Exercise Goals for 2008

I did notice a strange glow in the northern sky...

Okay. This was the Race for the Criminally Insane.



Five miles in the pouringass rain. And it was lovely. Actually mild. I turned my headset up which was burbling SKINNY DIP a novel about a .....welll, nevermind because I just loafed along because I didn't think any of it would count.

Start from the beginning which is what I did not do.
The A Train did not come to 181st Street between 4:30 AM and 5:12am. Bastards!! So I told everyone who was on the platform with me (about ten runners) that we would arrive at 59th at 5:33AM and then have to run like sonabitchs to get to the start line before they shut off the start. (Some of them NEEDED the run to qualify for next year's Marathon, I don't)
So, we got there at 5:33 for the 5:30 race and I ran like a ......I ran down to the path and got in the runner's pack just ahead of the ambulance. The others had to run all the way up the hill to get to the start line. I trotted pretty good and passed a bunch of people to finish in what I thought was an unofficial 56:something.

Guess what? even though my toe never touched the start line they gave me an official run. It was so much fun and so miserable. 56:57


Did I mention that this race was the 50th anniversary of NYRR?? They started with about 40 guys. Today there are 46,000 members, and almost half (46 per cent) are women. What a great world we live in.

Joe(I'd do it again tomorrow)Nation

That's great, Joe!

I was gonna crow about running in the rain yesterday (I didn't cancel! I didn't quit! Just kept running!) but that kinda takes the wind out of my sails. (It was light to medium but never pouringass.)

I loved it when it was light, actually, counteracted the tomato-headed-ness a bit. Cooled me off nicely. (I have always, going back to when I was an elite [HS] athlete, gotten BRIGHT red about the face with exertion. Looks scary but I'm fine. Sozlet's the same way.)

On that tomato-headedness, I had that too, after jogging about 4 miles on my lunch hour, three times a week. My boss at the time was an md/phd with expertise in muscle physiology. He said, if I remember right, that it had something to do with facial capillaries (or something like that), and not to worry. You might take that with a grain of salt, but in any case I never did just keel over from it.

I've always been a tomato-head too...Once an aerobics instructor told me she was glad to have me in class because looking at my stop-sign-red face made her feel like she was leading a really intense workout...

I'm glad to know I'm not the only tomato-head. I always found it embarrassing that my face gets so red when I exercise. It stays red for a long time afterwards, too.

I've had a little setback in my efforts to get to one hour on the elliptical. I've always had neuromas, specifically Morton's neuroma, in both feet, but the elliptical has aggravated the one in my right foot to the point that my toes go numb. So I'm trying to avoid the cortisone shots by using metatarsal pads and keeping my sessions under 1/2 hour. I can usually add a half-hour walk in the evening without too much pain, too.

Anyway, I'm doing well. Lost almost 20 pounds. Looking to lose another 20-30.

Horrible May (only 2 "speed points" and 46 K) because of injury, travel and toothache.

But I'm coming better on June.
Today 8K fartlek, 58 min.

(Great photos Joe)

Swimpy--

Good for you. Was it fun shopping for a summer wardrobe? After 20 pounds last year's clothes will be baggy.

Fbaezer--

Good for you, too, but I'm not an educated cheerleader for joggers/sprinters/runners.

It is kind of fun, Noddy. I'm still not where I want to be so I'm buying interim clothes. It's nice having clothes in the closet that are too big instead of too small.

Swimpy--

One of my favorite parts of a slimmer wardrobe is being able to give a steady, dispassioned look at the three way mirror in the fitting room.

I am feeling so much better, surrounded by other stewed tomatoes

I'd rather be a hot tamale, but it's nice being part of a gang of tomato heads.

Ran, not in the rain, but in a drizzle that was little more than a mist.
Good running conditions. I kept the tempo up and averaged 8:43 a mile
over about 3 miles.

I'm going to do some tempo work each week and try a 5K later in the
summer.

I'm a tomato head too. People get very alarmed.

But now it takes half an hour of exertion to get there. Before I lost weight, I was red in the face just sitting still on a hot day. Or a cold day for that matter.

You'd think they'd give us some lettuce to go with it..

Lettuce is good. Good for you, Swimpy!

Dammit, where were all you tomato-heads when I used to go to a gym and exercise in front of people? I always felt so alone!

Horrid discoveries: I've spent the last month congratulating myself on my firm thigh muscles--ignoring their lack of exercise. This week, dealing with edema in the lower legs and feet, I realized that my firm thigh muscles are actually flabby thigh muscles surrounded by fluid.

I've been pretty well intert for a month or so because of medical odds and ends. I'm hoping to work up some gumption for mild exercising this weekend--and next week and the week after and the week after.

Please, gentle nagging would be appreciated. Brutal hollering would be better than no reinforcement at all.

Consider yourself gently nagged.

Hey Noddy! How's it going?

(Should you be exercising, yet? Or should there be more sitting there with legs propped up first?)


So I'm a tomato-head as I speak. And I'm so not complaining about rain again. Wednesday: misty to light rain to medium rain. Friday: Sunny, 90's. Guess which I preferred? (I wasn't breathing that hard but the heat wiped me out.)

Got there a bit late today and only did 3/4 of a workout. Trackmom offered to keep going and do the last quarter with me (did I mention she's a sweetheart?) but I had some stuff to do and didn't have as much ooomph left as I usually do at that point. Hadn't had a proper lunch due to a zoomy day and figured it was probably better not to push it.

Noddy, howsabout just working on reading heavier books for a tiny while?


later, we can all work on this together