Winter Wonderland

 

It's March 31st, but no one bothered to tell the weather...
Needless to say, I did not bike to my weight training class today, since there was about 6 inches (15cm) of fresh snow. Plus, it's pretty darn cold out there (even now, at 5 pm, it's still cold).

In fact, my weight training class didn't really happen because the instructor was really late, so I racewalked in the basement of HPER instead of lifting weights. I did 12 laps, or 3.6 miles, at an easyish pace (pushed a little, but not too much) in 38 minutes.

Ugh... more snow

Supposed to get a few inches of the white stuff tomorrow morning, so I don't think I'll be biking in to my weight training class tomorrow morning. Sigh. I really enjoy biking and it was nice to do it again last week.

Guess I'll just do my usual racewalking warm up instead.

Easy one hour racewalk

This morning I did an easy one hour walk; after yesterday's 14-miler, I didn't want to push either the pace or the distance. It was lightly drizzling but I stayed warm and dry in my Wasatch Walkers jacket, my hat, and my gloves. The dogs got pretty wet, but they didn't seem to mind.

I did 8.72km in about 1 hr.

Tomorrow I'll do a little cross-training; biking if weather permits, and weight training.

Long walk

Today I did the longest training racewalk for my half marathon, which is in 3 weeks. I did 14.1 miles in 2 hr 40 min, for 11:20 per mile average pace. I took it easy, with an average heart rate of 135. I was pretty tired by the end, and my legs are stiff now that I have been home for a while, but I feel good overall. I was able to do some quicker miles near the end; I did just over 11:00 miles in Liberty Park at miles 11 and 12 or so, with no problems.

My dogs came along, of course, and they did great. Dogs are obviously much better at this sort of thing than people :). They're tired now, though, and are sleeping.

Today was the longest walk I have ever done! I know that it's not that long for the marathoner and ultramarathoner types, but for me it was a big deal. It was about 22.6 km, by the way. I have new respect for just how hard it is to go that far, after this walk. I really can't imagine doing another 12 miles, but I think that is just what I am going to do in October. I'm contemplating doing the Nike Women's Marathon in SF with Team in Training, to raise money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. My dad was diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia in December 2006, so I want to do something to benefit research into the disease as well as support of patients with the disease.

***

In other news, I managed to take off a little weight this week! Yay! I feel good and back on track with my eating, despite Easter. I was very diligent to count all of those chocolate eggs I ate :). Last night Loren and I went on a date, and hung out at the bookstore and had coffee and dessert. He got an amazing piece of chocolate cake, and I restrained myself and had a rice krispy treat instead. I did eat 3 very small bites of his cake :) but the rice krispy treat was great, too, and I didn't feel deprived. Victory!!!

Flaked, but didn't

I flaked on my workout this morning, but I didn't. I woke a little late and it was too cold (26) to bike to weight training as I'd been doing earlier in the week, and so I decided to racewalk instead, since I missed yesterday's planned workout.

I did 4 miles at 1/2 marathon pace. Nice & brisk 10:15 miles, and a shorter workout since I plan a long easy distance (14 miles!!!) tomorrow (that will be my longest workout before the 1/2).

***

In related news, my iPod informs me I have burned 156389 calories and racewalked/run (I did include my running, which is infrequent) for 10.6 days since November 2006 when I got the Nike+iPod sport kit. 156389 calories/3500 calories per pound = 44.7 pounds that is NOT on my hips :). Or, I got to eat the equivalent of 601 packages of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups (my favorite candy!) because I worked out. That is a lot more food that I have enjoyed because of my exercising habit! :)

Snowy daffodil

 

Spring snow on hyacinth

 

Slugging it

Monday & Wed I biked to weight training and had a great workout. No racewalking.

Today I am totally slugging it. I am taking a rare rest day because I stayed up WAY too late (3 am) working on photo books. There were 2 good sales at Shutterfly and Winkflash, and I had to get the books done before the deadlines. I actually missed the Shutterfly deadline by 2 minutes, and it was for a FREE book so I was really bummed. I e-mailed customer support and they actually let me slide :). Whew! The Winkflash deadline is today, but at 1 am I was so paranoid that I'd screw it up somehow that I stayed up to 3 am to finish that book too. Stupid... oh well. So I only got 3 1/2 hours of sleep, because I woke at 6:30 am and could not fall back asleep (I usually get up about 5:45 am, and my body just does NOT do the sleeping in thing anymore). I probably should have gone to work out, but I thought it was probably too late to get back before the kids became a problem, so I stayed in bed.

Oh well. One day missed won't kill me and is probably a good thing. Except for that Easter candy I've been eating, and the fact that I still can't take off those last 2-3 lbs I put on a few weeks ago. But you know what? It's a lifetime journey, and right now, I need rest!

Ouch

Today's workout was very painful. I did a Norwegian fartlek workout ("fartlek" means speed play, and it's about going fast for certain intervals). I did 2, 4, 6, 8, 7, 5, 3, 1 minutes at 10K pace (6 min/km; 9:39 per mile) with 2 min rest inbetween. The workout would have been totally fine, but I had horrible, horrible gas pain (sorry to be blunt, but that is what it was) for the 2nd half of it. I was OK through the 8 minute fartlek, but then it started to really hurt on and off for the rest of the workout. Ouch. I kept going, and was able to maintain my pace for the 7 minutes, but the 5, 3, and 1 were not as fast. I just couldn't keep the pace with the pain. I probably should have stopped, but it wasn't like it was going to do any kind of damage to keep going, so I did. 2 hours later, I'm OK but the pain is not gone. I hope that I'll feel better in a few hours. Moral of the story? Probably not a good idea to have had those bean burritos last night :).

Chocolate bunny feast

 

Michelle loves See's candy!

 

Kids' Easter photo

 

Family Easter photo

 

Happy Easter! Christ is Risen!

Sunday long day

Today was my long day for my racewalking. I didn't get up as early as I planned, but Loren agreed to help w/the kids anyway :). Gold star for him! I left at 6:10 am or so. I went 12.68 miles according to my iPod (but according to MapIt it was only 12.3), in 2:17:15, for 10:49 per mile (or 11:09 per mile by MapIt). I was going to take it easy, but decided to push a little harder today because 1) I felt good, and 2) I wanted to get back before the kids got too antsy for Loren. My average heart rate was about 140, but that included a few minutes slower at the beginning and end, and a few minutes waiting for traffic lights. Not bad, though! Mostly it was about 145 when I was looking at my watch. I felt great, though my legs are pretty tired tonight. Tomorrow I'm going to bike to my weight training class, since it's supposed to be relatively warm (40F) in the morning, and I want to take a day off racewalking with these heavy legs.

One more photo

 

New car photo

 

Here it is!

Health update

Forgot to post this. My brain MRI was totally normal - yeah! I wasn't that worried, but it is really nice to know that everything is fine. The doc is still a bit mystified about me, but he says that I seem to be very healthy, and he's very impressed with my weight loss. He definitely said I should keep up the racewalking and that my body weight is just fine and well within healthy limits. It's nice to have a clean bill of health :).

Cousin Itt?

No, actually, it's me...

The kids like me to "hide" behind my hair. They giggle and giggle when I do this, and I say "Where's Mommy", then "Here she is!" and reveal my face. Guaranteed to get lots of laughs!

Friday & Saturday workouts

Friday: 30 min easy on the elliptical; 30 min weights.

Saturday: 1 hr easy racewalking. 28 degrees F outside and clear this morning. A bit chilly but really nice weather overall.

Tomorrow I plan to do an easy 12 miler. I know Ollie will laugh at this because the distances I'm doing aren't that long, but I'll be glad when my training for the 1/2 is over and I can go back to shorter distances. I do enjoy the long workouts but it's hard to plan them around family activities, etc., and I have to get up at the crack of dawn to do them to minimize the negative impact on my husband. For example, it will take me about 2 hr and 15-20 min to do the 12 miles, which means I have to start by 5:45 am if I want to finish by 8 am, and the kids will get up around 7:15 am. Loren is NOT a morning person and isn't too happy about watching the kids from 7:15-8 am, but thankfully he will do it for me when necessary. At least he's gotten a break this week with my parents here. My mom left today, though, so he's on his own again.

new car

The reason I've not been blogging as much this week is that 1) my parents have been here (Dad left to go home on Tuesday but Mom is here until Saturday) and 2) I've been doing all the legwork to get a new car! Between the phone calls to the credit union, the car dealer, the insurance guy, the test drive on Tuesday night, and the actual purchase last night, it has kept me really busy. But this was a great week to do it since my parents could help w/the kids while I did all that stuff.

So, what did we get? A 2008 Toyota Rav4, with the extra 3rd row seat and alloy wheels (req'd w/the 3rd row seat), a roof rack (for camping), 4WD (for driving in the snow here), floor mats, daytime running lights, and tow prep pkg (this is a beefed up radiator, alternator and wiring for towing - came in the options pkg and we didn't care too much about it but it wasn't too much $ and the vehicle was what we wanted otherwise). We weren't planning on getting a new car, but the 3rd row seat was important to us so we can haul the kids' friends around, and it was almost impossible to find used. So what the heck... we've never bought a new car before, and it's fun to have!