080509

Today wasn't as difficult as yesterday - maybe it was the egg. This isn't becoming a running blog but it's where I'm putting things for now and it's what I have to write about. Today, I ran past an older Oriental man who was running even slower than I was. I may "enjoy" running and I may even keep at it but win a race, I will never do. I thought about how old he might be and figured he could be about 60. He didn't seem as old as 70. But he was out there, going around the circuit.

I also felt proprietary about the park as I was running around it. The construction was banging on beside the park - lots of new condos going in. And even though the workers won't be living there, it was good to see people about. There were people walking circuits in the park as usual. And a parks maintenance guy was out with a loader of some kind, spreading what might have been fertilizer on the playing fields. It was as I ran by him and nodded hello that I felt like I belonged there. Interesting.

080508

And again. Only today was tougher. I still ran 20 minutes but it seemed to be more of a struggle. I suppose it could have been the water I took with me for the first time. Since I'm outside for less than 30 minutes, I haven't been taking water. Yesterday, I resurrected the Running Room water bottle belt but to carry the camera. Today, I took a tiny 340 ml bottle of water. I cinched it pretty well so it didn't move around a lot but still, it was there. I drank 240 ml of it during the cool down walk which is good for me. I'm not a huge water drinker.

It could have been the stiff west wind that slowed me down on each leg of the circuit. The internet says it is gusting to 35 km/h and it was threatening to blow my hat off each time I ran west. However, I decided to have a boiled egg on toast when I got home, as I might need some protein too.

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And again this morning. But you should have seen me rationalizing why I didn't have to. I started with the fact that I'd fallen asleep last night in front of the tv at 8:30. Obviously I needed my rest. This morning, I let myself sleep in until 7:30 ( I have been getting up at 6am all semester and see no reason to stop even though I am not now teaching). So I thought, I won't go running - it's too late and I have other things to do. Then I thought, I could go get my hair cut this morning and that involves a bike ride (only about 15 minutes one way but still). And I have to shower off the hair when I'm done so that would mean too many showers. And on I went until I just got up and went running.

While I was running, I rationalised that I only needed to run two circuits because of the bike ride later. But I just kept going and then there I was, past the end of the third circuit and still running to the 20 minute mark. So I did it again! I even found the Running Room water bottle belt that has two zippered compartments on it and brought my camera to take pix of the beaver damage in the park. So, even though it is almost 10 am, I feel pretty virtuous and I still have time to go get my hair cut.

080506

Ran again today! This time each circuit was about 5:45 - a little under 6 minutes. I ran until I went past the start of the circuit and since it was at 18 some minutes, I kept running until I got to 20 minutes. So I was out there about 3 minutes less than yesterday. Good stuff. No Body Flow class this morning so I did about 15 minutes of "my yoga" in the living room. I have never taken a "real yoga" class but I have learned a lot from Body Flow and from this book we got. I do four choreographed sun salutations, based on Body Flow. Then I do "hip openers" which is just a few pigeon poses interspersed with down dogs and quad stretches. Then I do a balance track - some floating half moons, the warrior on one foot whatever that one is, dancer poses. Then pilates for abs and back - core work. Each section has a song that I play so it gives a sense of timing to it all. Now for a shower and my second breakfast. Mmm.

080505

I started running outside (as opposed to on the treadmill) on Saturday. That day, I started with one minute of running, one of walking for 5 minutes and then I launched into just running. I ran for 14 minutes without stopping and then I walked for another 10 to cool down. I was pleased because I didn't remember ever having run for 14 minutes without walking. Sunday, we walked the park. A circuit walking takes about 10 minutes. Running a circuit takes between 6 and 7 minutes. I felt the running in my quads mostly, but also in the rest of the legs, the butt and my sternum, which had to move in and out more than usual to accommodate more rapid breathing.

Today, I decided I would run again. I started and went one circuit and then two and finally, I kept on going to make three full circuits. I stopped a little short of three because there were these two people walking ahead of me as I came in to the end of the third and I didn't want to sprint past them and then stop dead. Why I should care what two strangers think, I don't know but I do, so there it is. Anyway, I did my nearly three circuits in 18:30 minutes. When I stopped, this time I checked my pulse and it was at 140. 220 - 50 = 170 times 75% which is probably high for me as an intermediate = 127, so I was well over my target heart rate but not gonna die.

I continued on and walked a fourth circuit so I was outside for 30 minutes all together. In about 5 minutes, my pulse was down below 100 so I am happy about that recovery rate. Tomorrow, I am having lunch in Manotick which is about a 30 km round trip, so that will be my aerobic exercise tomorrow. Now, I am going to go to the gym and do a 60 minute class of yoga and pilates to get all my stretching in.

080407

[Should have put this up yesterday...]

There are only two more weeks of teaching in the semester. Then I give the final exam and I'm done. Of course, that also means I am done getting paid, as I only get paid for the actual hours I teach in the classroom. So then it will be time to start something new. After we go to Europe and come back, of course. So - June it is then.

In the meantime, I only have two more sessions on Saturdays of "boot camp" at the Goodlife gym. It has been a good shake-up, to do circuit training for an hour on Saturday but I haven't started anything new otherwise, in my routine. And the gym changed the schedules of all its classes so until I end teaching in 2 weeks, I can't take the Body Flow classes I was taking until last week.

I write this because I was reminded by Zen Habits that we were supposed to write down our goals, or why we signed up for Boot Camp. Shoot - I just checked my calendar and I'm going to miss the second last boot camp because I signed up for a course in how to be a director of a condominium. That kind of frosts me. I forgot all about them overlapping. Gack, now that I look at it, I thought we only had 6 classes of boot camp and that means I will miss the very last one. I really dislike not finishing something.

Anyway - goals. I wanted to lose some actual pounds. I have lost fat and gained muscle and my clothes are fitting looser but I am not able to slide that weight on the scale over to the left any more than usual. This is frustrating, even though I know that the answer lies in fewer calories in than out. I think I want to start running comfortably outside and I don't want to be gasping for air 3 minutes after I leave the house. And should I decide to become a personal trainer, it will give me ideas about what else I can do with clients.

On the weekend, I planted herb seeds in little peat pots. Some of them were so small, I'm not sure how many got into each peat pot. I hope that by the time we get back from Europe, they will be good little seedlings and ready to put outside. It is so tempting to plant before the end of May but you really do run the risk of a killing frost and then there goes all your earlier effort.

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There was a recent "article" at The Onion about someone who sent out so many emails chronicling the minutia of his life that he was considered a modern day Proust. I kind of feel like that guy. I do write a lot each day, but it is all emails, mostly to this odd little chat group to which I belong and to my long-suffering husband. And it's also interesting (to me at least) that I have been thinking about reading Proust, even though I haven't cracked page one of volume one. But I enjoy reading about Proust, which I do vicariously through a blog called Orange Crate Art, written by an English professor somewhere in Indiana.

Much has happened in the last little while, not the least of which was that I turned 50 and didn't even mark that milestone with a blog post. I have concluded that I must begin blogging about the minutia of my life in a Proust-meets-the-Onion sort of way.

Today, I wrote the CanFitPro Personal trainer Specialist exam. I gave myself the course as a 50th birthday present. I don't know if I am going to become a personal trainer but I have been going to the gym lately and noticing a lot of women older than I am who could probably relate more to a personal trainer closer to their own age. Plus, I have been watching my parents age (gracefully, I may say) and they do love to quote (was it Bette Davis?) someone who said "getting old ain't for sissies". I figure I have about 30 years before I allow myself to qualify as "old" and I am going to start preparing for it now. Although I am a member of the GoodLife Gym and I really enjoy its group exercise classes, I don't think I would want to sign on there as a trainer in its stable. Because "stable" sort of says it all for me. If I do become a trainer, it will be on my terms. I want to be able to choose the people with whom I work and it's not the money that is important to me.

Anyway - first I have to pass the exam. I don't know when I'll hear how I did. If I passed (I'm pretty sure I did), then I have to take a CPR certification course and then I have to do the practical exam, which I know I will pass. And then we shall see. In the meantime, I continue to teach part time, which ends at the end of April. Peter and I are going to Europe in May for the first time ever together. And when we get back, I want to renovate the upstairs of the house, including putting in a whole new bathroom. So I think I'm busy until July at any rate.

There. That's a good start. Now I just have to do this every day.