Wednesday. Yikes two weeks, lots of catching up to do. Let’s see if I can summarize. Running – eh nothing fast happening and endurance is low, tennis — not too bad at all, biking — non-existent, swimming — I was in the pool, core — what? That about sums it up. I’ve not been exercising every day. But I have been doing something every other day. Just not what has been assigned.
Spent almost a week in CT trying to take advantage of snow and visiting family for the holidays. I got one day of cross-country skiing in and I was pretty bad. I used to do this all the time when I was a kid. I even did some cross-country ski races believe it or not. I remember flying across some trails over at winding trails about 32 years ago (gasp!) I particularly remember one race when we had to race along a trail under the power lines. I remember trying to catch some guy and I was kicking my heels up and running along with the power lines above my head as a guide. Let’s just say there was no kicking happening. I was doing the grandma crawl and I have a lot of work to do. One little baby downhill section I fell flat on my butt because I was standing up too straight. Wasn’t pretty. But I shall return and vengeance will be mine!
The trails were all snowed over in CT so I did some road running which I have been trying to avoid to save my knees. Running is not really coming along for me yet. I’m not too worried about it. It will come when it feels like it. I just keep getting out there and trying. I have the half marathon end of January and I don’t have a prayer in Hell’s Kitchen to run 13.1 miles. It will be a run/walk and I have absolutely no idea what to expect for time. Of all the half marathons I have done, this one is making me the most nervous because I don’t even know if I can stay out there for 3 hours. I get pretty tired at 90 minutes so we’ll see. I would hate to DNF my first race of 2010.
Despite my lack of endurance right now, I am feeling good. This Thursday night (New Year’s Eve) will mark five consecutive weeks of feeling okay. I’m cool with okay. It gives me room to shoot for fantastic. Seven months of feeling like something stuck to the bottom of someone’s shoe and I am so grateful to be feeling okay. I celebrate okay. January 4th I go to get my blood tested and I’m anticipating a good result. I think there might be room for a smidge of improvement but if she says this is it, I can live this way. It’s just a more mellow version of me.
I’ve been doing a lot of planning and preparing for the new year. I really want to hit it with a running start. I’ve been making lists and plans. Trying to organize my schedules to get my training in, my work in, my travel in. I’ve failed every time I try to move my workouts to the afternoon — they just don’t happen. So I’ve worked to clear my morning hours to get my workouts done and then I can concentrate on work and deal with the crisis du jour.
I am strangely not worried about Ironman at all. Every day I have more confidence that in eight months I will be able to do it. But I am also aware that I don’t have any of the anxiety that I used to have while training. I’m approaching my training as if it is something I will be doing for a lifetime to come and it is no big deal if I miss a day because I’m visiting family. Not how I was a two and three years ago. Let’s see how long this calm lasts.
Just got my new Garmin 310XT and excited to try it out tomorrow morning on our team bike (ugh, I haven’t been on my bike in two weeks so this should be fun!) I had a Garmin 405 before and I didn’t like it so I sold it. I was out riding with Anne about two weeks ago (my last ride) and she had the 310xt. She had the backlight on for the entire ride and she could see all of her numbers in the dark. COOL! These old eyes would love that! I was immediately jealous. Then she told me that she could swim with it (didn’t record heart rate in the water but the watch was water resistant). Double COOL! Then I found out it has a 20 hour battery life which was triple cool because the old 405 used to bail out after 8 hours on me (which was a drag if you were doing a long day workout like a 1/2 Ironman and wanted your HR monitor to be working from the time you were in transition). Garmin was giving a rebate and I found a sale so I decided this would be a good time to try it. Will give my reviews later.
Other news. I’m going to the midnight run on Thursday night. Haven’t really committed to running it. I’ve never had a good midnight run. In fact they have usually been pretty painful for me. But even if I walk it it will be a good way to start the New Year. Symbol of something, not sure exactly what.
I’m also planning on doing the Polar Plunge on New Years day at Coney Island. I’m not getting too excited about this one either. I’m strangely not excited about much these days. I’m more excited about my watch than the plunge. But I had a fantastic time last year and maybe it’s exactly what I need to kick-start my year and get me going. A cold dip in the Atlantic Ocean. Ah, refreshing!! I’ll be on the boardwalk aroudn 12:30, see you there!
The next four months are going to fly by. Calendar is filling up with races and camps. I just signed up for a really cool weekend at Kripalu in February with Mark Allen (six time Hawaii Ironman World Champion). http://www.kripalu.org/presenter/V0005562/mark_allen. I think I am excited about that. He works with a shaman. Fascinating!
My focus right now is on St. Anthonys triathlon in April. This is a race that would not have made me blink two years ago. Now I’m not so confident. I believe I am going to be able to complete it but I’m not sure I will be setting any records. This is definitely a let’s-just-get-this-done kind of race. I think it is good that it will break my year up into two, four-month segments before Ironman Canada. There will be lots of friends down there doing the race so it will be a friendly enviroment. For the next sixteen weeks — my eye is on St. Anthony’s. That will tell me a lot about how the rest of the year will go.
Food is going so-so. I haven’t been tracking and dipped into a bit more than I would have liked of chocolate and pita chips, but strangely I didn’t put on any weight which I don’t really understand. I’m hoping that means that my metabolism is starting to kick in and maybe when I actually buckle down and do this I will see results this time. I have a new mantra for what I am eating right now. Automate and Appreciate. The Automate is my reminder to just pick a few meals that I know work and get them done. Breakfast the same every day. A few different lunches and dinners but for the most part no real thinking about anything. Plan once and repeat often. Appreciate is my reminder to look at every piece of food and acknowledge where it comes from and what it will do for my body and health. If it’s empty and not going to do anything — don’t eat it. But, if it is a beautiful apple, acknowledge and appreciate the mystery of the nature that delivers this miracle to my shopping bag. Appreciate everything that went into making that apple and bringing it to me.
My list of New Years Intentions is getting long:
Train with intention.
Eat with intention.
Make time for non-sports friends and family.
Build my meditation practice.
Work on my guitar.
Be proactive in my work.
Purge my home of unnecessary clutter.
Be grateful every day.
Practice patience.
Practice charity.
Practice peace.
Namaste and Happy New Year!!!
Diet Factoid from Dr. Joy Bauer:
“1-mile walk burns approx. 80 calories which is equal to one slice of bread. Let’s say you walked 4 miles, or about an hour, and you burned 320 calories. A handful of trail mix can set you well over 500 calories. It takes you a minute to gobble food and a whole hour to burn it off.”
This is a picture of our “Rockefeller Tree” in our backyard in CT. I’m trying to figure out a way to get lights on it one day. It’s a gorgeous tree.
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