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June 24, 2000

Guess WHAT?! It rained most of the day. Heavy, thunder-and-lightening kind of rain on and off all day. This means the weather was 20 DEGRESS COOLER! I felt like dancing around in glee! Mid 70's! Not high 90's to low 100's!

Mid-afternoon it stopped raining so I slammed on the sneaks and hit pavement. It smelled so earthy fresh outside, the clouds were mysterious dark loping creatures, the breeze whipped my hair around my face withotu shame... it was just gorgeous! I got back to the house 45 min. later just as it was starting to drizzle again.

It was a much needed break for this tired little gym rat. I was getting sick of looking at the ceiling and four walls because the hot bad weather was too unsafe to be outside!
posted by Cat 'Astrophe' 12:40 AM

Training Walk for 6/24

  • Focus: 3 hour hilly hike
  • Duration: 2:15
  • Distance: 11.5 miles
  • Rate: 5 -- HARD!

I'm annoyed. Annoyed at the rain which made it impossible to go anywhere but the gym. Hours staring at the same wall. Mmmm....thrills! Annoyed that my gym closes at 7 PM instead of 8 PM like I thought, so this guy taps me on the shoulder and tells me they are closed just as I'm getting close to 13 miles. Grr! I think I could have made it if I had another 15-20 minutes.

The good parts? I jogged 11.5 miles on the elliptical cross trainer in 2:15. Wahoo! Yay me!

It was NOT easy.

It was NOT fun.

But I did it, and I feel a lot better about training. I know now I can walk the half marathon for sure, even though it won't be in a nice climate-controlled gym on a kind-to-joints machine. I'm fuzzy on the full marathon, but I feel good about having reassurance I can do the half at least -- FOR SURE. Bad terrain, bad weather, wonky ankle -- I'll make it. Maybe not in 2:30, but I AM going to make it through a half marathon ok. It's a big relief to know I can hack at least that much!

Clothing: I wore my wicking wear and it helped A LOT! My whole towel was drenched in sweat by the time I was through, but while I was damp, I was not soggy like I would have been in cotton. I think I may have a marathon outfit here.

Food and water: Before I left I ate a banana, a soy cheese and veggie "turkey" sandwhich on whole wheat, and a small can of low-sodium V8. I drank a little water, but not a lot. 90 minutes into it I started fantasizing about food so I cut a break and went down to my locker and got two Luna Bars out and ate them while refilling my bottle. Then went back upstairs to the cardio floor. I drank through 2 L of water during the workout, but most of it was in the beginning, which tells me I should have drunk more before I left home. I just ate another sandwich, and in a little bit more I will eat again. I don't want to shock my body. It's had a rough evening. All the food I ate sat well, so those are possibilities for eats on marathon day -- no queasiness of anything like I sometimes feel when I eat other things.

Mental: Annoyed. I look forward to the weekends because I get really, really sick of the gym scene. I had a serious case of cabin fever that was bringing me down. I hated being inside because of the rain, so I was grouchy most of the time, cursing the weather, cursing the gym, just cursing in general in my head.

Emotional: Ok, just not thrilled with the cabin fever. Going in I was in a good mood and coming out I was in a good mood. Once I bathe and settle down, I'll have a chance to mentally enjoy my achievement today and I'll be in a GREAT mood then, but for now I'm still annoyed at the weather.

My lawn though, is loving the much needed rain, and my flowerbeds ought to kick out some blooms, so that kind of makes up for the misery of feeling like a mouse in a wheel at the gym! I hope Adrith had a better walk than me at the beach. She better -- picturing her walking somewhere NOT IN A GYM got me through a good chunk of my own workout!


posted by Cat 'Astrophe' 8:35 PM

June 22, 2000

No gym. I felt bad, so I went to lay down last evening. Not to upset over it though, since I had taken a stroll that morning to talk to HOA people and back -- about 30 minutes of walking. Got cool little thingies from Adrith in the mail -- that perked me up when I woke up! Yay! :)
posted by Cat 'Astrophe' 10:27 AM

Training Walk: Thursday, June 22

  • Focus: 60 minutes intervals
  • Duration: 40 minutes
  • Locale: Gym
  • Distance: ???
  • Calories:???
  • Difficulty: 4

This was definitely not one for the books. I was in such a funky mood that my outlook wasn't so hot, and everything was wrong. Guy next to me was DRENCHED from head to toe in sweat from his cotton outfit and just looking at him made me feel hotter. I only had clean wicking shorts, so I wore a cotton shirt and cotton socks, which were not good calls. I got hotter and hotter and wetter and wetter and my socks started to rub wrong and I quit before I got a blister. Don't need that this weekend. My elbow is on the blink again -- it wasn't ready for weight lifting. So now it's sore again and I have to ice-pack it and give it more time to rest up. I can do regular things, but I guess weights is just asking a little too much of it too soon. Blah. Not the most fun workout, but at least I got some done. Foo.


posted by Cat 'Astrophe' 11:04 PM

MAJOR sock sale at Planet Outdoors. Here Thorlos, here Thorlos.... yooohoooo!
posted by Cat 'Astrophe' 11:46 PM

June 21, 2000

On fundraising? My HOA is willing to help me circulate pledge forms here with the community newsletter. Yay! Want one too? Just ask! Help us help others!

On this weekend's Three Hour Tour? I'm debating a split. Mostly because of the weather and because of Paul. Saturday's weather is looking to be 91 deg F like yesterday, and once you add the humidity the heat index kicks up to the high 90's/low 100's. While Paul plans to rollerblade it, I don't know if he can take three hours. He came with me on the two hour one and I had to cut it short because he was getting cranky and bored. I also don't like the idea of walking around on the trail at night because we'd have to set out in the late evening to avoid the heat. There no lighting on some parts of it!

Maybe I ought to get up early like I did last weekend and do 1.5 at the gym, then 1.5 in the evening with Paul on the trail? I still get the long workout, the scenary, but a much less cranky husband and less heat issues. Hrm...


posted by Cat 'Astrophe' 1:28 PM

Darn blogger.. ate my wonderful post again. Grr!

Tonight's walk at the gym -- 45 minutes on the treadmill. Got up to 3.3MPH, a speed I've not seen in a while -- YAY! Legs got tired and my hamstring started doing wonky things -- BOO!

But I'll ice it and rest it and we should be fine tomorrow. 2.2 more miles, to put me up at 71.4 miles. Not too shabby!
posted by Adrith 11:21 PM

June 20, 2000

This past weekend has been a big speed-bump in my training. The freelance HTML project I've been working on slowly was pushed up, and could I get the files in by the beginning of the week?

Argh. Argh. Argh. At this present moment, I have two and a half files to go to completion. I worked over the weekend and then yesterday. And I still have 2.5 files left.

I think the only bit of sanity left in my day is my training. And this week I'm doing my first official six-day training week; we'll see how it goes! I'm betting that it will take care of my weight-loss plateau, but we'll see what the scale says at the end of the week.

Sunday I tried doing Saturday's hour and a half. Joe and I got everything together to go hiking at Pawtuckaway State Park, and went. Ten minutes down the trail, Joe and I were covered in mosquitoes and it was starting to rain. We turned around and headed back. By the time we hit the car, the rain had started full-force. And the mosquito bites were already appearing.

Later that night, I went out for a walk/run -- 28 minutes for a mile and a half. So I only did fifty minutes on Sunday, and I have the scratchmarks and bites to prove it.

Looking forward to today's walk...
posted by Adrith 12:48 PM

I have that antsy, itching feeling. The one where I haven't moved in a while and all my muscles are tense. I don't like it, and I feel fidgety. :P
posted by Cat 'Astrophe' 2:36 PM

Got worried Paul wasn't going to bring the car back in time for me to do both gym and groceries so I took off for a stroll through the neighborhood. Trouble with that is that I never guess the loops right -- I finished 10 minutes early so I was only out for 35 min. I'll do the speedwork tomorrow. Car is back in my driveway and I need to finish the groceries I didn't get to finish yesterday because the market I went to had some aisles closed for remodelling. Going to try a different one now... they can't ALL be remodelling, right?!
posted by Cat 'Astrophe' 8:14 PM

June 19, 2000

Feel asleep last night with my ice pack. The ankle isn't horrid, but it was starting to get a little sore around midnight. I seem ok this morning but I'm still glad it's my day off!
posted by Cat 'Astrophe' 11:08 AM

June 18, 2000

Training Walk 32? (scheduled for 6/17)

  • Focus: endurance for 1:30 minutes
  • Duration: 1:20 minutes
  • Distance: 5-6 miles?
  • Rate: 3?

I'm losing track of the numbers. I better just start dating the walks instead. I did Saturday's walk this morning, since last evening I feel asleep. I meant to watch Daffy Duck, then walk, but I didn't even make it through Daffy. Paul woke me up around eleven to ask me if we were still watching movies or not. I spent some time putting together a new music tape to fully wake up, then snuggled up with Paul on the futon for movies. We both crashed right there! I didn't think Father's Day at my parents wore me out so much but I guess it did!

I blinked awake at 9 AM with Paul's arm on my head and all the sofa pillows on the floor. I felt soooo rested! That really is a comfortable futon! Showered, dressed, hit the gym, leaving Paul dead to the world in the living room. This was probably one of the harder workouts I've done physically, yet I was in such a great mood it just carried me through so emotionally it felt only medium-hard instead of hard-hard. Goes to show what a good outlook does for you!

I did the first chunk on a cross trainer with step intervals. It was so much fun! I felt so together and everything was moving the way it was supposed to be moving. I didn't feel like a heap held together by scotch tape and a prayer jostling around like I usually do. I felt smooth, powerful, efficient. I don't know what came over me but I decided to try some jogging the last half of the workout so I switched machines.

I planned on doing walk/jogs so I ignored the console and just listened to my music and thought about happy things. Jog until I tire, then walk to recover like I usually do. I don't really time the jog/walk intervals, I just go with how I feel and slow down when I get winded. After a while I got thirsty. As I reached for my water in the holder by the console imagine my shock to see I'd been running for 15 minutes straight and covered 1.5 miles! I started worrying about my ankle and immediately I pushed that ugly thought out of my head. My ankle didn't seem to be complaining, why worry about something that's not there? My body was obviously off on a groove of it own today, and who am I to stop a beautiful thing? Why not enjoy it? So I just... kept going! It was weird. It was like I was in my body, but not in my body. I mean, this is NOT usually me doing this well with running. Had I'd been bodysnatched while asleep on the futon last night?!

1.75 flashed by... then 2.0 ... I missed 2.25 but I was looking eagerly for 2.5. By the time I jogged to 2.75, it was no longer this happy accident. It was personal! I jogged that far, and with 3.1 (5K) just around the bend I wasn't going to pass this up! By that time I was thirsty again, and my fingers started to feel numb, and my stomach and back were drenched in sweat, and I had a vague side cramp. I took another gulp of water and pushed on through the home stretch, promising myself if I jogged through 3.1 miles I'd knock off early, I'd buy me a chocolate Luna Bar on the way home, I'd bike tonight instead of another walking session, I'd take me out to dinner, I'd buy me another pair of wicking shorts, I'd get a haircut, I'd paint my toenails. ANYTHING to get me to the end! At 3.0 I wanted to scream and punch the man next to me just because he was there sucking up my air, but I hung on.I kept telling myself "0.1 miles more, 0.1 miles more. C'mon, not even half a lap around that virtual track on the console... 0.1 miles, 0.1 miles...."

So guess who beat her old 5K time by a big, fat 15 minutes?! I jogged it in 34 minutes 28 seconds.

I had about ten minutes left in the session but I didn't care. I no longer hated the man next to me. I wanted to kiss him for jogging "with" me during htat horrible last bit. I wanted to kiss everybody on the cardio floor. I practically danced down the stairs to the locker room despite the wobbly legs. I'll yell now:

YEAAAAAH! WHEEEE! HURRAH!

Paul was just waking up when I got home and I told him to plan on jogging our next 5K in the fall. I know it's in me in there somewhere, I saw it come out today briefly. I might not be superfast, I might not even be running every time time I'm on a treadmill, but dang it, I CAN run!

Now for ice on my ankle just in case and rest before I bike tonight. The Luna Bar was delicious. Mmmm.


posted by Cat 'Astrophe' 2:19 PM

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