This time I really mean it. Resuming training, yet again. PTC training - week 1. Weight Watchers Summer - week 1.

My last post was entitled "Resuming Training". Um, yeah. That went well (not).

Fatigue has continued to be an issue, but at least in the last month I know it's because I was totally burning the candle at both ends with our pastoral search committee work for church. I made the deliberate choice to take another break and try again starting this week. Then my dad got really, really sick (bad bad bad GI bug) and my mom is vacationing in Spain, and yeah, that was stressful. I mentioned all this to my family doc, who has tried in the past to find answers to my fatigue, and she said we should try upping my anti-depressant/anti-anxiety meds - could be related to depression. OK, sure, why not? I will do anything. I just want to feel better.

I did all my workouts this week. They were slow, but whatever. I am telling myself that I am just happy to be out there at this point, which is (mostly) true.

Sunday: 6K trail run (not on the schedule, just did it with Calvin)
Monday: 6K 6:44/km
Tuesday: 4K 6:55/km plus 3x200m @85% in 3:21
Wednesday: elliptical 40 min
Thursday: 3K fartlek (19:34; legs like concrete; warm at 22.8C)
Friday: elliptical 40 min
Saturday: 10K 6:50/km (photo above - me & boy-o and dogs)

I also went to Weight Watchers today. Weight - an ugly 169.4. (At home - 168.0). That has to be down to about 160 by August or I might die of embarrassment when staying with my very fit friend Katie.

OK, have got my work cut out for me. Onward.

SLC Half Marathon - 2017 edition

Friday: rest day, with some gentle hiking with my friend Lois in Red Butte Garden. Awesome.

Saturday: Salt Lake City Half Marathon!

I woke ready to go and feeling pretty good. Had a banana and grabbed my stuff, but forgot my Garmin. At least I have my fitbit, but I can't do splits on it. Oh well! I didn't mind too much as I was doing this just as a training race. I was excited to get out there and enjoy the camaraderie, and the weather was absolutely perfect. Started off low 40s (~5C) and sunny and calm, and ended at probably 50F (10C).

Took it easy for the first 5 miles (a couple small steep uphills but mostly gentle downhill), and then through mile 6.5 it's a relentless though gentle uphill. That takes a lot out of you, but I took it easy and it was OK. A little more downhill and then one more difficult uphill (hard to racewalk legally near the top) before coasting down to mile 8-9. The kids were supposed to greet me at mile 8.5 but didn't :/ ah well.

I still felt pretty good in miles 8-10; legs got pretty tired around mile 10 but I took a gel and that seemed to revive me a bit (or it was just a coincidence!). Either way, I was able to do the last couple miles pushing it just a little (moderate-moderately hard) and I felt very good - tired, but good. After crossing the finish line I felt fine and recovered well the rest of the day, although it was a bit of a crazy schedule. Church stuff has been super busy with being on the search committee for a new pastor, and we had a lot of stuff to do this weekend, so that made recovery harder, but I am hoping to sleep well tonight.

Oh, and my time? A reasonably respectable 2:21:37 - for out of shape and just enough training to go the distance, I will take that. Fitbit data here. 

I'm definitely sore today, probably from the hills and the extra effort the last couple miles, but it's a good kind of sore. Hoping to hit the gym for some weights this week and do a lot of cross-training. Onward! Need to get ready for Portland to Coast in August, and then still setting my sights on WMA in Malaga, Spain in 2018.

elliptical; 6K w/3x200 @85%

Yesterday: elliptical, but only for 25 minutes...I was tired, and busy. Something is better than nothing though!

Today: Had a bit of trouble getting out of bed so I was running late. I managed my 6K with my dog Sugar just fine; my legs were a little tired when I got out of bed but felt fine on my walk :). Did 6:39/km for 39:55 with ave HR 144. Then rushed home to walk Calvin to school - I like the hangout time with him; he can walk himself but it's good to spend the time with him. On the way back, with my dog Powder, I did some 200s - but only had time/distance for 3 before getting to our street. As it was I still missed my regular bus and took a little later one. The 200s were slow but I expected that. Whatever. I'm training.

***

It's hard to train right and eat right at the same time. It takes energy to train, and takes energy (quite a lot actually) to eat right. I am trying to sleep more, but that's tricky too, as I'm serving on the search committee at our church to find a new pastor (our previous pastor had a great job opportunity open up in New York City, and after 16 years here we miss him but it was good for him to take the opportunity). The search committee is a lot of work, but I'm glad I'm doing it. Add in the usual kid stuff and work stuff and it gets a little crazy - no, a LOT crazy. I'm learning to say no to other things to make all this work, but I don't want to stay this busy all the time and am glad this is just for a season. Meanwhile, it's challenging.

Emigration Canyon 10-miler (16K), 6K

Busy week (as usual lately - too busy - am working to change this). Not proud of it and hoping things will calm down a bit.

Saturday I did the Emigration Canyon 10 mile race (16K) and enjoyed it a lot despite being slow and getting quite sore because of the large amount of downhill. It was uphill for 2k and then downhill for 13K and then more or less flattish for 1K. Tough course but so pretty. I finished in 1:46:01 for 6:33 per km (my watch said 16.2km), which is slow for that much downhill, but I don't care right now. Just glad I did it. That afternoon I worked very hard in the yard for 3 hr, getting rid of major weed problems. Yay spring :) for flowers but :( for weed eradication and the resumption of yard work. I'm not a fan.

Sunday I cross-trained 45 min on the elliptical followed by a soak in the hot tub at the gym to ease my muscles and help me relax. It felt great.

My muscles were still quite sore today and it really hurt to start racewalking but once I'd done about 500m it felt better, and though I was slow again, at least it got done. 6K in 40:22 for 6:44/km with ave HR 143. Yeah...slow...oh well. I'm heavy and out of shape, but hey, I got out there and got it done.

Now if I can just sleep enough to keep the fatigue at bay and help with weight management. I'm still attending my Weight Watchers meetings and am down over 7lb since January but still have a ways to go.

One of the things that's keeping me really busy is that I'm on the pulpit committee at church, helping us find a new pastor (our previous pastor got a great new job at a large church in New York City; we miss him). It's a ton of work and lots of meetings, but actually has been interesting and fun.

OK...got to run...lots to do :). Including SLEEP hopefully.

easy 8K

I was to do an easy 8K (5 miles) this morning. It went fine; I didn't set any land speed records, but I wasn't trying to! My foot actually felt pretty good the whole time. I ended up doing 8.28K by mistake (miscalculated return distance at one point) in 56:28, for 6:49/km or 10:59/mile.

After that I went to work to pull some plates. No colonies :(. Grrrr. Something is wrong with my @#$(*& site-directed mutagenesis and it's really annoying. Oh well...can't do anything about it 'til Tuesday so best to put it out of my mind.

Then I headed to the gym for some weight training. I did a good hard abs set, a good set of hip exercises (hip flexor, abductors) on the hip cybex machine, some cable crossovers for chest, and some heel walking. I got there late (due to having to stop in at work), but I also managed some light PT exercises. I tried to take it easy to avoid more foot pain. I did heel raises (those don't seem to hurt at all), some balancing on the dyna disk, some windmills, some lunges on the Bosu, and some dynamic lunges on the Bosu. I did 2 sets instead of the usual 3, and was generally cautious about things.

Next I drove over to the chapel our church is renting (at a school) and practiced the organ for 30 min. Gotta be ready for Easter, y'know?

Whew. 8:00 am and time to head home. That was a lot of activity for the morning! Later this morning, practicing with soloist for Easter, and then heading over to my parents' house. They are going to watch the kiddos for me a little bit so I can go shopping for their Easter candy :).

Merry Christmas

We had a lot of fun today. My day started with an awesome racewalk during which I enjoyed the Christmas lights and the peace & quiet in the neighborhood. It was about 10 degrees, so pretty cold, but beautiful. Good news...the no treats for the past few weeks has paid off. The scale read 147.0 this morning :). Of course, after the treats I enjoyed today it might not stay that low. No, seriously, I did indulge but had saved points, and I exercised a lot, so probably will be OK.

After returning home, I got a quick shower and made some coffee, and my parents showed up. Calvin was awake and ready to see what Santa brought - so fun to see how excited he was! Michelle was still asleep, so Loren went in to wake her up. She said, "Don't wake up me, Daddy. Don't wake up ME!". 3 1/2 year old grammar is totally cute sometimes.

Once she was up, however, she was so thrilled to see that Santa had brought her a toy kitchen. She and Calvin both loved it, and they also loved their stockings, full of candy, fruit (pears and grapefruit, which seemed to be as much of a hit as the chocolate!), crayons, coloring books, and more. The cutest thing she said all morning was very early on - she had looked at her new kitchen carefully for 30 seconds or so, and then she said, "But there's NO FOOD!". She really wanted some toy food! Calvin then pointed at a present with her name on it, and she opened it immediately - it just happened to be one that had some toy food in it :). Very funny!

Speaking of food, we had the traditional Christmas bread my mom makes for breakfast, plus some pineapple, and of course, chocolate from our stockings. Later in the day we snacked on veggies and a light dip, a few crackers, and a cheese ball (I ate very few crackers and skipped the cheese to save calories for the good stuff). Then we had a beef roast for dinner, asparagus w/hollandaise, spring mix salad with walnuts, apples, feta, and homemade raspberry vinaigrette, and some more pineapple. For dessert, we enjoyed a peppermint stick torte I made, which is one of Loren's favorite desserts. Delicious. All the same, while I was racewalking today, it felt so great and I knew that it was worth it to keep my indulgences (like today) to a minimum so that I can stay fast :). Crazy, huh? But a good kind of crazy.

I got Loren the Wii Fit Plus for his big present. He's actually excited to use it. We tried out some of the games and they're really fun. I like the balance games (favorites were snowboarding and ski jumping), though I clearly need practice to excel at them. I tried the step aerobics, and while it was fun, it was too easy for me - barely got me breathing. Hopefully after I do it a while it will get harder Regardless, it was quite entertaining.

Oh, almost forgot...was going to mention last night, too. Our church moved to a much nicer building - we were meeting in a dingy basement (for 9 years!) but outgrew it and started renting a beautiful chapel at Rowland Hall St. Mark elementary school. It has a STEINWAY grand piano, and a PIPE ORGAN. I swear I'm in heaven!!! Our first service there was last night, and I played both the organ and piano. It was beautiful. I haven't had so much fun with music in a long time. It probably helped that I got to accompany a very good trombonist who attends our church; he played Ralph Vaughan Williams' Greensleeves. Plus I enjoyed the postlude on the organ: JS Bach's In Dulci Jubilo. Awesome.

Feels like there is so much more to tell. I know I'm missing a lot but I need to get some sleep, so will post a pic or two with this and head off for some shuteye. I will be working on more photos and a movie of the day, but that will take a while, so hang on!

Update: Pictures posting too slowly for some reason. Need sleep. Will try tomorrow, sorry!

I'm baaaaaaack!

I racewalked today. And, truth be told, I racewalked a little yesterday, too :). I figured one day early wouldn't hurt! Yesterday I did 15 min on the treadmill, and honestly, it felt a bit on the awful side. I did the treadmill after bike & elliptical, so I was a bit tired to start with. My racewalking muscles are out of shape, and so I was slow (12 min mile; 5 mph!). And my right piriformis was bugging me almost immediately (it has never really gotten better, despite no racewalking for 2 months - that's another story, but I think I might have something else going on w/it - might be a disc problem, sadly). But I was racewalking, and that was great. My foot did not bother me at all, which was great, too. I didn't really expect it to be a problem unless I did a longer workout or more miles, but you never know.

Today I did 20 min on the treadmill, after 45 min of swimming. The treadmill felt much better today. I was able to do about 5.3 mph, and the piriformis didn't bother me much. After that 20 min, I did a couple minutes on the concrete around the ice rink at the gym. That felt even better :). I felt much smoother today than yesterday, and my foot didn't hurt. Good stuff. I'm really looking forward to tomorrow morning, when I plan to RW around SugarHouse Park. Yay!!!!!

Back to the swimming for a second. The gym has been a good thing - I met this woman, Jill, who works out there all the time. We've hit it off and often chat while we exercise. She knows a ton of people and is always introducing me to someone. Anyway, she has a friend, Chuck (female, believe it or not), who is a pretty darn good swimmer. Chuck was going to give Jill some pointers at the pool this morning, and Jill invited me to tag along. I'm SO glad I did. It was amazing. Chuck said I'm actually looking pretty good, but she gave me a few tips about my swimming that I think will really help a lot. I wasn't reaching as far forward as I could with my arms, and I was reaching toward the middle of my body (head) rather than to my shoulders (straight ahead), thus wasting several inches or more with each stroke. In addition, I wasn't bringing my elbows high enough on the recovery part of the stroke (was dragging my arms sideways a bit in the water, wasting energy). Finally, I was doing a few minor things wrong with my hand position, and my kick was mostly good but she did have a few tips for me there as well. I think that if I actually practice the stuff she showed me, I'll be able to average 57 or 58 sec/50 yd rather than the 1:05 (or more) that I've been doing. Of course, now I can racewalk again, so I'm not sure how much I'll swim. But it was great to get the pointers and I do plan to do a little swimming in the near future so I can practice them.

***

Personal life --- work has been busy but good. I feel like I'm finally getting into the groove of the new job and the new relationships in the lab seem to be settling in. Whew. However, I've worked a lot of hours in the past few weeks, and that plus the computer problems I've had AND all the holiday stuff has meant little sleep. Not good. Oh, and I've also had a bunch of stuff going on with special music for church...as if the above-mentioned stuff wasn't enough? Ah well...'tis the season I guess.

My weight is up a bit (150 this morning) but I've been really good about my eating so probably just some water retention. Still, I'm staying on it, and no treats until Christmas is still in effect (and I'm doing well with that - not easy; my piano student brought me a thing of Dove chocolates today. I gave some to the kids but am saving most for when I can have them again!). Anyway, I'm just persevering through it all. The craziness will not last forever.

If anyone is still reading this...

Yeah, I know, it's been 3 days since I posted. Sorry. I'll write more about the busyness later.

Meanwhile, if anyone is still reading this, yes, I am still here. I'm pretty exhausted - have not been going to bed early enough (tonight is an example - I have to be up around 5:00 am and I'm still here on the computer finishing things up), and have been getting up early and having busy days. Tomorrow should be a bit more restful; after the morning TNT workout I should at least have the rest of the day to relax a bit, as my usual piano student is not coming tomorrow due to a swim meet. We're going out to dinner w/a friend, so I won't have to cook, either :).

So, what have I been up to? I'm up late enough that I want this to be brief... so I'm just going to write about my workouts, quickly. Wed & Fri I had weight training; on Wed I racewalked 2 hilly miles in 22 min before my class, and today I biked to class and back. Thursday, I was very tired from being up late at our small group (a church group; we had an amazing discussion that I hope will lead to some very good community-building - I'm quite excited about it) and I was worried about my IT band, which was a bit sore after Tuesday's track workout. I had planned a tempo workout but decided to start easy and see how it was. It felt OK, so I started to accelerate. I did a 6-mile acceleration, with HR ranging from 140-160 by the end. Average pace on a somewhat hilly route: 10:34/mile (ranging from 12:00/mile (uphill, 1st easy mile) to 9:46/mile). Then I cooled down for 0.5 mile and stretched. I felt pretty good and am hoping that I will be trouble-free tomorrow for the TNT workout.

Mom's group

I usually take the kids to our mom's group at church on Friday mornings. Here's a photo from last Friday of many of the kiddos hanging out at the little table in the nursery. So cute!

a little gripe

This being Holy Week and all, I'd like to attend a Maundy Thursday and/or Good Friday service. However, there is NO child care at either service. Ummmm, helloooooo? I think that screaming children in a Good Friday service could be most distracting. You would think that perhaps someone might have thought of this. So, I guess I'll be staying home. I thought about paying for a sitter, but have been unable to find one. I could take the kids to our former day care, but it's 1/2 day minimum and would be $32 just so I can go to church. Ouch! I think not.

Day 29: 40 days 'til 39

Today's item was to read a new prayer or check out some readings from the Book of Common Prayer or other prayer book. Loren was raised in the Episcopal Church, so he has an affinity for the Book of Common Prayer. I read a few prayers from it online, and here are some that I appreciated. The prayer for church musicians is an obvious choice, since I am one :). The Nicene Creed is one of my favorite prayers that we regularly use in our worship service at New Song. A friend at church made a really artistic version and printed it on T-shirts with our church logo, and I love it - now one of my favorite shirts. There is just something about the Nicene Creed that touches me; I feel like it is such a great summary of the teaching of the Bible on what we as Christians believe about God (especially the person of the Son), and it reflects the shared beliefs of Christians worldwide.

For Church Musicians and Artists

O God, whom saints and angels delight to worship in
heaven: Be ever present with your servants who seek through
art and music to perfect the praises offered by your people on
earth; and grant to them even now glimpses of your beauty,
and make them worthy at length to behold it unveiled for
evermore; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Nicene Creed

I believe in one God,
the Father Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
and of all things visible and invisible;

And in one Lord Jesus Christ,
the only-begotten Son of God,
begotten of his Father before all worlds,
God of God, Light of Light,
very God of very God,
begotten, not made,
being of one substance with the Father;
by whom all things were made;
who for us men and for our salvation
came down from heaven,
and was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary,
and was made man;
and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate;
he suffered and was buried;
and the third day he rose again according to the Scriptures,
and ascended into heaven,
and sitteth on the right hand of the Father;
and he shall come again, with glory,
to judge both the quick and the dead;
whose kingdom shall have no end.

And I believe in the Holy Ghost the Lord, and Giver of Life,
who proceedeth from the Father and the Son;
who with the Father and the Son together is worshiped
and glorified;
who spake by the Prophets.
And I believe one holy Catholic and Apostolic Church;
I acknowledge one Baptism for the remission of sins;
and I look for the resurrection of the dead,
and the life of the world to come. Amen.

Food for thought

For those reading for the racewalking tidbits, this will be a bit different, so read or not read as you wish. I haven't blogged as much about faith of late, but for some reason it just seems appropriate right now. I know some have separate personal and training blogs, but for me, it's all part and parcel of who I am, so I can't really tease them apart and don't want to.

At New Song today, Sam talked about food in the context of "I am the bread of life" - John 6. Excellent - lots of food for thought. Some ideas I plan to reflect on further -

1. Feasting & celebration - how to enjoy food in its proper place. This is a challenge for me, as I have used food wrongly for so long that sometimes I'm not sure how to use it rightly. Believing and fellowship are activated by eating. How true - gatherings and social interactions and getting to know others better seems to happen much better somehow in the context of food. Food is about communing, not about consuming. Particular foods remind us of things are are a window to memories and shared experiences. For example, in our family, we have a Christmas bread that we eat on Christmas Day and no other time. It just wouldn't be Christmas without it, and the food brings meaning to our family bonding experience.

2. In the context of faith, to believe and to trust involves eating - the physical act of taking communion is about deep trust and fellowship and relying on God for one's sustenance, both physical and spiritual.

I think in the recent past, I've avoided celebratory food (#1 above) out of fear of overindulging. I can often plan for it and enjoy it, but I tend to be more conscious of it than I'd like. Some of that is unavoidable, because I am a former food abuser, and like the alcoholic, will always have to take precautions. But I do want to really enjoy the food in its wider and most appropriate context of relationships.

Thinking about #2 is a bit easier. For a long time I used food as an attempt to fill my emotional and spiritual needs, unsuccessfully. It made me fat, not happy (I am happier now that ever before, even though I'm eating less!). I still have that tendency, and am pretty aware of the importance of filling those needs in more appropriate ways. Not that I do it all the time - but it is slowly getting better. It's a long process, but well worth the effort.

a hard day

Today was just one of those days that was a toughie. I usually love my job, but work today was difficult. I'm troubleshooting a complex experiment and trying to figure out the best way to approach it...and I've got to get it to work sometime in the next month for a grant deadline. To top it off, co-worker D was out of the office and I needed several things from him to do some of the work I had to do. I did find some other things to get done, but darn it, I needed to do the things I couldn't do because of D's absence. Drat. It was just a fairly rotten day at work.

So, I left work a little early (30 mins) to go and get the kids. I sat in horrible miserable traffic for 25 minutes (twice as long as it takes when there is no traffic) on the way to the day care. When I got home w/the kids (who were both whiny), I discovered a note from Loren saying that he was way too tired to do anything, and that I was on my own w/the kids for the night. He was asleep on the bed. Great. I was planning to go to trunk or treat at the neighborhood church (hopefully to meet some neighbors and get the kids some candy w/o having to drag them everywhere) and decided I'd try to do it even if Loren wasn't up to it. I managed to get the kids in their costumes, pack the diaper bag, the feeding chair, and get Michelle in the stroller. We walked to the church, and when we got there I realized there was NO WAY I could possibly go through a buffet line to get dinner (they were having dinner before trunk or treat) for myself and the kids w/o any help. I still don't know many people in the neighborhood, and I was feeling down and miserable and didn't want to introduce myself to someone just to ask for help. I didn't see anyone I knew (I do know some people but not everyone), so I just decided to leave. Calvin cried when we left because he wanted to stay (they had some cute games for the kids, and he liked the crowd - he's a people person), but what could I do? I felt even worse then.

To top it off, I couldn't even change plans and go to our own church group tonight because last night I called and told the hosts we wouldn't be coming, because we had decided to take the kids either trick or treating or to the trunk or treat instead (with me working today it wouldn't have been possible to trick or treat AND get dinner AND get to the small group on time). Besides, I wouldn't have been able to handle the kids and get anything out of the group, and it's not fair to the other group members to bring the kids when there's no sitter (there would have been a sitter if I hadn't called to cancel, but I hadn't planned on Loren being exhausted). This is all very convoluted but to make a long story short I made the kids some mac n cheese, heated up some leftovers for myself, and we ate. The kids were pretty well behaved and they were cute at dinner, so at least I survived. Michelle smeared macaroni ALL OVER, including in her hair, so I had to give them a bath, and it was past their bedtime by the time I got them in bed.

I desperately need to unwind a bit so I might take a bath, after 9 pm so that I don't miss any trick or treaters. We don't get very many so I'm giving out the big candy bars and it's pretty entertaining to see the kids' reactions - worth every cent :)! Besides, I'm less likely to eat the big ones than the fun size ones, so it's safer for me. Weird, huh?

My laptop battery is tired and I need to plug in, so I'll be back later w/some pictures.