Running and Hiking, Maybe Cycling

We wanted to ride the bike loop around Sioux Falls today but it has been rainy and really blustery and (whine, whimper and blather) I have a cold. I never get sick, but there you have it.  We did hike yesterday and ran the day before - and my middle toe on my right foot, that I broke a week ago is better.  We looked up marathon training plans and will initiate that this week.

Gotta Getter Going. We have a marathon to run in September.  And I might have a 35 or 40 mile run to do next month.  Sound crazy?  Yes, I'm am sort of crazy that way. 

Avoid Floating on the Bread Bloat

While out forking off, I avoid bread as a rule of thumb.

We just ate at a diner in Independence, MO.  While ordering, we asked that the waitress hold the toast.  She commented that she'd been holding the toast, and avoiding all bread going on 14 years and 225 pounds ago.

I can relate.  Not to the 225 pound weight loss, but I know my body bloats with bread.  It was hard initially to stop eating it.  So much of the American food experience is based on sandwiches or bread baskets as appetizers.  It was awkward and sometimes messy to try to eat a sandwich with out the delivery system of bread or bun.  But as we started avoiding fast food places as we got healthier, it became easier.  When in most restaurants, you can find entrees that don't need the bread in order to eat it.  Or you can just use your fork and knife and eat the meat or whatever is the goodie inside.

Regardless, it became more important to me to avoid bread than to acquiesce to the American sandwich fixation.

My usual exceptions to the no bread rule are when I need to eat it to be polite, or just to experience what looks like a great taste, or for pizza!!!  If it is cruddy pizza I will often scrape the goodie stuff off and leave the ugly mess of icky sticky doughy yuck-muck despite disapproving looks. If you don't want to do that, cover it up in extra napkins.

If it is good pizza, you bet your bloated ass (or mine) that I am going after that dough as well as the toppings.

Sober Yoga

We took a yoga class last week, free for US Veterans.  It was fun.  The instructor was great.  It was relaxing and challenging and all positive energy.  When the instructor had asked if we'd ever taken a yoga class before, I said no.

It wasn't until towards the end of the class when she told us to scoot up to the wall, laying on our backs facing the wall with our butts touching the wall and our legs and feet straight up alongside the wall....that I started giggling out loud.

I giggled remembering the drunk yoga I'd done with a friend at her house.  Her and her girlfriends had a yoga session once when I was visiting from out of town.  My girlfriend and I were situated next to each other on the floor and had been drinking wine or martinis, I don't remember which, or both.  And more than the other ladies.  When we were doing the butts up against the wall thing, laying side by side, we were giggling and got chastised from the instructor.

So I'd forgotten I'd taken a yoga class before, informal and drunkenly so.

Pushing out the Mileage

I did another long run, adding perhaps, another mile.  The farmland in the foothills of the Appalachians was beautiful.

I spent the time thinking about setting up the informal ultra run on the C&O Canal Towpath, maybe in May, with two male friends who may try for a 50 miler while I do 35.

We hiked about 12 miles on the Appalachian Trail too.

White flashes from the AT.  This one says turn around.  And go under the bridge we just walked across.

So we were outrunning our forks.

Then we went into Baltimore and had pizza.

Embrace the Suck

I went out for three miles and ended up feeling good and pushing on for about seven or eight.

When I first came outside with my husband, I was in that mood of not really feeling like running but knowing I should.  The snow had melted the day before when it was 60 degrees.  There were still remnants of ice here and there, in shady spots and where it had gotten packed down from walking.  But the highways were clear.  I'd rather trail run, but hey, the trails would be all mushy with the melted snow and lots of rain.

We were dressed appropriately, of course, for a good run.  I had on long running pants and a good winter Under Armor shirt, with my Ragnar Relay hoodie over that.  I had cheap little gloves that roll up into a tiny golf ball shape (love them) and a warm headband.

Dave forgot something just as we came out of the house so I stood outside waiting.  Yikes!  The wind came at me.  Ohhhhhhh.....geez.  And I was standing in the shade so I moved out into the sunshine.  A bit better.

As we started to run I felt a little cold with the wind hitting us broadside, but I knew that it was just about right because as my body heated up I'd be fine.

After about two miles out (straight out and back route), Dave said he was turning around to go back and do the exercycle in the basement.  I felt good and wanted to keep going, thinking just another five minutes out and I'd turn around.

But I really began to enjoy it.  Even though my knees were talking to me now and then, and my left foot was creaking and croaking out comments here and there - I just slowed down a tad and made them all happy again.

And I thought about how I'd embraced the suck.  I thought about my mindset coming out of the house - a bit of dread, a have-to-do-chore of running and getting in shape.  I know that mindset is not the right one.  The mindset that came over me while running, like coming out of a fog, was the beauty of being outdoors, of the simple act of being able to use my body to move about this earth, to be able to breath in and out and to look about me at the sights, the rolling farm land, the cows, horses and sheep that stood in the fields watching me.

I realized I'd embraced the suck once again.  And it no longer sucks.  It is magic.   

Signed up for Another Marathon!

Dave and I will run the Erie Marathon on September 19th, near Lake Erie, Pennsylvania.  Woo hoo!! We are going to run with our good friend and his adult son.

But now we need to be able to get out and run.  I've been doing sets of 20 pushups here and there.  After two and a half sets a few days ago, my back was sore, so I "backed off" for a couple days.  I got on it again yesterday.

In the meantime, I am looking up recipes for carrot cake for my daughter-in-law.  We missed her birthday when we were in Iowa so I am going to make something nice.  We also missed our son's birthday.  He voted for carrot cake since he knows his wife likes it, but I know he'd like something chocolatey or cheesecakey so I will make something else fun on the lips for him.

By the way, this is the son who said, "You can't out run your fork."  Smiling.  

Ran 115 Minutes

We ran on Patrick AFB in Florida (near Melbourne) for a almost an hour and a half a couple days ago.  The running/cycling path we were on was cement (not good for feet, especially since I had my trail shoes on and had expected we would run on dirt) and along the water (good for view).  We didn't even realize how far we ran.

However, now my right foot feels like something is not right in there.  I don't know how to describe it except to say it feels a little broke, which, I know, doesn't make sense or I wouldn't be walking on it at all.  What I do know is that this has happened before, this same kind of pain in my foot, and Naproxen takes care of it, so it is something caused by inflammation, and set off by running on the hard surface rather than a dirt or limestone trail.

Suckaroo.

I am doing the 20 push ups a day now though.  I just did 20 and later today I will do another set of 20.

Did you hear that the women trying out for Ranger school have to do 49 push ups? I heard that on the radio the other day.  Hmmmm....Good goal for me to shoot for.