current log

2000 archives

Blogger

July 8, 2000

What on earth made me get up at 5 AM on a Saturday? Woke up because I got hot, and it's still way too early to go to gym. So now I have to putz around for three hours before I can go. I might try to go back to sleep for an hour or two before I start eating breakfast and working on water.

It's been a wonky week for fitness. We're back to the flooding Noah-like rains. I'm also feeling somewhat pensive. Thinking a lot about distance, strength, endurance and my abilities.

Paul's cute though. He was out this week at the thrift store with all the books and brought me a Bloom County cartoon book, five Agatha Christie mysteries in editions I don't have (it is sick when you start collecting editions of books), and a runner's guide book published in 1978 that I've yet to work my way through.

"What's this?" I asked.

"Well, I know you have a bunch of them already but I thought another might help with your running," he explained. "At the very least it might be amusing to see what's changed and what hasn't."

I also caught him peeking at my online journal. Hee hee. In his own weird little ways he's supportive. That's a good thing.
posted by Cat 'Astrophe' 5:18 AM

Training Walk for 7/8

  • Focus: Endurance walk for 3.5 hrs
  • Total time: 3 hours, spread among several workouts.
  • Total Distance: 13-16 ish miles.

Part I

  • Duration: 60 minutes
  • Where: Neighborhood
  • When: Early morning
  • Distance: 3.6 miles
  • Rate: 3ish

I couldn't go back to bed. I stuck it out til 6:30 AM when it was light enough outside to hit the streets and I knocked off an hour of today's schedule. That leaves me 2.5 to cover at the gym. I am going to shoot for 2, and then maybe do a 30 minute bike ride later. I can only take so much gym! Right now I'm working liter #2 of water and breakfast. Then a shower before I go out again.

It feels like an armpit out there. You know how you can see your breath in winter? I can see my breath. It fogs up my glasses in a puff because the humidity is so bad -- 97%! It has no business being 80 deg. F out there this early in the morning, but that's what the heat index reads. I forgot to take off my underwear before putting on the wicking shorts and near the end I was so damp all over I was starting to chafe. I'm definitely going sans panties from now on when I workout.

The walk itself wasn't bad. The pseudo-jogging is helping boost my speed with the walking. I kept an average if 3.6 miles, where before I was struggling to get over 3.0! I kept it simple -- no music, no pedometer, Just me thinking and counting a marching pace in my head. 1, 2, 3, 4...1, 2, 3, 4...

I smelled somebody making breakfast and it reminded me of guandu --this Panamanian rice-coconut-legume dish. It also reminded me of all the muggy tropical mornings I stood on the corner of my street or down by my church as a kid waiting for the bus to come at some ungodly hour and get me for school. I can remember the smell of the AC in school too -- cooler, but still damp with that smell I forever now associate with Army buildings.

The weirdest thing? This freaking ROOSTER again in the middle of the road again. Who the heck in my neighborhood is keeping a rooster for a pet and why is he prancing around the road?!

Part II

  • Duration: 60 minutes
  • Where: gym, cross trainer
  • When: Noon-ish
  • Distance: 6?
  • Calories: 750 calories burned
  • Rate: 3

This one went faster because I was jogging it, but the gym was crowded so I couldn't get on a cross trainer that measures miles -- this one measures steps. I didn't really care how many thousand steps I took, so I didn't bother writing that down. I intended on staying long enough to do another hour at least, but then 40 minutes into it I got a headache and I started food fantasizing. I guess the two sandwiches for breakfast midmorning weren't enough! So I am back home eating lunch. Paul wants to bike so I am either doing that before dinner or I'll go for another installment of walking.

Part III

  • Duration: 60 minutes (Part III)
  • Where: neighborhood, biking
  • When: Late Evening
  • Distance: 6 miles
  • Rate: 3

It ended up raining ALL afternoon. I took a nap. I woke up and it was still gross out. Paul said there was a lot of lightening and power outages while I was asleep. Luckily around 7:30 it let up, so I put on the old pair of sneakers and we went out for a quick ride on the bikes. Every time we hit a puddle Paul flung his legs up in the air and shouted in glee. I rode a good distance behind him to avoid his splashing around. Sun set around 8:15 PM or so and we got back at 8:30 PM so it worked out mostly ok. I'll probably do the "missing" half hour tomorrow with the recovery walk.

I guess I was something of a "triathlete" today. That cracks me up!


posted by Cat 'Astrophe' 7:46 AM

July 7, 2000

I did a stupid thing. Paul told me to wait for him to help me move the futon and I got too impatient and I moved it myself.

And succeeded in screwing up my back. :P
posted by Cat 'Astrophe' 1:26 AM

July 6, 2000

My horoscope:
Take charge in a new way. Your renewed sense of self could lead to more joy and pleasure in your life. You may be pinching yourself to be sure you're not dreaming. Great good fortune accompanies all group activities or social situations. You may be a bit critical about someone you love, but remember that other people can be very vulnerable and easily wounded.

Hmmm..
posted by Adrith 3:39 PM

I want to go to Disney with Paul. He said "We'll see." I want to use the season tickets and check out what parts of the race course I can while I am there and take pictures so I can remember it and send some to Adrith. If we go,I'll flip the weekend days and do the 20 min on Saturday while exploring the parks and then the have 3.5 hrs on Sunday. Or maybe I should just ditch him Saturday and go myself to Epcot and get in and workout around the World Showcase for my 3.5 hrs!

If not, most likely a split on Saturday. Half early in the mornining, then do errands and groceries, then come home and unpack and rest and then go again for the rest. I'm not going to ask Paul to walk. He'll hate it. I hate it as it is -- stuck in a gym for so many hours with no scenery changes. At least if I split it in half it's more bearable.

Waiting on the hydropaks I ordered earlier this week though. Got a 50 oz. CamelBak portable for Paul. That means the reservoir holder doesn't come with straps -- you slip it into whatever bag you have. I got a 2L MountainSmith Torrent for myself for both biking and walking. It came out to about $60 for both, so vulturing around gear.com finally paid off. Let's hope it gets here tomorrow!
posted by Cat 'Astrophe' 6:17 PM

July 5, 2000

Race report in the July 5th entry.

You may understand that I don't want to type that all in again.
posted by Adrith 11:54 AM

The suspense is killing me. I know that the tape give-aways with fundraising are supposed to be fun and an incentive for people to help pledge, but it's making ME jumpy! Who's gonna win it? Who will be the pledge to break $500 for me? When am I going to get a progress sheet from NF to tell me who it was? Aaaaaaaah!

This tape is burning a hole on my desk. I really want to mail it to somebody!
posted by Cat 'Astrophe' 2:29 PM

Foo! Those power failures last week with the rain last week screwed up a lot... including my EMAIL, so anybody who requested a form from me then just didn't get through to me. I've got it working here, but I need Paul to check it here.

YAAAAH!
posted by Cat 'Astrophe' 9:29 PM

July 4, 2000

Training Walk for 7/4

  • Focus: Speed Work for 45 minutes
  • Duration: 45 minutes
  • Locale: Gym on cross trainer and bike
  • Distance: more than 5k
  • Rate: 4

I give it a "4" rather an a "3" is because I am a yutz. Emotionally I felt happy, mentally I was feeling agreeable, but physically I screwed myself up.

I forgot today was the 4th of July, a HOLIDAY, and not just the fourth day of the month. I ate cereal for a late breakfast and I was starting to get down some water when I realized that the gym closes at 4 PM today so I wasn't going to make an evening workout like usual. I hightailed it out of here without giving myself much time to digest. Normally I try to eat and drink a lot of water and just sit for an hour or so before I go. Today I gave me as long as it took to drive to the gym only.

The result? A slushy feeling and a MAJOR side cramp during my workout. Ugh. Warm-up and cool-down I did on a bike, and in the middle I put out a 5K effort in 31:20. While an improvement, I didn't feel as together as I did before when I did it in 34 min. The food jostling around in me made me feel gross, and I felt like a heap of junk rattling about.

Yutz, yutz, yutz.

And what is UP with Bally's trying to put a store in the lobby area? These shelves full of crap -- bars and powders, and shakes and pills. Hello? I can see bars if you are out racing or something and need a fast refuel, but who needs all this supplement crap? What are they thinking? Argh.


posted by Cat 'Astrophe' 3:44 PM

July 3, 2000

I'm having connectivity problems at home. Sigh.

So at least I can say that I'm glad I have to be at work today, because I can blog and stuff. Yaaay.

Walked 50 minutes on Saturday, will do 45 minutes tonight, and then tomorrow night is the Durham 5k. Wednesday will be a rest day, then Thursday for an hour, Friday for 45 minutes, then Saturday for 3.5 hours..

Ha, ha. Yeah, right. I'll consider myself lucky if I get over two hours -- I haven't done that before.
posted by Adrith 10:05 AM

July 2, 2000

Today's training walk was for 20 minutes. Instead we took advantage of the sunshine. It hasn't rained YET all day! Hurrah! A solid week of rain was more than enough! Mowed the lawn and did some gardening, and then we took a 45 minute spin on the bikes around base. Paul beat for be two of the grass sprints and I came very close to a tie on the last one. Yay!
posted by Cat 'Astrophe' 8:05 PM

previous week | 2000 index | next week