Week 3 - #1

I'm back! I did 30min, 1min running at 4.7 on the 5mins. I actually noticed how many miles! 1.7. I again skipped the run on the last 5min but instead picked up the pace to a fast walk.

We (just M@ and I, yahoo!) are going to Maine today to walk on the marginal way. It's 1.4miles each way so that will be a nice bit of exercise too, but I didn't think it would be intense enough and figured I'd feel better today if I went knowing that I had done my exercise for the day. I do feel good. And now that Lobster will taste even better. Yum.

Week 2 weigh-in

I have taken days off that I wasn't supposed to be taking off. But I still remained active. Saturday I exercised before our drive to Burlington then exercised some more with Jill later that night. I need an exercise buddy, that was fun. Sunday M@ ran a leg of the Burlington marathon and I did a lot of walking with kids. But I ate (and drank) like crazy the rest of the day. I didn't bother counting points. Yesterday (monday) I intended on exercising but we got home so late and after driving I didn't feel much like getting on the treadmill. I hope to make up for it all today since this is usually my "off" day. I intend to continue the 1min of running for week 3.

Even after having such a bad day on Sunday I still managed to lose 1lb. Wahoo! That came as a surprise.

Week 2 - #2

It was hard to motivate myself this morning but I did it! I've accomplished a lot so far.... 2 loads of laundry, dishwasher, dressing kids, feeding kids, packing for VT and exercising. Still haven't showered and now Anna is asking me to hurry so she can show me her play. So here it is quickly.....

I did 1min jog on the 5min. 30min total. I skipped the jog on the last 5min and instead bumped up to a brisk 3.6 walk for a couple of minutes. I felt like I had a lot of energy. Last night I had 2 glasses of wine, this morning I had a kashi bar and a diet coke. I drank water while exercising and more after.

another recruit

asked my sister if she wanted to join us and she's game. So that's 4 of us. If we get too many people we can always start a new team.

Not sure I'm going to be able to exercise today unless I get a nap. I'm so so so tired. We went to a Red Sox game last night and didn't get to bed until 1:00. And Nick slept in bed with us which was fine until around 4:45 then became annoying and hard to sleep. I was real good at the game last night. Just one slice of pizza and a few peanuts plus a beer and a glass of wine. I had enough points available that I didn't have to tap into the floaters. I counted some more activity points for the walking last night. We did a lot of it.

Week 2 - #1

I think this is a good naming scheme for my posts. I'm in week 2 of exercising and it was my first walk/jog of the week. This way it will be easy to determine how many weeks I've been at it.

This week's ratio is 4min of walking to 1min of jogging. I jogged at 4.5 and walked at 3.2 for 30min. It went well, tho the jogging is tough. I am not a jogger. (Have I said that already?) It's hard for me. But I want to try to become one.

I need to be more disciplined about exercising as soon as I wake up. I put it off until 10:30 today. That's not going to work when we have things planned. Nick got me up at 6:30. There's no reason why I couldn't have exercised at 7:00. I sat in front of the computer doing stupid stuff for far too long. It was an avoidance thing. I'd have so much more accomplished by now if I had just exercised at 7:00.

Oh yeah, I was going to log what I ate. I had a kashi bar when I got up then a cottage cheese snack a little later. I also had a glass of water about an hour before exercising. Last night I only had one bottle of beer in the early evening and ABSTAINED from having another one during Lost. I was quite proud of myself for that. I didn't have the daily points left and would have had to tap into my floater points which I need to save for this weekend since we're going to be away and I'm not sure how much exercising I'm going to be able to get in. I'll be watching a lot of other people exercising but not doing too much myself. Oh and I also had a diet coke when I first woke up and now I'm having another 16oz of water.

Tonight Becky and I are going to a Red Sox game. I have no idea what I'll eat.

Team member #3

we now have 3 on our team. We are the Tara Suzy and Karen team. I think we need two more to make it complete. We'll need a team name.

weigh day - week 1

Today was a weigh in day. I was down 3.6lbs. Wahoo!

Four

More of the same. Nothing really different about this one. I guess the only difference was that there were no mishaps. I guess I'm getting the hang of this. Again, it was hard to convince myself to do it and it was difficult to continue. And again I forgot to look at how many miles. Arg.

Tomorrow I start a new week. I'll have to consult the book to see what my new ratio is. I won't be exercising the next couple of days (I don't think). It's hard to fit it into a work day. And seeing there are only 2 of them in my week I don't feel like I have to make a point of it.

Maybe I should keep track of my food intake to see if I'd have more energy on certain days after eating certain things. One thing that may not have helped much was that I had 3 glasses of wine last night. This morning I had a kashi bar when I woke up and later on a diet coke. After my walk/run I had a banana and 16oz of water.

The Treadmill

Trying out this idea of putting images in your posts. The picture above is of the treadmill that I use (you can click on the image and go to the webpage). We bought it a year ago and I'm very glad we did. Now I see they have a new model out, the 5.25. They probably have a new one every year.

Having a treadmill was really the only option for me with 2 small kids at home. I can't leave the house and go for a run. I could use the jogging stroller while Anna is at school but then that doesn't solve the problem of when she's not at school. I've exercised more over the last year than I have in a long time and I owe it all to the treadmill. I still am not very good at doing it consistently, but I at least have the option. And there are no monthly fees!

Day 3

I'm undecided about the title of my posts. I skipped a day of exercising yesterday so should I really be calling this Day 3? It's actually Day 4, but day 3 of exercising. I'll keep it this way for now, but I'll have to think of an alternate system. Wonder how Matt does it.

I did the same plan as previous. No major variations. Well actually there was a slight problem in the beginning. I started exercising and Anna came down. I wasn't using the headphones (ooh that's an important piece of information, I always jog with headphones because SITC isn't often appropriate for little ears) and Anna came downstairs. So I scrambled to plug in the headphones and in the process accidentally turned off the treadmill so I had to start over. I had put 30min in this time, not 32min, and I had gotten down to 26something so I started over at 27min. This is all exciting and terribly important information for serious runners like myself.

It was a little hard to get myself motivated today, glad I finally did it.

Day 2

Today it was so hard to get started. I was really tired. I woke up during the night and couldn't get back to sleep. Then Nick woke me up at 6:15 (which actually isn't that bad especially since matt got up with him at 5:30 yesterday morning). Last week I would have used this as an excuse to not exercise, but today I did it!! And I feel good. I did feel like I had less energy at the beginning but I kept it at the same pace as yesterday and eventually I felt better. I put 32min on the timer this time and then was wondering why the show was over and I still had 5min left. Duh! I ran for 30sec at the 5min marks, starting at 25min. I didn't notice how many miles, I assume around 1.7 since I went a little longer than yesterday.

Yay 2 more activity points for the day! That should help with the pizza lunch we're having at Anna's school.

Day 1

I did it. It was pretty lame, but I did it. I did 30min total, walking speed 3.2, then I jogged at 4.3 for 30sec on each 5 min mark. It's a slow start, but it's a start. I did a total of 1.6miles.

I need to reconfigure my running/DVD watching setup. The DVD player sits on top of the display so I can't get to the controls. It was hard to switch between jogging and walking. I turned the DVD off by accident at one point and had to start it over again. And that was not easy since in the process I knocked the remote on the floor, so then I had to lean down while walking to pick it up. It wasn't very safe. I ended up moving the DVD player onto a shelf in front of the treadmill but it's too far away on the shelf. So yes, some reorganization must occur. I watched Sex in the City which is a perfect length for 1/2 hour walk/jog. I also like to watch episodes of Gilmore Girls but they are a bit longer, about 40min.

Introduction

My friend Tara and I have decided that we are running a marathon next year. We are starting with a relay so that's only about 5miles (is that right?). I am starting from scratch. I've never been a runner. Never, ever. Never. I walk. I'm good at walking. It doesn't hurt. So I'm working this running thing into my life very slowly.

My sister-in-law, Ali, gave me a book for my bday called "no need for speed, a beginner's guide to the joy of running". It's more inspirational than anything. I actually read the whole thing! I'm doing his suggestion for training:

1st week is just getting off the couch and doing things so I'm skipping that week because I always do that. (This book is written for someone who sits on the couch and watches TV all day, wonder what Ali was trying to tell me.)

2nd week is 20 min with jogging 30 sec at every 5min.

I am now on the second week. (wow I'm moving along fast, feels like I just started)

I also started weight watchers on Tuesday so this is a week of new beginnings. The start of a new me. It will be a slow process.

So that ends the introduction, now onto my first entry.........