Archives for August 2006

Earlier this week, and on a number of occasions before, I have been controlled by the numbers game. Okay, honestly, I let it the numbers control me. I’m okay with that. It keeps me focused.

Those days of running 3.5 miles, when the schedule calls for 4 miles, are gone. I no longer round up. I did once do this – in the beginning. I really did. I figured that it all came out in the wash. I estimated mileage based on a perceived pace. I am sure that my actual pace in those days was perceived as much faster than it really was.

Tom and I would have long discussions where he would do some calculations and tell me that my 4 mile run was only about 3.6 miles. I would tell him that I was pretty sure that I had run 4 miles and I wasn’t going to run any more. Tom, who was also training for the Napa Valley Marathon (it was the 1st marathon for both of us), would then run farther down the railroad tracks with certainty that he was doing the allotted mileage.

My goal was just to finish the marathon. I didn’t worry back then; I was pretty sure that I could finish even if I had to walk the last 6.2 miles. But times have changed. Just finishing is no longer satisfying. I want my BQ!

These days, I have Garminia. She tells it how it is, or at least how she sees it. I, in turn, run until she signals that I have gone the required distance, and not a hundredth of mile short of that. If, when motion based corrects the distance, I have run farther than required, I think of it as a bonus. If motion based shortens the distance, I ignore the new number and log the number that Garminia gave me. * sigh* It’s just how it is with me.

You see, it is all in how you look at things. Take Brendan for example. He is only 6 years old. Brendan’s Mom was worried about Brendan making the adjustment from the short days of kindergarten, to the full days of 1st grade. When she picked him up after school, she asked him how his day was. She braced herself for a meltdown. He hadn’t been too keen on waking up early. He really preferred staying home to going to school. But Brendan’s reply surprised her. He said, “First Grade is GREAT. We did two math problems and had THREE recesses.”

So there you go. It’s all in how you look at the numbers.

My shin has stopped being tender. I can push the area with my thumb and all is fine. I continued with my icing regimen anyhow. I just want to be sure.

At lunch, I took to the trails for an easy 6 mile run. I had planned to take my break a little earlier than usual so I told Mark that I would run alone. But when the time rolled around for me to go, he was also leaving on his run. We were both planning the same run route. It seemed pointless to run separately – only not.

We started the run out together. It was a little faster than I wanted to go for this initial testing stage. We were rapidly getting farther and farther away from the office. Mark had planned to simulate Yasso’s, and I had planned to not do speed. At the end of the parking lot, he began his 1st 3 minutes of fast running while I continued at my own pace behind.

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I was so happy to find that my muscles were not the least bit sore after Sunday’s run. It wasn’t that I expected it, but I really haven’t been doing all that much hill climbing this year so I was ready for it. I wasn’t sore, but Monday is scheduled as a cross training day, so I spent the work day, well “working”. No break for lunch. I just worked straight through.

By the time 4 pm rolled around, I was ready to make for the door. I decided to walk over towards my carpool buddy’s place of business. I couldn’t tolerate any more sitting. It was while walking that I noted my right lateral shin was tender. I could feel that little ouch with each push off of my foot.

I put my bike on the trainer last night and went for a spin in my backyard. I’ve never used my bicycle trainer in the backyard, but it was very nice to feel the cool breeze. The view was nice too.

Today, I did some light weight lifting exercises and also did some cross training. I was on the machine that is called the “natural runner” of all things. I can tell you that there is nothing natural about it. All of the “natural runners” in my work’s fitness center are also calibrated so that you could work hard for 30 minutes and only register 1.5 miles in distance. You know how I am about numbers. I could go crazy watching the speed, or lack of, displaying on the screen.

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My weight loss has slowed down this week. No, more accurately put, I’ve gained. Very little, but a gain is a gain. Okay, perhaps I am obsessing too much. I just want this whole diet thing to be done with already. I want to be at the end point already.

It’s not that I have gone off course. I believe it is because I’ve gotten lazy. “Lazy” in my tracking of my calories. I’ve just been blindly following the JC plan and trying to stick to it as much as possible. In fact, I’ve just been packing a breakfast item, lunch item, package of dressing, and snack in my bag each day. My latte counts as a milk and I add a piece of fruit in the morning. At lunch, I add a salad to the JC meal. I eat the snack prior to leaving for home and another snack before I cook dinner for the family. I eat my JC dinner with 2 additional vegtables, and then another snack.

But, I have discovered that I have probably been too short on calories in the past 4-5 days. I input yesterday’s food intake into my palm program only to find a deficit of 650 calories. That’s 200 less calories than I’ve planned. I wonder how bad it was over the weekend when I had 1 and 2 hour runs, and a 1 hour bike ride. Sometimes I think that I am too obsessive about things and so I ease up. Just look what happens.

Then there’s my running obsessing. I’ve always been religious about tracking the miles on my shoes, but I have been lazy lately. While I have been good about identifying which shoes I run in on BTT, it appears that I missed some miles along the line. My right upper outer shin is tender to touch. Just tender, but this is the first sign. While it is nothing alarming, I will not ignore body. It is calling for new shoes, ice, and another day of cross training.

I guess there are benefits to my Type-A tendencies.
Track – Track – Track.