I guess I run now

3.25 miles, actually. I did some sloppy math last night and I think 3.25 miles will get me to 535 miles by July 1.

No miles yet today, but I need to do laundry when I come home, so I’m going to treadmill may way through a laundry cycle or two and take the dog for a nice long walk.

The weekend will be tricky. I can get my 3.25 miles in tomorrow morning, but then tomorrow afternoon I’m flying to MA to surprise my mom for her 80th birthday. Not coming back home until Tuesday, so it’ll be all outdoors walks for me over the weekend. I’m not going to sweat it. I’d like to get my miles in every day, but if I don’t, that’s okay.

I’m thinking about registering for that 5k in May. The tentative plan is to continue doing short, but inspired, runs during my walks for the next two weeks and then rotating the C25K program into my routine after that until I can mostly run 3.1 mile every other day. That’s the plan, anyway, and the 5K I’m signing up for is a walk/run, so even if I’m not at 3.1 miles of running by May, I should be able to get a respectable time.

Food today:

Breakfast: 1 cup quaker oatmeal squares…yummy

Lunch: salad?

Dinner: I need to do something with this summer sausage in the fridge (chicken sausage). Maybe over pasta with a salad on the side.

Happy day chicks!

Maybe even one hour at a time.

Whatever works today.

My usual 8am meeting got canceled. Yay! Then a colleague sent out a request for someone to cover his time with the job candidate in the morning and I almost volunteered to do it. Then I thought…wait, I’ve got enough on my plate this week and I want the morning to walk and meditate and just relax.

So . . . 2.5 miles in the morning and 20 minutes of meditation. It was hard to get into the meditation at first because I had all this noise running through my head about what I needed to do. But eventually, with the help of the nice lady’s voice, I realized that I’d set aside this time just to meditate, just to sit quietly, which means that going into the meditation, I’d already decided all this stuff could wait. And it did wait, and I feel great!

Dinner with the candidate tonight. I have my meal picked out (scallops or salmon, salad, no potato this time, extra veg, beer).

Lunch is leftover tabouli with chunks of fresh moz.

Update: dinner. had the mashed potatoes with the scallops…all else as planned.

Yesterday’s food…1/2 veggie sub and 1/2 bag chips, tabouli with moz, PB & J on whole wheat, clementine.

Ran oops…walk/ran a mile after dinner for a total of 3.51 miles on the day (clearly I’ve got running on my mind). YAY!

The scallops last night were disgusting. Salad, potato, and broccoli were fine, but I ate the first scallop and thought “no way, no one would send out food that disgusting.” Second scallop was slightly, but not remarkably better. In for a penny, I tried a third scallop and realized I should probably get home quick to get my worldly affairs in order. So the lesson there: if a place serves fish only with very strong sauces, don’t assume you can get it broiled or grilled without the sauce. The sauce is meant to cover the flavor of the fish.

Up with the sun again, but this time I got all three miles out of the way early and even did 10 minutes of meditation, which felt amazingly good. I got an app for it, you can choose music or natural sounds, lenght of time, and whether or not to have a speaker walk you through the meditation.

Our next candidate is on campus tomorrow. Dinner at a real fish place, so the same plan as before (scallops or salmon or talipa), salad, veg, potato.

Today I have a lunch meeting complete with a Jimmy John’s veggie sandwich that I’ll eat half of and save the other half for dinner on the drive to class tonight.

Ooh, I’m so on top of things today, I’m going to take a break to just relax and read blogs.

Let’s call it Day 2.

We have a candidate for a job in the department on campus today, so I was up with the sun to hop on the treadmill before heading in. 2 miles actually came easily. The remaining 1 mile was easier, though: walks hither and yon around campus.

Actually, food’s been okay too now that I think about it:

Lunch: 3 cups of leftover tabouli. I added tomatoes, peas, edamame, arugula, and fresh mozzarella.

Snack: hot chocolate (no whipped) from the campus cafe

Dinner: with the candidate. I previewed the menu, so it will be broiled scallops, baked potato, veg, salad. Beer too, though.

If I’m feeling ambitious, I may hop on the treadmill when I get home, but we’ll play that one by ear for now. Okay, I was just told we’re heading out for dinner…wish me luck with avoiding temptation.

But I’m not going to share any with this group because ya’lls’ BS detectors are pretty good.

I just fell down and went boom with my 3-mile-a-day goal. Now I’m sitting here & it seems impossible, when I know dern well it is more than possible.

Okay, so I’ll get the 3 miles in today. That’s the promise. One day at a time. Just 3 miles, just today.

In other news, my typical “lost and can’t get the people I’m with to realize I know my way around” dream has turned into one where I’m just running, fast and long, all alone, and all around this same dream neighborhood. My translation: subconsciously I know that getting in shape and running again are the best ways to regain control of my life. & man, it’s so sweet to be able to run in those dreams, up hills, jumping over streams, along lakes, down wooded paths, through these sweet smelling pines and all around these beautiful fields.

Okay, I could sit here on the couch and continue prepping my online class or I could head upstairs, put on my workout clothes, and hit the treadmill.

Done.

Thanks for being here chicks, thanks for your keen BS detectors, and thanks for checking in with me (Eileen, your simple question arrived in my email and brought me back here today).

UPDATE: sat around working on my class for another 3 hours & then finally, finally, finally grabbed the dog and headed out into the 16 degree, but sunny, day. We got in 1.7 miles, so I’ll finish up the last 1.3 on the treadmill while the laundry runs. UPDATE UPDATE: got the last 1.3 miles in while watching part of a mystery on TV…kinda relaxing. Then cleaned out the basement, did 6 loads of laundry, prepped my class, and made tabouli for dinner. Now I’m calling it a night!

Day 10: Not so much good.

At least I got in 2 miles yesterday!

Also got in burger and fries for lunch (gave father-in-law most of fries), chili for dinner, and peppermint ice cream (about 2 cups) for snack. Argh.

Today the only goal is to do better both with the walks and with the food.

Yup, this blog doesn’t go silent unless I’m faltering and falling off the wagon.

So…we’re in Chicago visiting the inlaws, but I’m back on the 3 mile a day wagon today. I’ve lost time and distance, and (not coincidentally) no weight to speak of. UGH!

Wednesday I got in about 1/2 mile. The plan to sleep in my PJs and get up early got sidelined by my dept. chair spending the night because of a snow storm. Yeah, boss in the house was my excuse not to work out in the morning. I did do the stairs and a short walk on top of that, but then it was meetings and, for dinner, Chinese food. Walked a little over a mile on Thursday, and then traveled here yesterday.

So easy to get thrown off course.

Anyway, let’s track food:

Breakfast: 2 cups cheerios with milk
Lunch:
Dinner:

Walks: 1.5 mile walk with the inlaws, hubby, dog.

I need to make wise choices. Caught a glimpse of my butt in the mirror here and it’s horrific!

Fighting with myself again this morning. But I teach tonight until 10, so I can’t exactly leave the 3 miles until after class. So when will heading down to the basement or out the door with the dog for a 3 mile walk or walk/run become habit, second nature?

Wah, wah, wah.

It’s day 6 and listen to me complaining. Yes, it was difficult getting on the treadmill and convincing myself to do at least 1 mile. But it wasn’t hard after that first mile to convince myself to go 2.65 miles instead. Clearly all I need to do is motivate myself onto the treadmill and the rest will take care of itself.

I’m going to take breseay’s awesome advice and sleep in my workout clothes tonight. While I won’t be getting up at 4am tomorrow, I do need to be on campus for an 8am meeting and I’ve been worried about how to fit exercising in with my typical Wednesday meeting schedule. I’d hate to get ready for that early meeting, come home and get all sweaty, get ready in work clothes again, and head back to campus for an early afternoon meeting. SOOOO we’ll see if waking around 5:30 to workout works out.

Cheated last night with 1/2 pb&j after 9 and, when hubby came home from class & made a pizza (small one), I had a small slice. Stupid, stupid, stupid!

Today:

Lunch is pb&j on whole wheat, 6 pretzels

Dinner: will be onion and cheese quiche (about 1/8 of the pie) with 1 cup of edamame

Snack: 12 oz home brew…this one’s a black IPA. We call it “Bipa” and it’s a bippee!

Walks: 2.65 in morning, 1.12 walk in a very snowy evening. Woo Hoo! Over goal for the day!

UPDATE: snow falling like crazy during rush hour and my university NEVER cancels classes for weather. So I did. No sense me and my students risking life, limb, and property to get to class when we can meet online. So now I’m looking forward to either walking in a winter wonderland with hubby and dog OR shoveling our driveway. Either way, it’s a workout.

Up and at ‘em.

For me the trick is going to be waking up and immediately putting on my workout clothes before heading downstairs to get the dog sorted for the morning. This way (at least so far) working out becomes the thing that’s standing between me and the rest of the day. If I wait until I’ve made coffee and come back upstairs to get into my workout clothes, I’ll make an excuse that it’s a busy day and I should just get to work and workout later.

This is on my mind this morning because this is one of those days when, if it weren’t for the fact that I’m sitting here typing this in my workout clothes, I’d find an excuse, any excuse, not to head to the basement now for day 3, week 1 of the C25K.  Oh well, once I get on the treadmill and round the first .5 mile, I’ll be into it.

Today’s food:

Lunch: leftover meatloaf (1 slice), leftover sweet potato (1/2 cup), leftover green beans (about 10)

Dinner: hubby’s teaching tonight, so instead of using that as my weekly excuse to settle in with TV and a big bowl of buttered popcorn, I’m toying with using Monday’s as my night to cook up some fish (which hubby hates). So…provided frozen scallops or salmon are reasonably priced (and I might buy enough for a few Mondays if they are), I’m planning on broiled fish with steamed brussel sprouts and sugar snap peas for dinner. Yeah, this will be a positive change to hubby’s teaching night.

Dinner redux: I never boil veggies, but thought I would tonight to minimize pots to clean since hubby’s at school…bad idea. Yeah, I burned the crap out of them, burned them dry, then toasted them up good, real good. Argh. So…dinner was scallops, frozen spinach, grits (yes, grits…they’re quick & I needed quick).

Walk/run: 2 miles in morning (and yeah, it did feel pretty dern good once I got going), .7 with dog in afternoon, now to get in the last .3

I guess I really needed to get out of the house. So we bundled up (it’s about 24, but sunny out), piled into the car, and headed to the dog park. I’m estimating close to 1.5 mile walk (and the pedometer agrees), but to be safe, I’m going to clock it at 1.2 miles. The park’s a nice walk…it’s huge, with many hills and wooded paths, and just enough snow and ice to keep things interesting. Plus the dog loved it.

Now I just need to get another 1.8 in and I’m done for the day. I’m sort of amazed at how well this is working out. I’ve just set a goal of 3 miles every day and each day I wake with a focus on doing just those 3 miles. I’m sure I’ll add stuff in as I go (like yesterday I did a short kettlebell workout after the morning walk), but my priority is 3 miles a day & I’m going to do it.

And while it scares me to death, after watching parts of the last season of BL (Ada and the marathon), I’ve decided to go ahead and register for a 5K in May right now. This was also the first race I ever ran as an adult, so it’s a good one to aim for over the next four months as I get myself back into shape. Hooray for goals!

Food:

Lunch: 1 egg, whole wheat toast with butter, 1/2 cup of almonds

Dinner: will be hubby’s meatloaf, sweet potato, green beans, and salad.

Walks: 1.2 mile at dogpark, 1.25 at night (18 degrees), will do the last .55 on the treadmill right now.