My bike training has started! (God I'm lazy, trip is on the 8th of July and we're biking 400-500 mi.) I seem to be stuck at my current weight, but hopefully the kick started exercise will drop it down to my goal. In any case, my measurements will most likely reveal all, as I gain massive amounts of tone and muscle on my lower half.
Love you all!
Week Two(starting today) yields: Mon: 20 mi
Week One yields: Sun: 35 mi Thurs: 16 mi Fri: 40 mi Sat: 12 mi Sun: 16 mi ---> 119 mi
My problem is that I look at myself in the mirror and I'm still so amazed that I almost don't want to lose more. But, my goal for now is below 150, and I need that to be considered normal weight.
I know that the number doesn't really matter in most cases...EXCEPT with me. I have an 8 day, 400 mi Bike Tour coming up, and every pound I lose is one less I have to carry for 50 mi a day.
I'll be checking on you guys when I get a chance!
Goals:
Run a mile in under 10 minutes
Bike at least 100 mi in a week
Keep caloric intake between 1200 and 1300, except on long ride days (> 10 mi) where it will be up a bit. (AKA, if I'm hungry after a 40 mile bike ride, I'll eat)
Monitor my body closely for the upcoming injuries associated with biking: flaring tendonitis, knee pain, pelvic / gluteal bruising, etc. Use appropriate action with those injuries.
Push my average speed from 11.5 to 12.5 for at least 2 rides in a week > than 5 miles
So I had this dream when I was like, 10, and from it came my first ever short story, which never got finished. I decided to rewrite it, and since I have a little bit of an audience here, I'll be posting the chapters and asking for comments. Here's the first chapter - enjoy!
An erie call, not quite animal, echoed through the otherwise still night.Not even crickets were chirping, a thought that put Morgan, and perhaps Alana, on edge.They had been awake for a ridiculously long amount of time, and their bodies ached like they shouldn’t for another ten years.But, they were the best, according to King Jacob.The best, and delegated to the worst missions.Sloshing their way through mud and rain, they had finally made it to Archon headquarters, where they were instructed to watch.The best agents of land, watching the rebels.
Alana had thought it had been the ale over the past festival that had got them this particular mission.A little too tipsy for their own good, Alana and Morgan had clasped hands on the banquet table, belching and bellowing out bad renditions of ancient, sacred tunes.Jacob had been amused until they had begun singing one that the commoners had taught them – of a King who did not quite measure up to his duties.
Jacob’s childlessness was a sore spot for the entire royal family.Jacob had even been given permission to copulate with anyone necessary to produce an heir.Soon enough, the verse had told him, his brothers and sisters would pay for the whores to claim their babies as the king’s own.
Morgan just thought they were on to something important.She had always been the more innocent of the two sisters.And the most disagreeable – Alana sighed.She had to get back to watching, else she would find herself and her sister jobless.Or dead.Preferably the first.
The candlelit glow of the Archon hold seemed empty, other than the lone soul who had been there since sunset.The girls had moved closer with the new moon’s sliver alone lighting their way, and had separated to try to see inside the house.They had been instructed not to enter, but they had planned on it, anyway.It was rumored that this particular stronghold had the bones of some agents who had been captured.And that, in Morgan and Alana’s eyes, was not okay.
Alana decided that it had been long enough.Morgan’s silence on the other side of the shack could only mean a few things.She had fallen asleep, she had been captured, or she was just as bored as Alana was.It was most likely the third.
Alana crouched, her eyes searching the shack with more interest.The man had been in there for hours, furiously writing on parchment.Alana had lost count of the pages that the man had written, noting only when he flipped to begin a new page.He didn’t seem like much of an Archon rebel – he was small, weedlike, with spectacles hanging fitfully off of his nose like someone precariously hanging onto a cliff’s edge.Every few minutes, the man would push them up, and Alana would watch in growing annoyance as they slid down every time he took a breath.Truth be told, Alana was about to make her presence known through murder if they didn’t do something soon.
Alana crawled a few more feet, to the edge of the radius of light from the shack’s candle.She would have to make it through the light quickly to not be seen.She could do it the long way, sneaking out to around the road, but she didn’t want to risk losing sight of the shack she had been sent to watch.Morgan and herself may be the best agents, but that didn’t stop King Jacob for sentencing them to cleaning duties when they failed.
Alana watched the glasses fall down yet again, and the man pushed them up just as he had a million times before.It was with this action that Alana moved, dodging across the light.What always felt like ages to her was accomplished in only a few seconds.She glanced back over her shoulder at the lit shack as she crouched low to the ground on the other side of darkness.The man had retained his posture, furiously writing in the candleglow.She had made it.
Alana hissed in the general darkness.She was sure Morgan had seen her, and waited for Morgan’s response.A low hiss sounded from the left of her, and Alana glanced over her shoulder, then moved carefully towards the noise.Alana nearly tripped over her own sister as she inched towards the source of the sound.
“What the hell are you doing?”Morgan whispered just beneath the noise of the crickets.
“I was bored.I came to see how you’re doing.We should sign.”Alana replied, adjusting her weight off of her hands so she could move them.
Nothing here, Morgan signed in response as she returned her eyes to the target.But if I see him push his glasses up just one more time…
lol, so today's a holiday for me, and I'll write more about that later, but I decided to give blood because the red cross was here doing the whole thing. So my iron just meets the standard, my blood pressure is at 116/62, and I go to give blood....
And the needles in, and the monitor starts doing funky things - going from a 5 to a 2 to a 1 to beeping back to a 4...etc...the entire time. Eventually, I just stop bleeding, or bleed at such a slow rate it would take an hour to get the blood. My blood clotted.
So I didn't get to give blood - I gave a little, but not as much as was needed. I bled for nothing. But, I'm healthy! My clotting was working just as it should ;-)
So I know its not a great, great time, but I ran 10k in 1:09:30 !!! The fact that I made it is amazing.
I was looking online earlier and found some 'training' programs for beginning runners. One of the programs, and I couldn't find it again if you asked me to, more or less implied that if you're overweight at all, you're not physically fit to run, period, and you should only walk. That's one thing that annoys me about weight and society. The number is not everything.
Especially with people on track to losing weight. I can guarantee that someone out there who weighs significantly more than me, or has a higher BMI than myself, can most definitely run an easier or a faster 10k than I just did. Just because I am still 'overweight' does not mean that I am not physically fit. It just means that I have a little extra fat than everyone else.
In addition, if you're weight training as well as cardio, and you're kicking some major butt, chances are you're in better shape than someone who weights 5 or 10 lbs less than you without exercising. You can run, jump, bike, or swim farther than them.
I've always been a little overweight, but for most of my childhood until I was 16, I was also in Karate. I may have been overweight, but I had abs underneath the flab like you would not believe. Overweight, at my black belt test, I ran 3 miles, fought for 20 minutes straight, had two boards broken on me, broke two boards, myself, and demonstrated most of my knowledge. The entire ordeal took about 4 hours, and at the end of it I weighed about 3 lbs less from water and fat loss. Tell me I wasn't fit, then.
Sorry to rant at you guys - I'm sure you all feel the same way. Point being, I ran 10 km. It was amazing. And hard. I ran through the parts where I couldn't breathe, and I survived. I have to admit, I took a 2 minute potty break at Tim Hortons, stopped to stretch briefly at 5k, and on my way past im Horton's again I grabbed a water bottle. But the rest of the time was constant jogging!
So, when you do a lot of exercise, and you start the next day...I have labeled the syndrome. It is now called, "dead legs".
Friday, I ran about 3k.
Saturday, i ran 2.42 miles, and biked 2.05 miles.
Sunday, I biked 11 miles
This morning, I ran another 3k, and I thought I was going to die. I started knowing that it was going to hurt. I had just woken up an hour earlier than I needed to, and the sun was shining. So I decided to go for a run. My legs started burning at .5 k. My lungs started hurting at 2.3k. But, I kept going, and I'm glad that I did.
On to a brief story about Sunday and the dangers of flat tires....
I took my first longer bike ride of the season and was doing great. I took a break at mile 6 and ended up riding with a fellow trail rider, by the name of Richard, a 61? year old man. He was a nice guy, and I enjoyed talking with him. About a mile before the next town, I realized that there was something wrong with my tire.
Off of my tire for a moment...I was riding along the Erie Canal Trail, heading East. In NY, heading east means that the sun is constantly on your right (in the south).
I had to call my mom and have her pick me up - I didn't have a flat tire repair kit with me, nor was I that motivated.
I got home, and realized that only the right half of my body was burned. I also realized that, as I had been wearing a t-shirt...I had a one sided farmer's tan/burn!
Havent been posting much. I swear I will once school gets out in 3 weeks - its just been challenging, and Ive been lazy. No worries though, I'm still on my healthy track!
Does anyone ever get severe cramping - stomach cramping - to the point of uncontrollable moaning - after a hard run?
Today it was bad. Most days I dont ask people to shoot me, but I did today. It went away after I stayed in the fetal position for about a minute. Any suggestions?
I made it! I weighed in on an analog scale at 169. I'm not paying attention to my mother's scale anymore - it told me that I went down a pound, then back up, within a ten minute span. My mom's scale also told me that I weighed 175 today, and the other one said 169. As I've been following analog, there's no reason to not continue. And so, I consider myself in the '169' category!
Even if not too many people notice, I do! I wear baggy clothes, so of course they couldn't notice. :-)
Remember my goals? (touch my toes, bike first 20 mi of season, run in under 10 minutes, do 10 pushups perfectly)
I touched my toes today in the shower! I ran a mile in 10:01! Pushups...my wrists really, really suck. But I'm trying.
And I don't have my bike here, but its supposed to be beautiful on Saturday, and I'll bike at home. I'll do my usual trail - 2 mi uphill warm up, 9 miles there, 9 miles back, 2 mi downhill home. I'll forget the 4.5 from three weekends ago that killed me.
By the way, I'd like to advertise a bit. The website that my boyfriend and I opened together before we were dating is celebrating its fourth birthday. Its not very active, but if you apply, we'll accept you and maybe you can help us out. Its a website dedicated to philosophical, religious and historical research and discussion. Its called the Order of the Gecko.
Enjoy :) And keep going, whoever you are. You're doing great!!!
