26 DP + 7 max WP/AP)

Weekly Goal: 245

Monday                 33

Tuesday                 28

Wednesday           34

Thursday               48.5

Friday                    34.5

Saturday               38

Sunday                  37.5

Total for the week = 253.5   (182 DP+ 35 WP +36.5 AP)

Total APs earned = 39

I left 2.5 APs unused. This is the first time in 20 weeks that I did not use more than my ?allowed? number of points. Even though I did go over my goal for the week, I feel pretty good about the not going over what I was allowed.

I have also been doing a much better job of keeping to my training schedule except for the weight training. I used my small episode of shin splints as an excuse to lay off the weights. I need to get back to those now. I?m thinking that I need to change up my routine, NROL is a great routine, but I seem to be intimidated by it. Maybe that will help me to get back in.

I got my studio cleaned up last week, so I can no longer use the fact that the weights were buried under 3 foot of paper work as an excuse not to go in there and get it done!

I see that my body fat % is starting to turn towards a downward trend. That is the best sign that I am doing better at controlling what I eat and moving my body!

Since starting WW I have been learning a lot about new foods. I love food, any kind of food, probably why I?m here. So I was so surprised to find out that there are lots of foods I know nothing about.

One of my new favorite foods is kefir. Kefir is cultured milk, somewhat like yogurt only more liquid. I often use it instead of milk. My yoga teacher actually introduced me to it first as a drink mixed with mango juice. I love it on cereal, in my smoothies, and mixed with fruit juice.

Anyway I discovered a couple of weeks ago that my brother in Grand Junction had started growing his own kefir cultures. After his had multiplied enough he sent me some in the mail. I just started mine on Sunday night and it is growing very nicely.

What you do is add milk to the kefir grains (they look like cauliflower) every day, let them sit on the counter, and then after 24 hours you pour off the kefir and start over. The trick is to get the correct proportion of milk to the number of grains. When it is right it equals a nice taste and a smooth consistency. But the grains multiply and getting the portions correct for your kitchen conditions takes practice. And you have to wait 24 hours to know the results.

The first 2 batches were pretty sour and very watery, due to shock from travel. Yesterday the curds had already started to separate from the whey after only 8 hours. This means there was not enough milk, so I added another cup. When I poured it off at 5:30pm it had started separating again. I did mix in a little extra milk and let the finished kefir sit on the counter for about 4 hours before I refrigerated it at bed time. The active cultures in the kefir will continue to work on the milk even though the grains were removed.

It tasted very good on my cereal this morning with fresh strawberries.

It still is not totally smooth. But the instructions assure me that if you keep adding more milk to taste, the consistency will come as the grains get healthier and more acclimated to their current location.

I guess that 2 days of rain we had about 3 weeks ago and the 3 days of 80° temps we had last week sent Spring into the roots of our plants. There are flowers and trees blooming out all over the neighborhood. I took these pictures on one of my dog walks this week.

Now with Spring in the air I feel a sense of renewal. I am still having a terrible time controlling my points. I track everything I eat, I just ignore the points adding up. So I have made my Spring commitment to disclose how many points I eat each day on RC. Public pressure has just got to work in combination with my new commitment to exercise.

You will notice I modified my workout schedule to run only three times a week. I am trying to prevent any further increase to the shin splints, I'm taking them as a sign that I was overdoing it and not allowing enough rest in between runs. But I,m still working towards the same number of miles per week, so that means I will have to run longer.

Yesterday I ran in the Daisy 5K race, downtown in East Austin.

The race it?s self was great. I just ran and ran and enjoyed the high of the crowd.

The only thing was the weather. The high on Friday was 89° and then on Saturday morning we woke up to 48° with very high and freezing winds. It felt like ice going through everything I was wearing. The wind was blowing so hard that one of the vendor's canopy just took off like kite before the race.

I took 3 different jackets and shirts and kept changing my mind about what I was going to wear each time I got out of the car. In the end I took off one layer, knowing I would get warmer and it seemed to do ok. In fact I was down to a long sleeved t-shirt by the end of the 2nd mile.

I did wear my Nike+ Wristband, but I did not look at it. I just ran what felt like "comfortably pushing it" for me. I had checked out the route the day before, so I knew that between mile 2 and 2 1/2 was up hill. So I reserved a little for that, and it worked out just right. Even though we were running face into the wind at that point.

In the end I finished in 32'26" which is my personal best. And I felt good about my run.

For the past 2 weeks I have been having some very slight shin splint pains. I did try shin splint exercises several times on Friday, and woke up feeling better Saturday. I had no pain during the race, and only have just a slight echo of the pain in the evening, and even less this morning.

I did not take any pain meds or ice, because I did not want to mask any pain for the race, so I would know if I was hurting myself and could stop running if I needed to. I?m trying out the McKenzie Method treatment of strained muscles. As long as I don?t have debilitating pain and/or swelling, I will let my body?s natural process work to heal my wounds. Plus some rest and some measured exercise.

I think the pains are a result of running more than I'm used to and running more on the pavement when I used to run almost exclusive on the trail. Maybe a little bit because of my old shoes were 9 months old too.

I'm currently running yet only about 15 miles a week. I run 4 times a week;  3, 4, 3, 5. I'm increasing my long run by only 10% each week to get up to running a 10K comfortably by the end of the month. Then I'll work on getting up to 20 miles a week more slowly.

 

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Races completed:

8/31/08 Nike+ Human Race 10k
9/4/08 C25K Grad
9/14/08 Got Guts 5k
11/13/08 OHR Grad

12/7/08 Brown Santa 5k, 34:14 min, 10?58?/mile

12/14 Jingle Bell 5k, 32:33nmin, 10?10?/mi

1/1 Resolution Run 5k, 3.14 miles, 32?51?, 10?26?/mi 

2/28 Daisy 5k, 32?22?, 3.2 miles, 10?26?/mi

Upcoming runs:

3/15 Get Your Rear In Gear 5k

3/29 Capitol 10,000

4/25 Texas Round-Up 10k

5/9 Chuy?s Hot to Trot 5k

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Looking at my daily stats on my Chart Tab, I am not seeing a downward trend that I wanted to see by now. But I'm not seeing the upward trend I was having 2 weeks ago either. So I reckon I'll just have to be happy with that. 

Last night's running group was interesting and challenging. I got there just in time to see them all running off, so I had to run to catch up. Of course we did our normal run 1 mile to somewhere else for a warm up. Based on my Nike+ Wristband I was running about 9?30?/mile which is fast for me, and I was still trailing far behind.

Near the store MCC has a building with a running track around it. Our assignment last night was to run 3 minutes then walk 45 seconds, and repeat 6 times. Crazy me, I thought I can run 3 minutes pretty fast, and just tried to stay within visual range of the others. I did not check my speed as I left my Wristband on time. Later when I uploaded my run, I saw that I was running 6?13?/mile. I had no idea I could run that fast. And I did make the 1st 3 minutes. But the last minute was really hard and I had to tell myself keep going, keep going, kept going.

 45 minutes turned out to be a really short recovery period, and I took the 2nd 3 minutes much slower. Still I had to stop before the whistle and by then everyone else was long gone. I stayed in for all 6 intervals, going much slower and stopping after about 2 ½ minutes to walk about 1 minute.

 After the last interval, our leader (who by the way was running forward and back, catching up to the lead and coming back to encourage the stragglers, basically me, and looking like he was on a Sunday stroll) told me to head on back. That?s because he knew it would take me longer to get back to the store than everyone else.

I did take it slow and ran most of the way back with only 2 short walk breaks. Our leader and 1 other guy passed me by about half way. And I?m sure they started last after everyone else did. The others came in right behind me at the store.

The funny thing is, as tired as I was and as much as I felt like my lungs would burst, I did not feel bad afterwards. I just felt like I had a good run as usual. I am so hyped for running the race on Saturday. I know I will improve my time, even just a little bit.

Stats:  45?51? min, 3.95 miles, 11?36?/mile

(I am amazed myself with this time, which includes a lot of walking.)

I do wish I could run with the group though, or someone else slow would join up with us. I'm still running on my own.

 I have been within my goal range (135+- 2 lbs) since September 2, 2009.

I find maintenance to be boring. There is no drama. Each day I check my weight and it?s the same. Yahoo! I weigh the same! Blah!

I have been slightly gaining since January 1st, I can tell because my body fat % is going back up. Now I have all the new excitement about getting my body fat percentage to 23%. I think I got careless on purpose so I would have something to worry about.

Is anyone else on maintenance finding this to be true?

 What do I need the drama for? Our Fearless RC Leader points out that life is drama. He is correct, I know. But my life for the last year has been all about weight loss and exercise. I need my life to be about something else. But I don't want to lose my focus on weight control or I will start to gain again.

 That being said yesterday I ran 3 miles without stopping once. I did have to run in place a couple of times for Penny to leave a message for the neighborhood dogs, but I kept going.

I was looking on line for more races to run and I found where the Austin Running club is sponsoring a series of 5 runs, 3 5ks and 2 10ks which they will be awarding prizes for the best combined runs. The awards go by age group so I have a chance at winning something.

I was already signed up for one of the 10ks. So I joined the Austin Running Club and signed up for the other 4 races. The first one is a 5k this Saturday. Wish me luck!

Sunday I duct tapped the Nike+ sensor to a piece of cardboard the same size as my key pouch that goes on my shoe laces, then put the whole thing inside the key pouch. I think that worked very well. I ran for about 38 minutes, walking for 1 minute every 6-9 minutes; and it registered that as 3 miles. That seems about right to me. When I get the actual shoe pouch I will recalibrate it at the track.

I had planned on running 8 minutes then walking 1 minute as one of my online friends suggested; but I found that due to Penny?s needs, bikers on the trail, music problems with my cell phone, and the irregular terrain; I sometimes had to stop early or felt it would be better to run a little longer. Still it was a nice way to break up the run, do interval work, and keep on going even when I was getting tired.

Working on my plan for the next 5 weeks preparing for my 10k run I realized that my short runs are now at least 3 miles. See my plan on the Chart Tab.

What I did was calculate the total miles I ran this week. Then I figured out what a 10% increase would be for each of the next 3 weeks. I set it up so that my long run is 10% longer each week. I then allowed 4 miles for my Wednesday running group. Then subtracting those 2 runs from my weekly total I divided the remainder by 2 and those are my short runs.

After 3 weeks my long run will be 6 miles, I?ll repeat week 3 on the 4th week. Then on the 5th week I will run 2 miles on Tuesday, 4 on Wednesday, and then rest until Sunday when I will run the Capitol 10,000.

This is a little ambitious, but I think it will work out ok. Although I am still feeling a little pain in my shins, knew, ankles, and the bottom of my feet. I have added more stretching afterward, mostly yoga poses. But nothing hurts while I am running and I take that as a good sign.

I did much better in regards to food yesterday. For one thing we slept in, so we did not eat breakfast until late in the morning, about 9:00. I had a little snack after my run at noon. Then we went for lupper at about 3:00. (Lupper is lunch and supper, like brunch.) Both of those meals were pretty big, but total points were ok. No munching was done in the living room chair!

Gail is back On Plan!

I was thinking about not writing about this, because it is boring and I did not want to write boring stuff. But the purpose of this blog is for me is to be accountable. So, I must confess, I messed up.

I felt very good about yesterday. I ran, I finished up after dinner with 4 DPs left over, and I even caught up on a week?s worth of e-mails and online postings.

But as a treat for it being Saturday, we ate dinner in our chairs in the living room. The TV was NOT on. But later we did turn on the TV and I kept feeling like I needed more. I was not really hungry, I just needed more. I did a pretty good job of eating healthy foods, but not FF foods. Some peanut butter on toast and then cheese on crackers. I blew all my good work of the week and went over my points. I can make up some with some APs today, but not all.

The good news is that the scale was good to me anyway. Weight training really does make a difference. Of course keeping on track with all my activities doesn?t hurt. So I have a short run to do today. I?ll tape my sensor down in my RoadID key pouch until the shoe pouch* I ordered comes in. And I will find another activity to add some more points.

*Thanks to my online friends I found a shoe pouch for my Nike+ sensor at http://www.grantwoodtechnology.com/shoepouch/ .

Penny and I ran in the park this morning and I wore my new shoes. They are Under Armour, Spectres. A new brand that feel like I am wearing slippers. I really liked them on my run.

http://www.underarmour.com/shop/us/en/

But they are not Nike?s, so I put my Nike+ sensor in the RoadID* pouch on my shoe. I tested it around the house and it seemed to be working fine.

I had planned a 3 mile run. When running in the park there are plenty of road challenges so I felt like I did not need to add interval work since I?m still sore all over from starting over with NROLW. So I resolved to just watch my miles and not pay any attention to pace or time.

After the first loop ½ mile loop I checked and the Nike+ Wristband told me we had gone .6 miles. Good so far. Then I ran an outer loop which I don?t run that often and when I finished it we had only gone another ½ mile. This did not seem right to me, but if I was going to go 3 miles I decided to strike out on the trail down to the main water crossing which I knew would add another mile.

After running down to the water and back, I was at only 1.75 miles. Now I was getting suspicious, but I was also getting tired and stupid. I felt like heck and could not believe I could feel so bad with more than 2 miles to go. I decided to run the ½ mile loop one more time, mostly because it is downhill, and then head for home. At 2.02 miles I just gave up. On Wednesday I had run 4 miles and didn?t feel this bad. I really thought 2 days of rest should be enough recovery time.

I had quite a ways to go to walk home and I limped and pouted all the way back. When I got home DH said, ?Wow, you were sure gone a long time.? So I finally looked at the time.

I had run for 58 minutes. NO WAY had I only run 2.02 miles in 58 minutes. Walking I could at least go 3 miles in that time.

After a little internet research I see that the Nike+ sensor needs to keep its foot alignment front to back, be securely in place, and not be bouncing around to be accurate. My shoe pouch is too big and allowed it to slide all around while I was running. DH suggests duct tape, which is not that far off from some of the other suggestions I read on other boards. LOL

So based upon my average pace in the past, running in the park with similar times, I really ran between 4¼ to 4½ miles. Now I don,t feel so bad about how beat up I felt.

But I do feel a little foolish that I did not realize I had been running for so long.

*By the way RoadID is a great idea. They print a metalic label you can put on your shoe with your name and emergency contact information. Just in case you are out running and pass out or get hit by a car.     http://www.roadid.com/Common/default.aspx

Mount scale was up for me a little this morning. But I am not surprised.

Richard and I met his sister and brother-in-law as planned for dinner last night. I did pretty well, it being a buffet I stuck mostly with the veggies, a very small piece of chicken, and only 2 tiny cookies for dessert.

But that was not really the problem. For lunch we went for BBQ. I had a lean brisket plate with pinto beans and a green salad. I grab a to-go box and packed half the brisket and most of the pinto beans to take home before I even started to eat.

But they were giving away a generous piece of homemade brownie with each meal. It was FREE, how can anyone say no?

Eating the brownie still was not the worst of it, but it was the start. After that I just could not get over the desire for more sweets.

Next I had a candy bar. I had to go buy one since I try to live by "If you don't buy it, you won't eat it," so there were no candy bars in the house. And the entire time I was telling myself, this is a big mistake. WWRCD? But I did it anyway.

(WWRCD means What Would Roll Call Do. Those of us on the Roll Call message board use it as a short cut to remind us what they would tell us to do if we could e-mail for help. Sort of like an AA sponsor.)

I still had the points, so I'm not out of plan yet. And today is a new day, thank goodness. But now I have the weekend ahead. Traditionally I eat more points during the weekend. I have to  be really carefull not to go overboard this weekend.

Amazing how I have to relearn these bad old habits over and over. Eating sweets in the middle of the day creates the urge to munch all day. It is easier to wait until evening, have a planned small sweet, and then be done for the day.

I did not run as planned yesterday, because I was too sore and really did need to rest. But today I will go to yoga class and then stop at the gym right after, before lunch with Richard. (We are planning on going to Chinese Buffet, so I will eat fruit instead of ice cream for dessert. Remind me, OK?)  I probably won't have time to swim, but I can spend some extra time on the eliptical machine, or some such piece of equipment.

  1. Stay within my WW points. 

  So far so good, I still have 6 weekly points and 16 activity points left for the week. I always journal, but to be honest for the last few months I ALWAYS go over in points. Now the tricky part of the weekend is coming up, so I need to get smart here.

2. Stick to my workout schedule. 

  I ran 2 miles on Monday. I walked the dogs, swam laps, and did weight training on Tuesday. Yesterday I went to a 90 min yoga class in the morning and ran 4 miles with my running group in the evening. This morning I feel like I was beat up with a stick, but I'm planning some house work and maybe some yard work.

  Normally I would take the puppies for a walk but Penny has some kind of pain. She won't jump up on the furniture; she just paces back and forth looking longing up until someone lifts her up. And she is walking slowly and her tail is down. She takes the steps to the yard very gingerly. Obviously something hurts, but I can't really tell what. I gave her a baby aspirin and she gets a day of rest today. Then we will see.

3. Don't eat in my chair in front of the TV in the evening.

  We have done this 3 nights in a row. It seems to be working so far in helping me to eliminate my cravings to eat mindlessly while watching TV.

Tonight we are meeting up with my Sister-in-law and her husband for dinner. I always enjoy being with them. We will be going to Dimassi's Mediterranean Buffet. The food is so good and so healthy too. As long as I don't go overboard on portion size and watch the dessert I'll be double happy. OP and Yummy Food.