Slow Progress/Fast Progress

The weight is ever so slowly ticking downward, but the miles are adding up fast on my half-marathon training — I’ve run 38.5 miles in the last 30 days, which Nike+ tells me is more miles than the average woman my age (who uses Nike+).

Latest weigh-in is 182.6, which is down about a pound from last week.  Finally, some progress!

I had my thumb over the camera for the shot with body fat, so this is total body water.  My body fat reading is still hovering around 30%.

I had my thumb over the camera for the shot with body fat, so this is total body water. My body fat reading is still hovering around 30%.

Bouncing All Over

Weekly Weigh-In: I’m happy with the number, and yet a bit disappointed that things seemed to stall out over the holidays and aren’t starting to do much ticking down in the New Year.

January 15 2014 Weigh In

I weighed in at 187 yesterday morning and today it’s 183.8. Water weight is real my friends, and it is created by eating three deli sandwiches and drinking three cans of diet soda in one day.

One of the exercises I make my students do is reflective journaling, in which they write about their experiences and analyze them for lessons to apply to future practice.  Herein, some reflections on the past 3 days.

The two main takeaways I have from this past weekend is that (1) eating bread leads to a bread chow down spiral and (2) I need 8-9 hours of sleep a night consistently or I do not perform well.

I did a good job this weekend not stopping for fast food on the way home from each day of training, but I have a hard time avoiding temptation when it is sitting there in the form of a bagel tray or a box of sandwiches.  For me, it’s easiest not to have the bread around because I, apparently, cannot stop myself from eating it when it is readily available.

For example, on Monday, trying to push through to my 4 p.m. class, I had 3 cans of Cherry Coke Zero.  They were around.  They were caffeinated.  They were easier than making green tea (which I had sitting in my office and only required putting a bag in a mug and going to the water cooler to add hot water).  Sure, Coke Zero has zero calories, but it has no nutritional value either.  And, more importantly, I don’t think it’s doing much to flush my system because the next day I weighed in at 187 lbs.

Eat clean.  Get off this plateau.

Dragging Today

It’s been a rough week as this semester ramps up and I get ready to do a weekend long training with my students.

My Wednesday weigh-in came in at 184.0 (I have pictures, but am too lazy to upload them).

I’ve been trying out a new gym and am liking it so far. I decided I needed someplace close to home with treadmills when the Polar Vortex hit, and this gym has an indoor track as well.

I did a great 3 miles on Tuesday running the track. Little kids kept creeping over the track and running partial laps completely unsupervised (there was a kids’ basketball game going on nearby and the parents were watching them play), so I treated it like Zombies, Run! Most of the kids didn’t have the stamina or interest to run a full lap.

Today, I tried to do 3 miles on the treadmill and it was all I could do to walk the thing. I have three theories:

1. Treadmills are dumb.
2. Doing a Kinesis class beforehand tired me out.
3. I am coming down with whatever flu Josh currently seems to have.

I really hope it’s not Option 3 because did I mention a training I’m supposed to be doing with my students — all weekend?

NSV: Personal Record in 5K

Josh and I started the year with a PR in a local 5K – the Westerville First on the First.  My official time was 31:28, and I finished 519 out of a field of 1176, so not too shabby.

First on the First - medal

You can see my new GPS watch on my left wrist.  Josh gave it to me as a Christmas present and trying it out kept me working out over the week between Christmas and New Year’s.  It came with a foot pod to use on a treadmill, and I’m eager to see how well they work together.  It’s been fun having it so far since it’s a Nike watch and automatically syncs with Nike+, which I was already using to track my runs via the phone app.

 

Wednesday Weigh-in: Ups and Ups

As expected, last week’s dip was not reflective of general trend.  Or, with all the snow we’ve had lately, I haven’t gotten outside to run as much.  I’ve been using the elliptical I have at home, but could tell that was not as effective.

I finally caved this past weekend and drove all the way to OSU to use the fancy gym (“RPAC”) to which I thought I was a member, only to find out that my membership was supposedly stopped in July.  Kids at the front desk (okay, technically adults, but college students look like kids to me) told me there was some error, clicked some buttons on the computer, and I should be good to go.  So, I went in and ran on the 1/8 mile indoor track.  I had dressed for cold, but it was so warm I thought I would pass out.  I averaged 11:54/mile, and was bummed since I was averaging 11:15 in November.

Yesterday, it was snowing, so I went back to to the RPAC and once again — no dice.  I was having a low blood sugar moment and nearly had a melt down when the kid swiped my card, waved me through, and then I crashed to a halt at the turnstyle.  It hurt.  I was annoyed and embarrassed.  The kids at the front desk tell me this time that the membership was a yearly renewal, so my membership really was cancelled.  They offered to put me on a monthly membership, but I thought, “If I haven’t come here since July is this worth my money?”  I also thought, “My thigh hurts from banging into that turnstyle.  I had to park 1/4 mile away and walk here through the snow. I’m hungry.  This blows.”  So I said I’d need to think about it with as much grace as I could muster (which was about this much ) and left.

Today was sunny and snow free, so I ran a 5K outside.  I averaged 11:21/mile for the run, with 11:10s on the second and third mile.  Go me!  I like being out doors so much more than running inside.

Columbus Weather

27°F
Feels like 16°

Cloudy

It’s below freezing, and though I didn’t feel like taking off my hat, I enjoyed the run.  We’ve even been getting bursts of sun.

Oh, yes, here’s the weigh-in:

December 18 2013 weigh in

 

Wednesday Weigh-in: Maybe a Fluke?

My numbers this week seem a bit off given my intake and activity levels.  I suspect some water loss may be playing into this week’s weigh-in.  My scale says I’m down 1.6 lbs from last week and almost a full percentage of body fat.  Now, I’ve been following my Novice 5K plan and did the 30 Day Shred Level One on Monday (rest day from running), but I don’t think 20 minutes of aerobics with some weights is going to move the scale that fast!

December 11 2013 Weigh In

Weigh-in Wednesday

I’ll try to focus on Non Scale Victories on this blog, too, but here’s what my bathroom scale says today:

photo(1)

Take the body fat with a grain of salt.  It’s not a caliper measurement, just the scale’s.

I’m working on making this look nicer, but for now, here’s a visualization of where I’m at on my way to goal:

Mug of Beer Dec 4 2013