As Fast as a 70 Year Old (or how I came to strive for a 12 minute mile)

I want to start off by saying a huge THANK YOU to everyone that congratulated me on reaching 15+ pounds lost.  It's nice to be reminded that there are people out there cheering me on.  I appreciate the thoughts on how often we step on the scale.  We are all motivated in different ways (and what motivates us can even change over time), which I appreciate.  Thank you.  We'll see if I do a mid-week weight check again this week.

So this weekend has been really fun!  I went to the gym on Friday for my 5th visit of last week and Week 8/Day 5 was due up on the training plan (a 28 minute run).  It was gorgeous outside and the treadmill didn't sound fun so I hit the road.  I am absolutely convinced that the treadmill intervals I've been doing have made me speedier.  I calculated my pace on Friday's run and it was...*exactly* 12.00 minutes per mile.  That makes me so happy.  12 minutes per mile is my current goal and I'm so happy to be there. 

I don't think I mentioned it here but I watched a documentary recently, The Spirit of Marathon.  The film follows 6 people (from  70 year old Jerry Meyers) to some professional marathoners) training for the Chicago Marathon.  It's super inspiring and motivating and I highly recommend it.  The senior citizen guy was talking about his running and mentioned that he runs a 12 minute mile.  Right then and there I decided I had to be at least as fast as him.  That's where my current 12 minute mile goal came from.  Seriously, I need to run as fast as the 70 year old guy.  And now I am!!  I don't know when, or if, I'll make a new pace goal, for now I want to work on more distance.  In the meantime, thank you Jerry for inspiring me!

Ok, back to Friday.  My run behind me I headed into the gym for strength training.  Back and biceps, core work, and 5 minutes on the stair climber.  I have come to believe that the stairs were meant to be climbed at 43 steps per minute.  Why push myself when I started doing this as an "extra"?  I was starting to dread it and that wasn't the point *at all*.  So I do 43spm and if I'm feeling spiffy I do the last 30 seconds at 60spm just for fun (and to crank up my heart rate before I stop).  I burned 617 calories that day (more than usual - which I attribute to my speedier run) and felt great!

I had the day off from the gym on Saturday and spent the first half of the day running around with my kids at my mother's club Halloween Party.  I was so happy to just keep up with them!  And happy that I avoided the snack table (mostly because I was going out for dinner).  I was really looking forward to a girl's night out with some of my favorite ladies that night.  I call them my "jail" girls since we all met working in the SF jail psych services.  Our evening started with some excellent champagne at the house and then we headed out to dinner.  It was an "all bets are off" dinner for me.  I paid absolutely no attention to "good" choices, or even "better" choices for that matter.  I had onion rings, caesar salad, multiple cocktails, ate my whole "personal" pizza and more than my fair share of our shared deserts.  It was SO FUN!  Of course it was the company that made it good, but the food and drinks didn't hurt :)  I came home and ended up joining in Miguel's poker night and even won a little cash!  Good thing because while I was playing poker I drank a ton of water, which probably saved me from a hangover.

I woke up today (Sunday) feeling a little parched but otherwise not bad.  I made a mental note to eat healthy for the rest of the week to balance out last night's loveliness.  I also got some water and started re-hydrating.  Miguel had soccer this morning so I took the kids to the park and had a fun time pushing swings and watching Marek expand his jungle gym skills.  The kids are so much fun.  And I was so grateful to be feeling good considering all the drinks. 

The weather was pristine so I planned on riding my bike to the gym when the kids went down for their naps.  I rode to the gym and noticed that it's getting easier each time I do it.  I did chest and triceps for strength training and the big news is I lowered the bar on the smith machine for my modified pushups.  I'm getting closer to regular push-ups.  Before I lowered it I was doing three sets of 10 but these lowered ones were noticeably harder so I did three sets of 5.  After doing the rest of my routine I went back and did three sets of 3 just to bring the total to 8 for each set.  Next time I'll try to do three sets of 6 to start.  I wrapped up with 5 minutes on the stair climber before heading out to my bike.

I quickly decided I wanted to go over the big hill again.  I basically told myself that "if you did it before you can do it again."  Once on the other side I felt like I wanted more time on the bike so I took a curvy route home that took me over several more hills.  I was having fun and had plenty of gas in the tank (maybe from the 12 inch (no mayo, no cheese) grilled chicken sub I'd eaten for lunch).  As I neared my house I decided to go for it and do a loop that would add about 10 miles to my ride.  I was about 1/4 of the way through this loop when I started getting a cramp near my ribs.  It felt like a gassy cramp, shooting and painful.  I eventually had to stop and stretch.  It eased up and I got back on the bike.  I had to stop again about 1/2 way when it got to be too much.  I called Miguel, unsure if I'd make it home and he suggested I stop at a coffee shop and take a real break.  I rode on to Starbucks and hung up my helmet for about 40 minutes while I drank a bit of coffee and had a nice phone call with a friend.  By this time I had only about 2-3 miles to get home.  I made it with no problem but I was super disappointed about the cramp raining on my parade.  I was having so much fun!  I still had fun, just not as much.  I guess that was payback for the night before.

And I realized something.  I am not starting from scratch.  I have been so surprised when I can do things (like ride 16 miles without much effort or go over a big hill) as if I haven't yet "earned" the ability to do those things yet.  I can do them because I was in pretty good shape when I got pregnant with Marek.  And while I didn't maintain my fitness level, I also didn't spend long days on the couch eating candied yams.  I did eat and gain weight, I didn't exercise with any regularity, but I moved my body just keeping up my life and I didn't go back to my previous free-for-all diet.  I think starting back weighing 41 pounds more than was when I got pregnant made me believe I was starting from all over.  But I wasn't.  Some sort of foundation still existed and I am feeling VERY happy about that right now. 

Well, that's it for me.  I hope to get out on my bike soon. 

15 pounds gone!! (well, 16.4, but who's counting?)

I lost 2.6 pounds this week!!  O.M.G.!  That brings my total loss since June to 16.4 pounds.  I am, of course, quite pleased with how things are going.  And I am reminded about why the weight loss part of the journey can be so much fun.  I am fitting into some clothes I haven't been able to wear in a while, getting dressed in the morning feels good again.  I have yet to face long term maintenance but I am ever-reminded of maintenance as the real challenge, the real purpose of what I'm doing.  In the meantime, I'm going to enjoy the losing ride!!

A couple more numbers.  At 182.6 pounds I am 4.6 pounds from my mini-goal of 178.  The new year is about 10 weeks away, so if I lose roughly .5 pounds a week on average I will reach my mini goal by the end of the year, which is so exciting.  I will be so happy to bring in the new year having reached that goal!!  I need to be clear with myself that this isn't a deadline to lose that weight by 1/1, but if it happens that will be great!!  And if I simply keep doing what I'm doing I think it will.  Woo-hoo!! 

So I have a small confession to make.  You might know that my weigh-in day is Friday and that I take a strong position on weighing myself once a week and once a week only.  My confession is that I've been cheating.  For the past few weeks I've been taking a peek at my weight midweek, usually on Tuesday or Wednesday.  I justify it by saying I need to know where I stand so that, moving forward in the week, I can tighten up on the eating if I need to.  So far I have been down from the Friday weigh-in and I find the lower number motivating.  I see that lower number and I am motivated to retain it until Friday.  I know many of you are not on my once-a-week-only bandwagon, and that some are even (gasp!) daily weighers.  This idea of a midweek peek of the scale might not worry some of you but it sort of does me.  I have been a firm believer in the once a week for a while now - Am I going to make this a regular thing?  Will it keep working even when the scale might not be down?  Will it lead to daily weighing?

Why am I so afraid of daily weighing?  I know why.  For me, I think it would make me crazy.  Weight fluctuates quite a bit on a day-to-day basis and I think if I followed the changes that closely I'd go nuts.  But maybe twice a week is ok, at least some of the time.  I admit, I don't want to make this a regular habit but I also find that little peek so alluring I don't know how I'll give it up now that I've given in.  I know, I know - I seriously overthink all this stuff sometimes.

On the exercise front things are cruising along well.  I have been doing my runs and bike for cardio and weight training, core work, stair climber and stretching.  I added 5 pound barbells to my lunges yesterday and while it definitely added to the challenge I was able to do it and look forward to mastering lunges with weights.  I'm on course to go 5 days this week and have almost 100% recovered from my cold (still have a lingering cough but it's almost gone).  I am still completely loving my gym time.

I'll close with a picture or two.  We had some family pictures taken and here's one of us with little Ms. M and one of the two kidlets together.

Crazy Busy Life

Whew!  Still catching my breath after a weekend packed full of fun.  I feel like I've crossed some kind of line when it comes to my weight and body.  I was a size that I was very uncomfortable with, it was hard to move and do the things I wanted, and I felt like I looked really big.  Now that I'm less large I can move easier and don't worry that much what I look like.  Clearly I'm still overweight but I don't feel like the blob I was feeling like, if that makes sense.  I guess now I feel like I'm in the more "normal" overweight category.  And that reminds me, I just checked my BMI and I'm very close to moving from the "Obese" category to merely "Overweight" so in a way, I guess this bears out how I'm feeling. 

On Saturday we took the kids to a pumpkin farm with tons of kid activities.  It was a lot of fun watching the kids explore and run and be happy, active kids.  And my being able to get down on the ground with them, dance around while holding Myra, or squat down to get a photo - well, that's easily 1/2 of what this is all about.  I had so much fun and SO enjoyed having the energy (and enthusiasm) to have that fun. 

Sunday was mostly a home day.  Miguel went to play soccer and I played with the kids all morning.  In the afternoon I did some cooking and then headed out to the gym.  I did my run outside because it was just perfect running weather (those Nike marathoners struck gold with the weather!) and felt like I was moving a tad faster than in the past.  My heart rate was a few ticks higher but I didn't have my garmin on so I don't know for sure if I was faster.  Either way, my run felt great.  I can't believe I'm running 28 minutes without a hitch!

After the run I did legs/shoulders.  The thing that is going so well right now are the walking lunges.  Love them!  My balance is improved and my strength is solid.  I am so happy, feel so rewarded, to be able to do them again.  It may even be time to add a little weight to the mix and hold some 3 or 5lb dumbbells.  I mixed in my core work and ended with 5 minutes on the stair climber.  I did most of it at 43 steps per minute but revved it up to 60 steps per minute for the last 30 seconds.  That was fun. 

My food intake this weekend was pretty good.  I am planning to eat healthy this week and maintain the weight I've lost so far, maybe even lose a bit more.  I'm just so pleased with where I am right now though I'm not too focused on the future, which feels good.

The Only Way to Know is to Try

So I took Wednesday off like a good sick person, but was back at it on Thursday.  Despite still feeling run-down from the cold I knew some exercise would help my energy level and maybe even kick this cold out of my body altogether.  At the gym I did Week 8/Day 2, a 28 minute run, doing intervals, and felt great.  I ran with that easy feeling of, "I can do this, no problem" that feels so good.  After the run I did back, biceps and core work before stretching.  In the evening I felt a little cough coming on and worried maybe my cold was going to move into my chest.  In an effort to banish the illness I decided to take Friday off and get some rest.

Woke up Friday feeling iffy and was a bit cough-y but nothing too serious.  We ended up having a busy day despite my taking the day off to get some rest.  Marek finally got a Halloween costume (he chose Buzz Lightyear - there's a shocker) and we had some nice family time.  My cough seemed to have disappeared by midday and when the kids went down for their afternoon naps I was feeling good enough to go to the gym.  It was a gorgeous day so I took the opportunity to ride my bike to the gym.  Despite it being 82 degrees out I felt good on the bike and had fun riding to the gym.

I got there feeling strong and did my chest and triceps routine with core work (including two 40 second plank positions - yes!) and stretching.  I debated doing the stair climber since I still had to ride home but decided I was feeling good so I did it, but kept it at 43 steps per minute the whole time (I push it to 50spm whenever I feel strong enough).

I got on my bike and headed down the road.  There are two routes for me to get home.  One with a big BIG hill and one with a small/medium hill (these are by my standards).  I have been taking the small/med route so far.  But I have faced off with the big hill in the past and thanks to my blog I know exactly what happened.  The first time I tried to ride over it (7/8/08 and 160lbs) I had to take a break part way up.  The second time (three weeks later, 7/20/08) I made it.  So back to today - I'm riding away from the gym and I get this idea to try and ride over it.  This is the gist of what plays out in my head:

When you rode over that hill before you were way fitter and weighed a lot less.
Yeah but it doesn't hurt to try.
That's a big hill Michelle.  You can't do that yet, you're not strong enough.
The only way I will know if I can succeed is to try, that's the only way to find out.  If you make it up halfway and have to turn around, fine, you tried, better luck next time.  At least you'll know where you stand.  Failure just means you challenged yourself and challenging yourself is good.

So by the time I arrived at the intersection where I had to decide I turned toward the hill.  I made it up that hill.  I made it.  You are probably not shocked by that but I am.  I don't think I believed I could do it.  I made the attempt more out of a desire to push myself and less out of a belief I could do it.  But I did it, and I felt good, I felt proud, I felt strong.  These small day-in, day-out victories are so special to me.  And they are the kind of reward I never knew existed when I was living my past life as a couch potato. 

So the other side of that hill, what was today the downhill for me, is probably twice as hard.  And someday, I don't know when, I will ride over that hill too.

So I'm taking tomorrow off, which means I only went to the gym (gasp!) four days this week.  But I had a cold, which is almost gone, so I know I'll be back on track next week.  Oh!  I almost forgot, I lost .6 pounds this week, and my body fat dropped down to 40%.  I'm looking forward to seeing that number drop into the 30's.

Healthy Heart Beats!

I wish I'd been tracking my heart rate all along but I haven't.  I was reading an article today that got me to wondering what my resting heart rate is.  I'd been sitting on the couch long enough to watch Pan Am so I figure that's resting.  I took it twice.  The first time it was 60, the second time 62.  That's pretty darn good!  I think that means my heart is "conditioned".  I love it!  For me this is just about as important as losing weight.  You can't get much better than some strong heart muscles.

And now for a little catch-up since Saturday.  I took Sunday off to rest, mostly because it seemed like a good idea.  My body felt pretty good, though my triceps were really sore.  Monday was a holiday for me.  I spent the morning fixing my kids breakfast and enjoying their company and then took them to daycare so I could go to the gym and pick up my bike (I'd dropped it off for a tune-up).

I decided to run intervals on the treadmill even though it was nice enough to run outside.  I guess that means the intervals have made the treadmill less hated.  They make it a challenge and I like the idea that I might get a little faster doing them.  Here's the breakdown of what I do:

Start with a 3 minute warm-up walk at 3.0mph
0-5:      4.5mph
5-10:    4.8
10-12:  5.0
12-17:  4.8
17-19:  5.1
19-24:  4.8
24-26:  5.0

So it's 26 minutes of running and I push past my "natural" 4.8mph pace.  My goal for running is to maintain a 12 minute mile (5mph) for the 5k distance.  When will I reach that goal?  Who the heck knows.  That's the beauty of making your own goals, you decide if there's a time pressure or not.  And in this case, there isn't.  At least not for now.  Anyway, I did my strength training, chest and triceps (those triceps HURT), core work and 5 minutes on the stair climber.  I burned a whopping 587 calories and left feeling good but I knew a cold was coming on.

By the middle of the night I was full-on sick.  Stuffed head, runny nose, etc.  One of my most of my MOST favorite things about not being pregnant is being able to take cold medicine.  NyQuil is the best!  I got back to sleep and didn't miss a thing until morning.  I was groggy and still sickly though so I took the day off.  I sat around watching TV and feeling like a slug for most of the day.  I finally took a shower and some DayQuil and started feeling like I could go to the gym.  Most of the advice I've read about excercising when you're sick is that if it's in your chest, skip it, but if not, go for it.

So I went for it.  I did the bike for 25 minutes and then dove into legs and shoulders.  Everything went really well, especially the lunges.  I felt strong and was able to take even, stable strides without too much wobble.  I mixed in core work and felt strong enough to give the plank a try.  I did one, held it for 40 seconds, and decided to do another one.  At the 20 second mark my back hurt a tad but I held on and held the second one for 40 seconds too.  I felt really good about that.  Two 40-second planks were what I was doing pre-backache so it's nice to know I still have the strength.  I wrapped it up with 5 minutes on the stair climber.  I had enough gas in the tank to do 50 steps per minute for the whole 5 minutes.

On to today, Wednesday.  My cold is still holding steady.  I had a plan to go to the gym when Miguel got home from work, still feeling like as long as my chest is clear, well, the coast is clear to exercise.  When Miguel got home and mentioned that I was leaving soon Marek started crying, "Don't go mommy."  Aww, shucks.  Miguel gave me a little lecture about letting my body rest and that when people are sick they sometimes take an extra day off.  He actually said, "You're not lazy, you're just sick."  Funny, I probably really needed to hear that.  So between Marek pleading for me to stay (and my really wanting to stay home with my family for dinner) and my being sick I decided to skip the gym.  It's not easy.  I can go the next three days in a row so I can hit my 5x a week goal but I'm not going to.  I'll probably go tomorrow and either Friday or Saturday.

My only worry now is if this sickness moves into my chest and I'm down for the count for days on end.  Fingers crossed that doesn't happen.