September 16, 2010 - Must Keep Moving

Good Day,

Last week my summer blahs lifted.  When the funk went away I started putting some plans in place for my next fitness goal. My new goals are not necessarily supported by my friends and some members of my Army/Posse.  Let me show you a funny example from a Facebook conversation.

Me: No one tell pt bruiser...here is the schedule for the big events for the next 15 months. Nashville half marathon in April, Philly half marathon in September, Phoenix full marathon in January.
May: ummm....sounds like she's not going to like all the wear and tear on your knees.
Sister: lips are sealed. of course, all she has to do is R E A D. Then, she may R u n n o f t
Ed Note: Sister is making a reference to a joke from; "Oh Brother Where Art Thou?"
Me: So then she may not like it when I throw the Savannah one in there because it is the inaugural one?  '
Ed Note: Obviously, I was still looking at the list of upcoming half marathons. 
May: I'm thinking no she won't. 

Ed Note: Isn't it nice how pragmatic May is?

Me: She's very pretty.
Ed Note: See what I did there? PT Bruiser can sometimes be distracted by complements. I sensed she would be logging on to Facebook soon (before she went to bed).

PT Bruiser: Good try with the pretty bit, but, excuse me, missy! We did not ok this on Tuesday. I shall have a chat with you next Tuesday and I want to hear your side of the story as to why you feel the need to spend all this extra time smashing your knees on the cement. Wasn't your knee swollen on Tuesday as well?! Seriously!! You are such a trouble maker!!!

Ed Note: Hmmm...the complement didn't work this time. Next time I will have to plan a new tactic. 

Me: Ahhhh..it was all worth it for the chuckle I just had. LOL!

PT Bruiser: That's what I thought! Trouble maker for sure!!

In reality, I DO want to walk the Marathon in Phoenix in 2012. Why do I want to do it?  Because I know I cannot do it now. It is a hard to reach goal, for sure. This is exactly WHY I want to do it.

Setting a goal to do 100 push-ups or 100 sit-ups is not something that I can work toward. The timelines are loosey goosey. I can change them all the time. However, by planning to do something that has a definite date that is outside my control I cannot manipulate it. It is what works for me.

PT Bruiser and May are concerned about my knees and rightly so.  Here is the deal, I will do it even if it hurts, but not to the point of lasting damage.  I walk in pain most days with my knees. However, as most of you know once you get moving the pain subsides. You just have to move.

Well, Portia could not let this go without offering her opinion. You see Portia wants me to set a time goal. For example, if my per mile pace is 16:00 then I should work toward reducing it to 15:30.  Portia also thinks the shorter distances will burst me out of the weight loss plateau because my cardiovascular fitness has also plateaued. Yeah, this is a goal, but I need a BIG goal.  So, after speaking with Portia the following are the new goals.

1) I am timing (using racewalking) my per-mail pace tomorrow as a baseline.
2) I will conduct a training program that will reduce my base pace including intense cardiovascular training.
3) I will train for the April Half Marathon planning to racewalk it.  After the race I will reevaluate if the Marathon would even be possible based on my pace in the Half Marathon.
4) I will continue the training to lower my pace, including attending another Racewalking seminar to tweak my technique.
5) I will walk another half marathon checking my pace again. However, I will begin training for the Marathon July 1st.
6) After the second half marathon I will determine based on physical fitness and my current pacing if I will even be able to complete the Marathon.

While all of this is going on my cross training will include strength training and intense flexibility training with their own goals. This will aid in my pace and greatly reduce the chance of injury.

I do still have a goal to lose an additional 60-70 pounds, but I am more interested in continuing and maintaining the gains I have made over the past couple of years with a healthy lifestyle. I will have to strictly stick with it to meet the goal to walk the Marathon 15 months from now.

I do not expect anyone to understand why I feel I must do this, but I must. About 6 months ago I bought the domain http://www.mustkeepmoving.com for this reason. I have to keep moving or the funks will win and the pain in my knees will be constant.


Til Next Week,
Kristi
Published to http://kristiasher.blogspot.com

September 10, 2010 - People Who Get It and Those Who Don't

Good Day All!

Recently, I went on a tubing trip with a few friends. We were the most ill prepared on the river that day. We joined our tubes with rope (bungee cords are better), did not have a tube for the cooler, and TOTALLY did not have enough beer. However, my friend tAmMY is really good at flirting and managed to get some beer from some first responders from Illinois.  Of course, lumberjacks would be perfect, but you can't go wrong with those that can save you!

After floating down the river with these fine folks and only managing to lose a towel (which was found downstream later across the river), my hat (some fish is wearing it now), and countless self esteem points (from constantly falling down in the mud) I had a conversation with one of the guys as we were walking to the car.

Firefighter; "See that girl over there? She is awfully large. She needs to do something about that."
I instantly got a bit irritated since I did not feel I needed to be judging this girl.
Me; "She might be trying, may not know how, or just is working on other things in her life right now."
Firefighter; "Well, that's something you will not have to worry about."
Me; "I've lost a lot of weight so I know what it is like to have a weight problem since I have quite a bit more to lose."
Firefighter; Chuckles "I've lost 107 pounds. It's not easy changing your life is it?  Takes awhile and doesn't happen overnight."
Me; "Nope. It sure doesn't. Seems like sometimes it gets harder, not easier."

Earlier this week I attended a Medical Support Group meeting at the Weight Loss Clinic. This was the second week of the group of about 40 women. 

At this point in my story I must state that I absolutely positively despise gaggles of women. Yes, yes I know I am a woman, but high numbers of women all situated in one place causes an exponentially high rate of whining and back biting. Drives me nuts.

Before the lecture by the physician started I had the following conversation with another one of the attendees.
Her; "Hi!! You weren't here last week were you? Are you a new patient?"
Me; "I am a new patient of Dr. BurstMyBubble. I saw Dr. Pita for about 2 years before he left."
Her with wrinkled brow; "Oh, well. How much weight have you lost?"
Me; "Well, the most I lost was 75, but I gained 15, but lost 5 again and I keep going up and down the other 10 since I started taking some unrelated medicine.  Learning that I am going to have a rougher way to go"
Her; "You have been working on this for over two years and that is all you have lost?  That seems like a long time."
Me; "Well, I guess it is for some people, but I am in no hurry. I am more interested in being healthy not losing weight necessarily. As long as I keep exercising and eat right I will eventually lose excess weight."
Her; "Well, Dr. BurstMyBubble can speed that up if you want. I think that is what I would ask her if I were you."
Me Chuckling; "Well, I am in not too big of a hurry. I am not on a diet. I am trying to eat better and exercise to be healthier."
Her; "My goal is to take off this weight. I will be able to exercise and do many things once I get the weight off. I will lose the weight first."
Me Thinking; "I hope you do. I hope you do."

In my humble opinion the Firefighter gets it. The lady from the Support Group meeting does not.

Til Next Week,
Kristi
Published to http://kristiasher.blogspot.com