Lowering the boom - 2013

Sounds like this group thing is working out, Dot. Yeah! It certainly is fun to find a running group that fits isn't it? Sorry about the cold and wet snow, we avoided that this morning, but it is on its way.

Wow Dot...I can't believe what you've had to deal with lately. This is all very scary stuff. I assume (hope) that these two recent incidents are not the norm for where you live?
I'm interested in your vegan diet. I was a pretty strict vegetarian for a lot of years, but went back to eating fish and seafood a few years ago. (for health reasons). What prompted you to go all vegan? I'm glad to see you're feeling good.

First for Seth: All of this violence is totally out of the ordinary for my area. We're a nothing town and to have killings and robberies is quite bizarre. About the all vegan. I really need to pay attention of my health and my blood numbers at this point in my life. Decided to try 6 weeks of fruit, veggies and beans and nuts with limited starchy vegetables eliminating all grains and refined foods. I've been doing quite a bit of reading about how your hormones are affected (effected?) by the crap refined foods that we eat and all the additives put into prepackaged food. Pastas and breads just don't sound like something I want to be involved with right now. I'll have blood work done next week and see how it's going. I'm 5 weeks into it right now. It's not difficult for me to accomplish, but very difficult in social circles and eating at restaurants, specifically in the midwest.

Okay, running. Yep, still at it with my Saturday group. We've not gone beyond 70 minutes yet but we're incorporating speed work now so this will help. Running outside has been satisfying but I'm pretty much done with winter. I'm done with icey paths and bitter wind. This saturday will probably be just bitter wind, so there's that.

Weight: Last Friday was 133.8. That's 7.8 lbs since the first of the year and about 6 lbs over the 5 week Fuhrman program. I'm good with that. No loss of energy and I'm not hungry all the time. It's a win so far and so far as my blood work looks good next week.
Onward!

Excellent work, Dot especially with the diet and weight - those milestones should make you happy.

Nice job on the weight, Dot, and good luck eating "clean." I'll be interested to see how that works out.

Ah, yes...another weigh in this morning...132.6 for my official month end...giving me 5 lbs for February and 9 pounds since the first of the year. I'll need to go to Blue Mile Running store and pick up a Brooks shorts sleeve shirt as my prize to myself. The Blue mile running group handed out the Women's Brooks in a lime green (I love that color) and I'm hoping they have others in more colors (not pink).

Tomorrow's group run is short as a step back and then we'll have a session on stretching and the sports doc from St. Vincent will be available to whine to about what ails us. Glad it won't be icy, but it still might be frigid. Just a few more weeks until spring!!

Another 1 lb loss this week...131.6 lbs making 10 lbs for the year thus far. Tomorrow will be a training 10k for the Indy Mini downtown. I will probably use the first two miles as a warm up and then pace run it for the final 4.2 miles. I really don't know where I stand or where I'm comfortable right now not having raced in what seems like ages. Training for Chicago last year slowed me down and I haven't done anything short and fast in close to a year. Weather should finally be relatively decent, wind chill will be 20 degrees, up from 16 the last month. I need to remember to wear my HRM as well for even more analysis.
Did a blood draw on Tuesday to find out how my HDL is and my blood sugars. Really curious how that will play out having changed my diet for the better over the past 6 weeks. Any improvement will be appreciated. Hopefully, I'll get those results by Monday.

Looking good Dot. Have fun with that 10K.

Excellent progress, Dot! Definitely wear that HR strap during your 10K -- it'll give you a sense of what your body can handle when you pick up the pace.

But... wind chill of 20°? Brrr!!!

Thanks Alex and Mark!

Actually, the weather was even nicer this morning for the Indy Mini training 10k downtown, almost 33 degrees at the start with a 25 wind chill. I was able to lighten up some on the outerwear utilizing a thinner longsleeve 1/4 zip over a short sleeve. The streets were dry and the sun was partially out. A good day to run.
I decided to wear my watch but not the HRM. Not knowing what my speed would be at all since it's been over a year since I've tried to go fast, I didn't want the baggage of wanting to slow down if the HR was too high. So, I slapped on the watch and didn't pay attention to it until the end. Although I knew I was about one minute off the gun time, I still didn't do the math at each mile marker. Needless to say, I came in faster than I thought I might...1:05:47 (avg: 10:36 min/mile) which when I looked back in my records is new PR. LOL One second off of my 2006 exact same race downtown. Funny! I felt pretty good throughout and still had a kick towards the end.

Ah...I'm rejuvenated and there is hope that my speed from 2011 will kick back in.

A PR run off perceived effort only? Not even looking at your watch? Woot! Way to go, Dot!!

This week has been just okay. The day following my 10k I thought that I would just recover and do biking for 7 miles and slow run for 3 miles to get the kinks out. It worked. Tuesday was a 10-30-10 Tempo run, last night was a 2 mile slog just so I could justify eating the entire mango (huge and very ripe). Saturday morning will be my Blue Mile group and we have 90 minutes or 9 miles on the schedule. Looks like it'll be just fine but criminy....I want some warmer weather. 32 degrees is what I'll see and damp since it might be raining.

Ugh! Oh, on a happy note, I'm down to 130.8 lbs so there's that. Nice. Looking to see 130 at the end of the month if my eating is appropriate and my set point wants to do that.

Mmm..... mangoes. I haven't had a good once since I lived in Thailand, but oh boy, did your post bring back memories. Mmm.

Excellent work on the weight, and good job on the running.

A mango can only be considered as good since it is fruit in spite of its sugar content! Good work on all fronts, Dot.

Thanks Mark and Michele! Today was a 90 minute run with my Blue Mile group! I am loving have a group even though we are widely spread out by pace. There are several loops and out and backs that can be done so we all just take off and throughout the course of time we run into each other. Nice. Really gets me out in this weather, something I'm not prone to do.

Food is still good, however, for some reason I lost my appetite over the past 3 days. Don't feel like eating and not very hungry. I ate a decent meal after my 90 minute run today but that was the first in a couple days. hmmmm. Perhaps a bit of a bug going around. I feel good otherwise.

Congrats on the weight!!! I wish I had the problem of not having an appetite - maybe you can bottle that up and market it...

Well the appetite came back and I needed to harness it somewhat! I'm at 130.2, smaller increments are probably going to be seen as I dip a bit lower. I had 9 miles scheduled for the Blue Mile Group but I woke up wide awake at 6:00 am so I just hopped on the treadmill and got it done instead of waiting until 8:00 and bundling up to go outside. I missed running with the group, but glad that I could get the majority of my chores done before noon today.
Snow predicted for tomorrow into Monday, so there is my upper body cross training in the future. Just when you thought it might be safe to put away the snow shovel (I never do, I keep it on the porch as an amulet against snow storms even in the heat of summer) an historic snow storm is coming our way. Possibly 10" worth...not nice! It still looks like winter around here. Ugh!
My wellness goal for March will be to hit 130 lbs (doable) and when that happens I will sign up for the inaugural Mills run Half in Columbus, Indiana as my reward. Trying to come up with non-food rewards...socks in January, running shirt in February, Race Registration for March.

Amazing weather we've seen this winter. I thought winter skipped us after December and January were so good but March is more than making up for it. Good thing you have a treadmill.

JohnP wrote:Amazing weather we've seen this winter. I thought winter skipped us after December and January were so good but March is more than making up for it. Good thing you have a treadmill.

Yes, well yesterday and last night more than made up for it. I spent 3 hours doing cross training with a shovel and 8" of wet snow. Gene was out working a snow contract so that left me at the house. Can't just sit here with all that snow...so shoveled, pushed, and scooped for 3 hours. (we have a very long gravel driveway). Looks pretty good out there and I'm hoping the warmer temps throughout the week take care of that. Not sure how many calories I burned but I'm trying not to think of that and use it as a bonus calorie burn not a reward to eat a treat.

Love my treadmill and will probably do my next two speed drills inside until the roads look better. It's all good.

Indy may actually see 59 degrees today so I'll be doing cross training outside...moving mulch. That's a huge difference from shoveling 9" of snow last weekend. Crazy!

Not much to report from this week. One hill workout, one Tempo-ish run. Today is my group run but again, I will not run with them but choose to run the Indy Mini course on my treadmill tomorrow to get more miles. They have a step back week of 4 miles???? Not sure about that this close to the Mini. Next weekend will be a 15k downtown in preparation for the race and we'll see where I'm at on that.

Weight: 129.8 Still losing in small increments. My body will eventually find it's new set point. In the last few weeks, I've eaten a bit more, mainly a few more starchy vegetables. Upped it to two per day versus the one per day. This may slow the weight down or it may just mean that I have less to lose. I'm not blind, I see the adipose fat, so I know there is more to come off for health purposes only. I'll do blood work at the end of April and do a comparison.
Onward!!

Last weekend I ran the 15k training run for the Indy Mini. 1:42:29 giving me an 11:00 min/mile. That's all fine and well as I took my friends' advice...he told me to run the first 4 slow and easy and then push the next 5.3. The course was almost like an out and back around town, enough so that the first miles was all wind to your back and the last 3 miles was hellacious wind to your face. Didn't matter, I just ran.
One thing I do know is that I need to experiment more with my Cliff Shot blocks Black Cherry. They used to work fine but now they're starting to bother me in the lower intestinal area, if you get my drift. Could have been because I didn't drink enough water or because my diet is without sugars like this, it was a shock. Either way, I managed to finish okay and without 'incident.'

This morning I ran 10.5 miles in a little over 2 hours and next weekend will be about 11.5 -12 miles. The Indy Mini is on May 4th.

p.s. The weight is still good. I'm staying right at 130 which is my goal until the Mini is over, then try to head down a bit more.

Hey, Dot! I've been remiss in reading your blog. Congrats on the continued weight loss, and all the solid runs you've been getting in despite the insane weather conditions you have to put up with in the Midwest.

Sounds like you're on your way to a great Indy Mini next month.

I've been up and awake after just two hours of sleep. Had one of those days where there were lots of discussions about work, updates to the Boston bombing and miscellaneous personal stuff. Made the mistake of not clearing my head before going to sleep and now I'm wide awake with my thoughts spinning. Been reading reports and posts on here, FB and the news reports from late last evening. Odd, I wasn't even in Boston to experience this tragedy first hand but I haven't slept well all week. It has weighed heavy on my mind, especially those that were injured....unspeakable injuries. As my Father always says, this too shall pass.

Weight is still good this week: 129.6 lbs but I'm not looking to lose more right now, just average 130 and maintain until the Indy Mini is over. Tomorrow morning I'm to do 11.5-12 miles as my final longish run but with only 2 hours of sleep I will probably defer to Sunday. If I have to I will watch the Pacers first playoff game and run it on the treadmill. Yes, I could use some mind numbing and the treadmill for 2 hours plus is perfect for that.

It's 3:00 in the morning. Maybe I'll eat a snack!

A few new things this week. I did a Boston Memorial run on Monday night at 6:30 pm. It was for 26.2 minutes and a really good group turned out. I had purchased some NB shoes and was able to try them out for that run. They're fine and may become my new training shoe but not my racing shoe. I love my Puma's too much.

Went to the Sports Med doc and he tells me that I have Rotator Cuff tendonitis and so off I went to PT where they measured, pushed and prodded, ultimately giving me some exercises to do to strengthen my shoulder blades. Nice! I'll do those 3 times a day and see how I fare.

This is my last weekend running with my Blue Mile group before the Indy Mini. We're scheduled for 45 minutes which seems quite scarce, as I would think 6-8 miles would be appropriate, however, I might just go with the program.

Weight: 129 lbs. Maintaining nicely.

Last Friday I picked up some sort of super virus that will not let me out of it's grips. I've had a variety of lovely symptoms, Lung congestion, nasal congestion, a fainting episode that landed me in ER for a few hours and now I'm missing some skin off of my lower leg from the fall and bruised thigh, lack of appetite causing a 4 lb weight loss so far, general malaise and a rotten attitude.

The Indy Mini is this weekend and I sit here wondering how I'd ever make it 13.1 miles. Will there be a miracle? If it was just nasal congestion I'd go by the rule of 'above the neck' = racing, but this lung congestion is problematic. Lots of hacking.

At this point I'm up a bit in weight as my appetite is coming back so..126.6 lbs this morning. Why me?