May 2010 Recap

I'm back! 

Hopefully I've made it through the crazy times and things will settle a bit again.  They should.  And I finally have gotten some of those pics I wanted to share from our last long weekend.

 MAY 2010

RUNNING RECAP

# of runs: 9

Distance: .......... 50.6 Miles / 81.4 Kms
Monthly Goals:  80.0 Miles / 128.7 Kms

Time Running:  7 Hours 45 Minues 56 Seconds

Summary: Definitely came up short on my running goal this month.  I had given myself a little leeway this month, reducing my mileage from 100 miles to 80, and I still came up awfully short. 

The whole month was just very sporadic.  The little bug I had that zapped all my energy certainly didn't help, but even putting that aside I got pretty lazy.  I briefly considered racking out the miles in the last week, just to reach my goal, but decided in the end to just suck it up and not injure myself.  I did have a few days of cycling in there as well, which I don't count in my running mileage.

This is the first month I have not only come short on achieving my goal, but came up VERY short.  It doesn't feel nice and I'm going to remember this feeling.
YEAR-TO-DATE

YTD Distance:  375 Miles / 604 Kms
YTD Goal: .......415 Miles / 668 Kms

YTD Time Running:  57 Hours 30 Minutes 18 Seconds

As for my other goals ....

♥ 10 strength sessions - I fell woefully short on this one as well.  Not sure where I've been at this month, but it certainly hasn't been very active.  I guess it's a good thing that I've been quite good with my eating.  Now to combine the two - haha.
♥ Plan! Prepare! Organize! - I'm still continuing to do well with this one.  Though I need to hit up the grocery store in the next couple days or I'm going to be in a bad position. 
♥ Races: 

May 9 - 10K Sun Run - did it, nailed it and am still on a high

May 30 - Run for Water Half Marathon - couldn't swing it financially

Now ... for the fun stuff.  Here's a few pictures from our long weekend away.

This is the firepit they built.  All the rocks (seats) are taken from the property.  All around is planted trees, shrubs and ground cover.  We're hoping we didn't plant anything that the deer particularly enjoy!

The campsite up top (obviously not finished)

And the view from the campsite .... sigh!  Wish I was there now.

We did ALOT of riding the quads.  The trails behind the property are endless.

Tomorrow I will post up my June goals.

Happy Memorial Day to any American readers. 

Hope everyone had a great weekend.

And huge congrats to Syl for completing her first Half Marathon!!!!!

Heidi

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Just A Drabble

It's been a busy week. Normally my work is a boring little place, but we have a big quote we're working on and I'm having to be devoted to that. We've also had a bunch of appts I've had to go to.

So blog time has been set aside for now.

I'm doing fine and hope to be back here in the next few days with something a little more exciting to report that a bunch of drabble.

Hope everyone is having a great week. I have read some blogs, but will have to catch up next week.

Take care!

Heidi

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FUN FACT:  Did you now that a drabble is a short work of fiction exactly 100 words?  While this isn't a work of fiction ..... the above post (excluding my name) IS exactly 100 words!

Weekly Weigh In

WEEK IN REVIEW

Points:       counted 3 out of 7 days.  Stayed in range 5 out of 7 days  (not bad for camping)

Activity:     4 out of 7 days

Weigh-in:  147.8 - Down 1.0 lb

Still haven't lost all of my gain from two weeks ago, but going down and I'm not complaining.

Overall results ...

Apr 27 - 149.4

May 4 - 146.8

May 11 - 150.4

May 18 - 148.8
May 25 - 147.8

Overall Down - 1.6 lb.

We went camping on our new property for the long weekend.  It was WONDERFUL!  I'll have some pictures to post, but may not be able to get them up for a couple days.  I have a couple on my camera, but need to see what my daughter and MIL got too.

The weather wasn't 100% perfect, but I still loved every minute up there. 

Didn't do as much exercise as I had planned.  Never got on the bicycle, and I never got out in my running skirt - it was a bit cold for it.  We went out on the ATVs alot though.  Did a ton of exploring of the trails near our property.  I think you can go forever if you wanted to.  I am going to absolutely LOVE living there.  Did alot of walking too.

We did run around the block once - the 4.5 mile/7 Km block!  With an elevation decline & incline of about 350 ft (100 Meters).  Let's just say it was a slow run, but one that once I master it, I will be a much faster & stronger runner for doing it.  It actually wasn't as hard as I thought it would be and I can't wait to do it again.  Great training!

Camping/holidays are always a challenge.  So much food, most of it not exactly healthy.  But I didn't do too bad.  We had burgers one night and I cooked myself a veggie burger.  Had steel cut oats for breakfast one morning while the family had sausages, eggs & pancakes.  We even did a big waffle buffet style breakfast with bacon, eggs, waffles, and a bunch of other stuff and I just took a reasonable portion.  No need to overeat just because I'm on holidays.

Another thing I found helpful was to keep active.  Sitting around doing nothing invariable leads to mindless eating.  Get out, go for a hike, go for a ride, do something!  The worst is sitting around the campfire and someone brings out the munchies.  Not one of us needs it.  I try to bring out fruit and/or veggies, but often get beaten to the punch and someone usually brings out things like nachos, chips, cheesies, cookies.  Guess I need to be a bit more pro-active when out with others, huh??

We have another camping trip coming up next month (that I am so excited for I am almost sleepless!).  I need to take this same attitude into this trip.  It will just be us this time, so I'll have more control over the mindless munchies.  Note to self:  just because you're away from home doesn't mean you need to eat any different!  It should be a pretty active holiday so I'm not worried about that.

Hope everyone had a great weekend! 

And someone ... please send me some sun!!! 

Heidi

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Taking 'er easy

I'm still thinking about that marathon .. but more in a 'one day' sense.  I do believe it will happen, but it will happen on my time. 

Though I did discover something quite interesting.  In my limited reasearch, I seem to be finding that there are quite a number of races that are quite a bit cheaper than I can find them here in Canada (locally anyway).

The average cost for a 10K here is $30-$50.  Half marathons run about $60-80+ and marathons seems to be $70-90+.  Of course there are races a bit above and below these amounts and these are in general the early registration fees.

I found a number of races just across the line into Washington state in the range of $15-25 for a 10K, $30-50 for a half marathon and $40-60 for a full marathon.  That's quite the difference when you add up numerous races and having two runners in the family. 

*************************

I have been a bit of a slug this week.  Lots on my plate and am still fighting that bug a bit.  Nowadays, when I get sick, I don't seem to get it full blast (knock on wood).  But it seems to linger and I can feel my body fighting it.  If I don't slow down and let it fight, it will hit me.  I'm pushing the limits right now and have to put on the brakes.

Normally exercise is easy for me and eating is a challenge.  This week it is the reverse.  Imagine if I can ever get those two things in sync!

So this weekend my plan are lots of rest, relaxation and activity.  I plan to get in some good runs and some biking as well.  Plus as much sleep as I can manage.

I also plan to break out the running skirt and give it another shot. 

Hope everyone has a great weekend.  It's a long weekend here, Victoria Day, in celebration of Queen Victoria's birthday.  I'm hoping for lots of sunshine and outdoor activity!!!!

Heidi

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Wrong Reason to Run a Marathon

I have to say, the last few days I have had the thought roaming around in my head to do a full marathon.  The reasons for doing so have to be the absolutely DUMBEST ever!

You see ... this weekend we went to a 40th birthday party for an aquaintance.  There were a couple people there who run at one level or another, so naturally there was some discussions surrounding running.  Too often the conversations went like this:

Hey Heidi, how did you do at the Sun Run?  Awesome, I shaved 8 minutes off my time.  Finished in the top 10%.  That's awesome ... did you know that Suzy runs marathons? Her husband too.  Can you believe that?

So Heidi, are you still running?  Yup.  How far have you run?  Well, I did my first half marathon this year.  Oh good for you.  Suzy and her husband run marathons.  They're awesome.

Great, I'm super happy for Suzy & her husband.  I hugely admire anyone who runs marathons.  I think it's an extreme challenge, not to be taken lightly.  But why OH WHY does running a marathon seem to supersede any other running feat? 

Just for kicks, I looked up some past running times for Suzy & her husband.  Good ... but I can beat 'em.  Not that I care about beating them, it's just the point.  Does length always impress more than speed, or just plain ol' accomplishment? Hmmm, that could sound dirty if you had that type of mind....  Guess I should have said distance, not length. :)

Personally I am impressed by anyone that takes on a challenge and conquers it.  Whether that is to run for 5 minutes without stopping, or to qualify for the Boston marathon. 

It wasn't just the conversations from this weekend that had me thinking this.  It's a pattern I see over and over.  Through conversations, on blogs ....

(skip this next paragragh if you have it taped Biggest Loser and plan to watch later.... )

Then of course last night on Biggest Loser, the final four ran a marathon, on a beautiful course I might add!  I'm still so leary that they don't fix that thing.  I mean, Daris looked great and definitely the best running form/ability ... but 4 hours is a pretty good pace and I can't see that he could do his first ever marathon in that time after only becoming active over the last few months.  And Koli looked like he was running not bad, and the other two who walked a ton of it, only came in less than 30 minutes behind him.  Yeah, I dunno.....

I found myself watching BL and researching various marathons on the laptop.  There's a beautiful one in Hawaii that looks nice.  It sure would be cool to do one in a really scenic, away-from-home, location.

So ... do you go out and run a marathon just because Suzy & her husband do??? Do you run one just because the contestants on Biggest Loser did?  That would be stupid right? I KNOW this, yet the thought keeps running through my head. I must be insane. A tropical vacation would probably set my head back on straight, right?

Really, at the moment my favourite distance is the 10K.  I will definitely do more half marathons because I'm comfortable with that distance and I think it's a great challenge.  But ultimately, 10K is where my heart is at at the moment.  It's just long enough to still be a challenge.  The training isn't insane and I still have lots of room (and I think ability) to do it alot faster than I have so far.  For me, I find just the challenge of running longer distance (without taking pace into the equation) is just one step after the other and I'm pretty good at that game.  The challenge of running a specific distance faster is what intrigues me the most.


I am guessing at some point down the road I probably will run a full.  Right now I fully believe I could do it, tomorrow if I really wanted to prove a point, but I haven't decided if I want to.  I think for something like that you need to have a pretty darn strong desire because alot of time and effort is involved.  It should probably be for the right reasons ... right?

Heidi

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Math Grade - F

Did you know I was a Math Honours student in high school?  A pretty good one too.  Though apparently without a calculator I am useless. 

Last week I reported my bad gain of 4.2 lbs. however my math was apparently wrong.  It was actually a 3.6 lb gain.  Still a bit depressing, but not quite as bad.

I'll have to remember to check my figures before posting.  Sadly it's not the first time I have done this ... and probably not the last.

Oh, and here was one of the items that contributed to this gain.  My son's 16th birthday cake - ice cream.  Thankfully it's long gone.  Darn was it good though!

He got his learner's license last week and has been out driving a few times.  A little scary at times, but he's been pretty good.  He's been driving around the property and operating machinery for years, but out on the road it's a little different story.  I'm very excited to have another driver in the family!

This week has been just OK.  You may have noticed I haven't posted much.  Mid-week I came down with a bug that left me a bit listless.  Not sure what it was but I had a bit of fever and was definitely out of sorts and extremely tired.  I'm feeling better now.

I did still manage to ride to work a couple of times.  Saturday night we went out to friends, had one drink and indulged a little bit in appies, though not bad.  The next morning I felt like I'd been run over by a truck.  Still went out for a 6.8 mile run, but felt awful for the whole thing.  Was hoping the run would burn it off, but nope.  My husband experienced the same thing.  It was hot & humid , plus I had a headache.  ICK!

WEEK IN REVIEW

Points:       counted 6 out of 7 days.  Stayed in range 5 out of 7 days 

Activity:     5 out of 7 days

Weigh-in:  148.8 - Down 1.6 lbs.

Didn't lose all of last weeks gain, but still went down.  I'm not disappointed.

Overall results ...

Apr 27 - 149.4

May 4 - 146.8

May 11 - 150.4

May 18 - 148.8

Overall Down - 0.6 lb.

The overall picture isn't very impressive, but I'll keep chipping away.

Heidi

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Five Pennies Makes a Nickel

Yesterday I was reading a running magazine and a writer mentioned "Five pennies make a nickel"

Today I learned this is part of a jingle intended to help teach children about coins and how they add up.

Five pennies make a nickel

Two nickels make a dime...

 
The statement in the magazine was in regards to all the little things we do that eventually add up to something much bigger.  It really struck me and it's kind of how I'm trying to live my life.
 
One penny may seem insignificant.  I mean really, is there ANYTHING left in the world that you can buy for a penny?

 
But, to quote from the jingle, with five pennies you have a nickel.  With two nickels you have a dime.  With two dimes & a nickel you have a quarter.  With four quarters you have a dollar.
 
And with a dollar (in some non-tax states) you can buy something to eat at a fast food joint!  Maybe not the healthiest item, but the point is you can buy something.
 
Same goes for a healthier lifestyle.  Every little positive change you make adds up to make a big difference.
 
If you can eliminate/reduce one unhealthy food, drink more water, consume less alcohol, run/walk a little more, challenge your muscles ... it all adds up.
 
I suppose the same could be said in the other direction.  For every unhealthy choice you make, you slow your progress by that little bit.
 

Think about the little changes you are, or aren't, making on a daily basis.  Are they leading up to the healthy lifestyle you want to lead?  Are they holding you back from being everything you want to be?  What is one little change you can make to move you one step closer to your goals?

 

 

Make a change today towards the positive!

 

Heidi

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