Monday Musings

PEDOMETER FUN:

So, wearing the pedometer has been interesting.  I've learned a few things.

1. I walk more than I realized
2. The number of steps I take varies greatly from day to day
3. I become very lazy when Husband is out of town

In the 7 days that I've worn the pedometer, the number of steps logged varied from 5099 to 16,619 with most days just over 7000.  The high day was a day that I ran, so no surprise there.  The low day was the day Husband left to go out of town; I should have gone for a run, instead I just sat on the couch feeling sorry for myself.  The real surprise for me is that most days seem to be just over 7000 (7100-7400).  I would have guessed it to be lower, maybe closer to the low day.    My overall average ended up being 9170, that one day with a high number of steps really boosted the average.  The challenge is to get to 10,000 steps by the end of the 9 weeks.  I'm almost there already, which is good.  But for me, I'm trying to get to 12,000 steps which means that I need to add in some running on a more consistent basis.

SMOOTHIE MADNESS:

Similar color & consistency of my smoothies

A few weeks ago, I was organizing our pantry in the garage and realized that Husband had built up a stockpile of a couple dozen containers of protein powder.  So I started making myself fruit/protein smoothies.  My favorite so far is a blend of frozen fruit from Walmart (peaches, mango, pineapple, & strawberry) plus some frozen banana slices plus a scoop and a half of vanilla protein powder, and some water.  It's yummy!  I've decided to buy Daughter a blender and give her some protein powder so she can make some of these as well.

UPCOMING RACES/EVENTS:

My race/event calendar is currently empty.  Eek. That's not a good place for me to be.  I'm trying to talk a friend into running a 5K with me in a few weeks.  Husband & I are also looking at a metric century in a month.  I guess I better get busy and start riding my bike a little more, huh?

Re-Discovering My WHY

I haven't posted for over two weeks. Usually that means that I haven't done much activity worth posting. And once again, that is the excuse. However, in the past few days, I have done some soul searching. If anyone asks me why I exercise, I usually say "because I can."  And that was certainly true several years ago. There is a story that goes with it, but feeling generally well enough to exercise was what got me out the door. I didn't want to waste any chance I had, in case I might not feel well enough again.

But that doesn't seem to be what motivates me now.  Over the past few years, I'm finding that I'm more likely to exercise if (and only if) I have someone to join me and if I have a race or other event on my calendar. If I don't have a race and I don't have company on any given day, I'm highly likely to skip it all together.  That certainly doesn't sound like someone who does it because they *can*. It sounds like someone who does it only when they *want to*.

Well, I found myself revisiting my motivation this weekend while I was in OH visiting my mother. Her health is poor and as a result, she is weak and has trouble doing what most of us would consider regular daily activities. I realized something. I really don't want that to be me in 30 years if I can help it! One of the real reasons that I want to exercise regularly is to keep myself fit and healthy. I guess I had forgotten that.

Today I acquired a pedometer and committed to another 8 week 10,000 steps/day challenge at work which just happens to be starting this week. Even though I may walk by myself, I'll be checking in with other co-workers. So I'm really not alone in this. And the program that we use to track our measured steps at work allows entering cycling time (it converts it to steps) or swimming time or other vigorous activities besides just steps.  Last time I averaged 12,000 steps per day most weeks.  That was during the summer when the days were longer and it was easier to get activities in during daylight.

We'll see what happens this time.  It would probably be good if I could just hit 10K on average with the shorter days.But I'd really like to augment walking with enough running/cycling/swimming or whatever to maintain that higher level of activity that I had achieved during the summer.

It seems that I'm off to a good start.  I put the pedometer on about 6 hours ago and currently have 5787 steps for the day. I probably had at least 2000 steps before I put it on.  And the day isn't over yet, so I'm well on my way to hitting 10,000 for the day. Knowing that my steps are being counted motivated me to take the stairs instead of the elevator, and do a little extra walking during my lunch hour.  I also made sure to walk the dogs when I got home.

So what's you WHY and has it ever changed?

RailRunner Bike Tour - in photos

Cyclists beginning to line up for this 50K bike ride (~36 miles).  There were ~150 total

Husband stops to fix Flat #1

Husband stops to fix Flat #2

Are you freaking kidding me?  Here he is with Flat #3

Proof we *finally* made it to the finish

Friday Five

1. I managed to run twice this week.  Not far and not fast, but I got out there.  Given my recent lack of motivation regarding running, this is worth celebrating.  
2. September is traditionally my favorite month of the year.  Mostly because the weather is fantastic (cooler, but not cold) and the days are still long enough to enjoy time outside. Having said that, what is with the 95+ degree days that we've been having!?!?!?  Where is my awesome September weather??
3. Attended a work dinner/event/celebration with Husband last night (his work, not mine).  It was a Casa Rodena Winery in the North Valley.   What a hidden gem!  I didn't even know this place existed.  
4. Hoping to get out on my bike a little later this morning as final prep for the bike "tour" this weekend.
5. I've been waiting for photos from live.love.tri, but haven't seen any communication about that yet.  The event was 2 weeks ago. Seems like they should be available for preview by now.

Ha!  After posting about not getting info on photos, just got an email.  Found a few of myself.  Take a look and let me know if any are worth purchasing:  run start, running looking happy, cycling, swimming.  And this one is just a random photo to give you an idea how crazy crowded the swim was. 

August Tally

Numbers

• 22.5 miles running
• 39.7 miles walking
• 61.9 miles cycling
• 1400 yards swimming
• 1 5K race with surprise 1st place AG finish
• 1 sprint triathlon
• 7 Isotopes games attended
• 3 bridal salons visited
• 1 dress ordered (yay!  the bridal dress search is over)
• 4 days in Colorado visiting family
• 3 pumpkin & 3 cantaloupe vines killed/pulled up due to squash bugs.  Ugh.
• 4 varieties tomatoes ripening
• Yet another new saddle to try
• 1 bike fit
• 1 shoulder feeling better (not fully healed)

Thoughts

• Seems like I didn't do much training, just sort of showed up at a few races and competed.  While not ideal, it worked well enough for me given the current situation with my shoulder. I don't really have a good excuse for not running other than I really wasn't feeling it; I guess that's good enough reason. Maybe I'll just focus on cycling this month.
• My bike feels completely different after the bike fit.  Hopefully that's a good thing.
• I've become a huge fan of minor league baseball and am sad that the season has ended. I do not like football, basketball, or hockey, so the next 5 months are going to be rough!
• Frustrated that squash bugs killed my pumpkin and cantaloupe plants.  I probably won't plant those again next year.

Plans

• 50K bike "tour" next weekend
• Try to find my motivation for running
• Cancel my gym membership since I don't seem to be using it to swim.