Hill Time!

Since Janet and I have signed up for the Lake of the Woods 5 k, I decided that it's time to get serious about trying to get in shape, so hopefully I'll be a little bit more diligent with posts in my blog.  Check back every couple of days...I should have new stuff on here (since the only time I manage to blog is when I'm trying to run).

My daughter Laurie and I ran the race two years ago, and the freakin' thing almost killed me.  There are two options in the race...you can do a 5 k, or for people who are actually RUNNERS there is a 15 k route that goes completely around the lake.  You're running at an elevation of 5000 feet for the majority of the race, and they've sprinkled it with a liberal addition of hills.  Even though they aren't exceptionally long and you don't gain much elevation, for some reason there seem to be a cajillion of them, and the race practically killed me.  

Because of my miserable experience on our last venture, I decided that the best way to try to get ready was to leave my comfortable route on the flat OC&E Trail and do some hills.  Today after church I  threw on my running stuff and headed out to OIT to do a 3 mile run that I mapped out about 10 years ago.

The run is actually pretty fun.  It starts out with a downhill for a little less than half a mile, and then you have a pretty decent uphill for about half a mile.  You do a quick turn around in the parking lot of New Corporation, and run back down the hill to Dan O'Brian Way.  There are a couple of long hills that you get to tackle, but there is minimal traffic and the shoulder is about 4 feet wide so cars aren't an issue.  You also don't have to deal with any of the fair weather folk who seem to frequent the OC&E Trail anytime the sun shows its face.  That means that you don't have to deal with dogs, old people walking 4 abreast who can't hear you coming and seem irritated when you pass them.  

All in all, the run is a pretty good one.  According to Google Earth it's exactly 3.1 miles, which lets me check my progress on reaching my time goal for Lake of the Woods.  Although it's about 900 feet lower than the elevation at which we'll be running in June, it's hilly enough to be fairly challenging.  

Tomorrow I won't get to run (have to build a gate for my horses to move from one pasture to another), but I plan on running OIT at least once per week.  There are some other out and backs I can add to the run to get in more mileage and some more hills, so by the time June 2nd gets here hopefully I'll be in shape enough that the eleveation and little hills at Lake of the Woods won't be so brutal.

Really Quick

The title to this post has nothing to do with running. As much as I would LIKE to refer to my runs as really quick, that's probably not going to happen any time soon, unless I go for a really SHORT run, and count that as being really quick.

The "Really Quick" that I'm referring to is how fast I'm going to write this post. I'm at work, and don't have time to write my normal novel. There's something about having your boss looking over your shoulder when you're blogging while you're supposed to be working that has a detrimental effect on creativity.

My last post was April 1st, and today's April 16th. That's a pretty decent stretch with no posts. I went for a 5 1/2 mile run on April 7th, and ran a couple of times the week before that, but my exercise has diminshed greatly. I rode my bike about 15 miles on April 10th, and climbed Stukel yesterday (3 mile round trip, 1800+ feet of vertical gain), but my running has pretty much come to a halt.

We went to Boise last weekend and I'm using that as an excuse, even though my wife managed to get in a 10 mile run. I've never liked running while I'm on vacation, so even though Janet managed to get her run in I was extra lazy and stayed in bed.

This week might be better...I'm planning on trying to get back into a regular schedule. Stay tuned....

NO WIND!!!!

I just got back from a little jog on the OC&E Trail.

We stayed up late last night...at least late for old people. Three of our kids are here...Doug (home from Boise State for Spring Break), Donald (living with us to save money while going to school at OIT), and Jeff (living in Seattle...visiting for his birthday so Janet could make him coffee cake). Jeff came with his wife and two kids, and Janet and I watched two of our wonderful grandkids while the adults went to my mother-in-law's house to play Wi. Long story short, I fell asleep in my recliner while Janet entertained Ellouise. About 11 pm I staggered up to bed, but I have no idea when Janet came to bed. At any rate, we slept in this morning...I finally got up and fed the horses about 7:30.

I've found that the best way to go for a run is to not think about it....just put on my running stuff and go. So that's what I did. I thought for a couple of minutes about why I shouldn't go...it's Sunday and I should be watching our Church's Semi-Annual General Conference (lds.org in case you're interested), I shouldn't actually be running on Sunday, I went 4 miles yesterday and need a rest day, it's cold, Janet wasn't running today, I'm old, I'm still fat (even though I've lost over 30 pounds since Feb. 1st), my knees hurt, my feet hurt, it snowed last night and I could slip on the ice, Micah True (ultra runner in Born to Run) died while running and since I'm almost as old as he was the same thing could easily happen to me, I just got out of the shower and would have to take another one when I got home, my kids are here visiting and I should be spending time with them...but even though ALL were legitimate excuses, none of them were good enough to compensate for the reason I wanted to go...I pigged out yesterday and put on a few pounds.

As I mentioned in my excuses, I'm fat. In January I had gotten up to 210 pounds, so I decided it was WAY past time to lose weight. One of my co-workers had lost a bunch of weight doing a diet called Plan Z by Zola, and I was offered the chance to try the diet myself and do on-air testimonials. I started the program on February 1st by doing a two day eating binge...and February 3rd began the dieting portion of the plan. I got to 176.2 on March 26th...pretty amazing.

Yesterday I completely blew off the diet. Jeff came down so my wife would make him coffee cake, which is absolutely amazing. During this diet I've passed on milkshakes (Donald gets Janet to make them 2 to 3 times per week), home made bread, popovers, carameled popcorn, scones, pizza, and a host of other foods that I love to eat. Yesterday I said "screw this...I'm going to eat." So that's exactly what I did. I was living on 800 calories or less per day, and I'm now supposed to up to 2000 calories...yesterday I pounded down well over 3000 calories, and the vast majority of them were sugar based. I had 3/4 of a coffee cake, Tang, milk, and a bunch of other stuff that's definitely not on my approved list of foods. Today I'm paying for it. I put on weight that I shouldn't have put on, but while I was feasting on my 3rd piece of coffee cake I really didn't care...it was worth it.

The wind has been blowing hard for well over two weeks. We've had snow, rain, snow and rain, rain and snow, rain and wind, wind and rain, rain wind and snow, snow wind and rain, wind and wind, more wind, no sun and wind, wind, strong wind, hurricane force wind, and yesterday more wind. Get the picture? The weather definitely hasn't been running friendly for quite some time. So today when I woke up (late) and didn't hear the wind whistling through the spruce trees in our yard, without even looking outside I knew I needed to run. It was 29 degrees, we had a skiff of new snow (the 3 inches we got yesterday melted), but most importantly, the wind was under 10 mph.

Back to my run. The run was great. I drove out to the OC&E Trail, and there was only one other car in the parking lot. I decided I'd go for 5 miles, so I headed into the wind with the intent of doing a 2 1/2 mile out and back...and that's what I was able to do. I'm not running fast by any means, but I did the entire 5 miles without any walking. I felt good after the first 1/2 mile, and even fleetingly considered going 6. The run was a success. I haven't weighed myself since I got back, but I'm pretty sure that I lost a couple of the extra pounds that I put on with yesterday's eating binge. It was worth it.