Sorry I didn't get here earlier, Alena! Came home on the train, fell into the tub, then DH took me out for lunch to celebrate. I was absolutely starving by then! I'm going to copy over what I put in the Maintainer's Weekly chat, instead of typing it all again.
Half marathon done! Finished in 2:29:20, which was 11:22 per mile average. (Forgot to stop my GPS at the end for almost ten minutes so messed up my per mile total on there... Sadness) I am proud of that - I kept to a solid 11:06 average for the first ten miles, with two miles just over 10 per, lost my ground on the last three miles - mostly up hill for the end of a half or whole marathon is just mean. Felt especially good considering the rain that started at mile 2! Never got very heavy, and stopped around mile 12. Just enough to make everything feel damp - especially my socks and shoes! It was warm the whole time, even with the rain and no sun, 57ish, so I was very glad to be wearing shorts and the short sleeve race T instead of the long pants and long sleeve shirt and thicker rain jacket I had planned. I snuck to the running store on Friday and found the fabulous Brooks lightweight wind and weather resistant jacket I mentioned in an earlier post their in a men's small for $52, so I was set with a nice, light, unusually weather resistant and incredibly light jacket. Packed the pants, dry shoes and heavier jacket in my bag and changed after the race, when it felt cool and windy. Blister on my foot from the wet sock, on the foot with the tighter shoe actually, so have to figure out what to do with that... Feeling good right now, though!
There were 10,481 participants in the half marathon, I was 7,540.
Out of the 4,618 women I placed 3,707.
Out of the 1,074 in the 35-39 women I placed 699.
So, I was faster than 2,941 total participants, 911 women total and 375 women in my age group. That gives a 70% overall, an 80% compared to all women, and a 65% compared to my age women. I'm totally fine with that!
And to make me feel even better, I bumped into a woman I haven't seen in seven years on the train. She is five years younger than me and was fit & active even when I knew her (was my kickboxing and yoga instructor, actually) - she didn't recognize me at all until I told her who I was... And, she finished in 2:41:07.... 1,040 people behind me... Which was 7 minutes better than her time from last year in the same race... And I just started running in January of 2009... Totally petty of me, I know, but that makes me happy.
I'm again starving so going to go get some yogurt. Will be back to chat later tonight or tomorrow. Thanks for all the support you guys! It really helped.
Actually, Shannon, it should be have been me who was supposed to say "sorry I didn't make it here earlier." What I posted earlier was supposed to be me cheering you as you ran.
You rock, girl!!! Congrats on such wonderful results, JOB WELL DONE!!!
(And congrats on the lovely new jacket, sounds very groovy!)
Killer yoga class today. The instructor continues to really impress me (and I am hard to please, if I say so myself LOL). Only three sessions, and I am totally in love. I wish there were 2 yoga classes a week (like there used to) instead of just one.
Before the class today, one girl who used to go to Zumba quite frequently, approached me and asked if I am still doing Zumba. I said no and we chatted a bit and it turns out she was equally disgusted with the new fees etc. so she ditched Zumba as well. I have to say I miss the classes but right now, with the still slightly irritated PF, I would not be able to go.
Shannon, I am also in love with the $4 Amy Dixon cardio. It is very simple but quite past faced and at 25 minutes I feel totally finished. I did it yesterday with 5 lb DBs and my arms and shoulders really feel it today.
Rabbit Rabbit and Lydia! Nice to have you back from your globetrotting adventures. Rabbit, do tell what you bought on your shopping excursions, I am all ears! And please share the recipe! Thanks!
Lydia, the problem with selling a house is that after all the fixes are done and the house is all fluffed up you will not want to sell it. Please post some pictures from your house hunting.
I have a mountain of laundry, so I gotta run but may check in later.
Ah, the shopping....I splurged on HD mini camera's, the creative HD 3rd generation, which is a point & shoot movie & pictures camera. I got a gen3 for myself, and a gen2 for DD and DS to share. And for the rest I got 4 "business" blouses, in beautifull thin cotton, the flipflops mentioned before, a beautifull pink "silk" kimono with peonies & cranes for DD, a batik blouse for DS and myself, and a lot of knickknacks: the 3 wise men for happines, longlevity & wealth, a buddha statue & several of the "lucky cats". And chinese character earstuds for DD and myself. "Blessings" for het, and "courage" for myself. And I got a beautifully illustrated "tao" book from the asian museum shop & a ditto on zen.
I'll experiment first on the laotian recipe & post later.
and before sllipping back too far into my comfort zone: I'm afraid I gained too much & I don't like what i see in the mirror, so it's back to a next "hard core" challenge
1. Foodwise: cut out on the sugar & starch
2. This is going to hurt...leave the wine
for this I'lll have to
3.take plenty of rest, I know I use both sugar and wine to keep going past my fatigue level
4. Go back to exercise on a daily basis
5. Do not fall into negativity traps: 80% compliance is OK
I'm starting my new job this morning and have to scoot out the door in 5 minutes to get a parking spot at the train station. Whew, this is early for me. I've had to cut cardio to 20 minutes of HIIT in the mornings.
Welcome back to you also Lydia! You will have a busy spring, from the sounds of it.
A kimono with peonies and cranes!!! Rabbit, if I show up for an unexpected visit and the kimono is missing afterwards, you will know what happened. I would decorate my house with kimonos if I could get my hands on any authentic ones.
And even though there is plenty of Buddhas in my house already, I can always squeeze one more in.
As for me, I've been wanting to run lately as the weather is just so nice so yesterday I picked up C25k again. My husband then asked me what my program would be today and I told him that it was a day off, he (jokingly said) "That is like having a 1 day work week".
I did a different route yesterday than I've done in the past but I realized that my walking speed is actually faster (5 minute warmup) because it was the path I've used in the past and I was always able to know the point where I'd hit 5 minutes but yet I was beyond that point yesterday, not by too much but seems somewhat significant to me.
Welcome back to you also Lydia! You will have a busy spring, from the sounds of it.Mel
Hey Thanks!
I would say it's "good to be back" but since I've returned I've gone into "I must get this house packed" mode so....
My mother and sister were over for the weekend to help pack the basement. At one point, my mother stopped and said that she would never buy another Lego set for either of my sons.
Nor could she appreciate my obsession with keeping each and every little Lego piece we would find in the corners of the basement. I explained that these sets were part of my retirement plan. Humor me will you.
Funny thing...you all are going to hate me so not so funny...So, while I was on vacation I ate a brunch of pancakes, bacon, sausage, eggs, fruit with yogurt and granola, coffee and a plate of small pastries (YES! All of that in one sitting) for five straight days. I worked out only two days while I was there. Dinners out were beyond my control as well, finger foods of cheese, fruit, mojitos, chicken and flan.
I truly dreaded getting on the scale once I returned home. Guess what. I was down three freaking pounds. HOW DOES THAT WORK?!
Now, I was sick for three days prior and no workouts mean no fluid retention in muscles but geesh. Really?! Meals were sporadic so maybe overall my caloric intake was lower and it really was a change from my usual clean diet. Maybe the whole metabolism thing needing a boost?
I'm not going to dwell upon it. I'm grateful and moving on. I know clean eating does work and I'm not going to be deluded into thinking that if I continued to eat this way I'd be okay. Not a chance.
K. Enough about my self centered self.
SHANNON! On your half marathon. I doubt I'd be posting yet at all. After all that running I would have face planted into a plate of pasta and then slept for the next two days. (I guess that's why we train for these things right?) Nice job.
Mel: Good luck acclimating to the new job this week. Hopefully parking will not be a problem. I hate layers. Parking is a layer.
Rabbit: Your purchases sound wonderful. What an exciting trip. I can envision the Kimono in my mind. It must be exquisite! The flip flops I would pass upon. It makes my foot afflicted with plantar fascitiis ache with just the thought.
Once you have been home for a few weeks you'll get back into the groove of your eating/workouts again. It will come off but most importantly you will just feel so much better.
Alena: It will be hard to leave my house once I made all the repairs. Last night I was in the back yard picking up sand box toys and throwing them away. Some of them are from when my eldest son was a toddler. Wow. Memories. Some good some not so fullfilling. But the new place will be so much better for my growing boys. They need ROOM! And...so do I. (I have some studying to do )
The search has been exciting. I've lived in a 1076 sqft 1957 ranch for ten years. Our furniture is small scaled and we really don't have a lot of it for obvious reasons. We are walking through these 3,000sqft center hall colonials in Oakton, Va and just dying over the space. We have enough furniture for maybe the kitchen and the den.
One house I really liked had so much wonderful storage. I could get lost in this house. The coat closet in the foyer...it was a freakin' WALK IN CLOSET with SHELVES and the light turns on all by itself when I open the door. The realtor and I just stood there in awe looking inside and imagining the storage possibilites. That was just the beginning to this house. Upstairs there was a walking closet for each of us that is as big as my son's bedroom with drawers! I stood there a moment and actually thought (I can't believe I even thought this but it was...I'm not good enough for all of this...) Isn't that crazy but really, I'm so not accustom to these kinds of conveniences and have sacrificed for so long that this just seemed like crazy excessiveness to me.
There is a problem with this house though. It's a big one. The driveway is on a pipestem (three houses off of one driveway) It's a long driveway and we are at the top with no way to back the vehicle out of the garage and turning it around to drive out forward. And...there is a bit of a gully between the driveway and the yard so if you misjudge you ditch the car. So, the first thing we would need to do is fix that. We keep looking.
K. Off to packing and meeting the handyman this afternoon. My goal is to get to the gym before Friday. G@d I need a release.
Thanks everyone! I am still stiff and sore today - my knees were sore yesterday, today it is my quads... Even sitting still in the chair they are twinging. Going to do some stretching today to shake them out a little. I'm going to work on getting more strength/CF activities back into my exercise routine this week and next week now that the immediate training pressure is off a little.
Alena - i got it... Cheering.... I appreciate it! I could hear you guys cheering in my head the whole time. I do love Amy Dixon.... I did her kickboxing routine last week, actually. Sorry you don't have more yoga classes, and that Zumba went crazy.
Rabbit - the things you bought sound lovely! Good plan for getting back hard core this week. The cameras sound cool.... I just had to replace our digital camera, ended up with a Panasonic Lumix. Like it a lot so far. DH also just got a Flip video camera. Also cool, and more convenient than a regular video camera.
Mel - good luck today! You will be fabulous!
Nelie - thanks for the link, yes it was the same marathon. I popped in and congratulated her for her finish. It was great to see so many people out there yesterday, even in the drizzly weather. And on the faster walking speed! That is a great way to start back off. DH wants to start running - I may point him to the C25K program.
Lydia - some of those Lego sets are going to be worth something... My aunt has an attic full of collectible BK toys, glasses, watches, puppets, etc from where they owned a franchise for so long. She jokes that those are for her retirement, too. And that house does sound fabulous on the inside, but the drive sounds all kids of icky. I had a drive similar to that without much error room for a while, but it was in GA which didn't freeze much. A much bigger deal in Ohio... And I hope the weight loss was from Alena's suggestion!
Nelie: You are not kidding! OMG. I won't even start. Sometimes I walk out of these places shaking my head thinking "are you kidding me?!" Goes to show, people are people no matter where you go. (had the same experiences when looking for our first house in Columbus.
Alena and Shannon: You GUYS! K. When I tell you that we broke his air mattress the first night I was there (Yes, he's been sleeping on an air mattress since August) I'm probably not going to be able to defend against this.
However, truth is, we had the kids with us the WHOLE TIME! Nothing was going on for the ten days we were together. Seriously, it was nice to see him but I really didn't feel like I was able to spend TIME with him.
We really had to take the kids though. To leave them out of this trip after having DH move out of state this year would have been the wrong thing to do. The last thing they need is to be pushed into the background. Not that they are, DH has been amazing at coming back each month sometimes twice and vid chatting with us most days of the week. He checks grades online, calls teachers, etc. He is AMAZING in doing all of this. But at the end of day, he's there, we're here, and the boys know the difference.
Shannon: Try foam rolling your legs out if you haven't already. And pay attention to your feet! I know you don't have PF issues but make sure you roll those with a tennis ball too. Stepping down. Hope it helps.
Lydia,
I liked the story about the air mattress! Very nice!
Denver,
Nice to hear from you. Are you ready for spring? Good luck with the insurance company, I have to submit my bills, too.
I made a huge pot of chili tonight and then I was going to do P90X Legs & Back. Or so I thought. I changed, and then I started to look for the resistance band that I use in place of pull ups.Didn't find it anywhere. I quickly raided all the obvious storage places but nada. I have no idea where it went - and I have not one, but TWO. It was already past 8 pm so I had to come up with plan B - total body workout with Jackie Warner.
Nelie,
I was thinking about you. I know you said in some other thread that you find Tony Horton arrogant but I actually like him. Compared to some of the women trainer who pepper the workout with stupid comments about babysitting (Jari Love or what's her name), I find that he says just about the right amount and I like his jokes.
I am going to bed with some hot chocolate (no sugar) and a new issue of Style at Home (so that I can make educated interior decorating suggestions to Lydia).
I'm going to copy over what I put in the Maintainer's Weekly chat, instead of typing it all again. 
!
On your half marathon. I doubt I'd be posting yet at all. After all that running I would have face planted into a plate of pasta and then slept for the next two days. (I guess that's why we train for these things right?) 
We keep looking.
on the faster walking speed! That is a great way to start back off. DH wants to start running - I may point him to the C25K program. 
Stepping down. Hope it helps.
