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Foiled Again / Perseverance

UPDATE: If you have not read the original post by now, I’ll just say I had to skip the jog/walk this morning because of rain (see second weather map below). However, we’re actually experiencing scattered thunderstorms. It was clear at 1:00, so I prepared to train.

Then a colleague called with a question I had to answer. To get said answer, I had to call another colleague. Before I knew it, it was 1:25!

It was sprinkling a bit when I left, but I figured I’d be wet from sweat anyway.

And guess what?

I did TWO full jog/walk cycles (5 minute jog followed by 5 minute walk). I probably could have pressed on and finished the third one, but by then there was thunder. That made wet-training-ToadMama feel like wet-lightning rod-training-ToadMama. So I stopped.

But I had actually done two, five-minute jogs. Yay me!

Here’s another map to back me up (I’m a weather geek).

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ORIGINAL POST: I woke early to train this morning. But it was storming. Again. Take a look at what passed through. My house is right in the middle of this map.


We’ve had some really weird weather lately. It is mid-June, but highs over the last two days have only been in the 60s. Not that I’m complaining. I MUCH prefer those temperatures to 80+ degrees and humid.

It’s just weird. That’s all I’m saying.

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Something is Just WRONG With This Logic

After doing my jog/walk thing yesterday, today was supposed to be a day of rest. The book says, no matter how tempting (yeah, right!), don’t over train. Not that I was tempted to do another jog/walk today. My legs were actually a bit sore, which surprised me after all the walking I’ve been doing. (As an aside, an old friend, Val, made my day today by admitting she struggles to run for 5 minutes, too. Woo hoo! I am not alone in this big, mean world.)

Back to today… after dinner, I asked Hubby if he wanted to go for a walk. “It’s my break day,” I told him. “I don’t even have to walk fast. I’m just going to do a leisurely stroll.”

“Why?” he asked.

“Because I just don’t feel like sitting around,” I replied.

So he thought about it. Then he said, “Nah, I don’t feel like walking. How about if we throw the bikes (bicycles, not motorcycles) into the truck and go over to the trail?”

I agreed. Before I knew it, we were rolling along the BWI Bike Trail. It’s a loop. I’d sort of envisioned us riding for a little while then turning around and going back. But, it being a loop, if you get halfway, it’s sort of dumb to turn around when finishing the loop would be about the same distance.

It’s a hilly loop though, which goes all the way around BWI Airport. And it is twelve and a half miles long. Did you get that? Twelve and a half hilly miles.

I’m not sure why Hubby chose that over a short leisurely stroll, but it was actually fun. The weather was perfect, too. Cloudy, breezy and in the lower 70s to high 60s.

We’ll have to do that again. Once I’m able to move my legs, that is.

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My Training Partner

Today was the first time I added short jogs into my training regimen. I’d gotten to the point where 45 minutes of brisk walking was doable (except for the heat), so I didn’t think adding a short jog would be bad. I was wrong. But I survived.

Despite my training partner from Hell. What partner? This strange guy who joins me periodically. I think his name is Richard, but I like to call him Dick for short. He can be quite chatty. And quite annoying. Here’s an excerpt from today’s conversation…

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Me: Pant, huff, gasp…

Dick: It’s sort of early for this, isn’t it? I mean, it’s like 7:00 AM.

Me: Early beats the heat. Pant, huff, gasp…

Dick: You’re not enjoying this. Just stop.

Me: I said I’d do the 10-miler. Pant, huff, gasp…

Dick: You were drunk.

Me: I agreed when sober, too. Pant, huff, gasp…

Dick: Some friend. Couldn’t she start with something shorter? Maybe a little 5k?

Me: Pant, huff, gasp…

Dick: Come on. Stop already. This is ridiculous. You’re not being realistic.

Me: I am. I can do this. Lots of people run. Pant, huff, gasp…

Dick: Screw her. You don’t even like running. Just quit.

Me: Nope. I said I’d do it. I’ll get into shape. Pant, huff, gasp.

Dick: You look silly, you know. You look like you’re dying. Maybe this will kill you.

Me: It’ll get easier. Pant, huff, gasp…

Dick: Walking is easier. You could do that right now. Just walk. That’s healthy.

Me: Walking was hard when I started. Pant, huff, gasp…

Dick: This is harder.

Me: I can do it. Pant, huff, gasp…

Dick: You’re three minutes in and look at you.

Me: But after 5 minutes, I get to walk. Pant, huff, gasp…

Dick: Yeah, but then you’re supposed to run again. Twice.

Me: Pant, huff, gasp…

Dick: Just stop for a minute. You don’t have to do this.

Me: Go away. Pant, huff, gasp…

Dick: You’ll never do this.

Me: I’ve had enough. Leave me alone. Pant, huff, gasp…

Dick: You’re pathetic. Look how tired you are.

Me: Shut up. Pant, huff, gasp…

Dick: Make me.

Me: Okay. Pant, huff, gasp…

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Just like that, the voice was gone. It’s amazing what a little positive thinking can do.

Tomorrow, I get to rest. Wednesday, I’ll be back at it.

Dick won’t be joining me again.

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Hot + Humid = GROSS

Yep, summer has officially arrived in Maryland. It’s hot. It’s humid. And there are thunderstorms. In the morning and in the afternoon.

Even if I couldn’t go outside first-thing yesterday morning, I had to go out. I had to walk. After the storms had passed, I was ready. I left the house at 10:15 (early lunch!). It was 71 degrees (not too bad) with 84% humidity (bad).

It was gross.

Humidity measures the moisture in the air. Just how bad is 84% humidity? Late yesterday afternoon, while it was raining, the humidity level was 74%. That’s ten whole points lower than when it was not raining.

I was hot. But I did it. It’s a good thing, too, because we got hit by some wicked storms yesterday afternoon. Check out these pics…

As the storm was rolling in, I snapped this shot from inside of the house.

Then Hubby said, “The sky looks really cool over there.” I had to step outside to see (and document) just how awesome the sky looked. Notice the airplane in the pic? You have to look closely. At first glance, I thought it was dirt on my lens. It is towards the top of the frame, just left of the center line. If you click on the image itself, a larger view should pop up. I left the image large intentionally so you could get a closer look.

Here’s what the sky looked like to my right.

And here’s how it looked on the left. The storm was moving fairly quickly.

It had been thundering for a few minutes at this point, and I could see a few distant flashes of lightning. Then I saw a wicked lightning bolt straight ahead of me, but off in the distance. THEN there was a bolt of lightning that was much closer.

There was enough electricity in the air to change my camera settings!

That’s when I went inside.

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All the Best Plans…

I learned something yesterday. If it is sunny and 84 degrees with 60% humidity, that’s not a good time to exercise.

Because I just couldn’t bring myself to train at 6:30 AM when I woke, I decided to do it during my lunch break. Bad idea. It was HOT.

The body gets rid of heat by sweating. As sweat evaporates, the body cools. When it is really humid, sweat doesn’t evaporate very fast, so the body doesn’t cool very well.

I kept pushing though. Luckily, since I now wear a cool heart monitor which Hubby bought me, I knew that I could slow the pace a bit and still maintain a decent training heart rate. That and I remembered reading that you SHOULD slow the pace during times of high humidity so you don’t overheat.

Anyway… it was miserably hot. My body is not used to that kind of heat. So I was determined to get my ass out of bed this morning and do my 45-minute brisk walk.

But I woke up to this…

Actually, this image is from about an hour after I woke up. My house is smack in the middle of this map. When I got out of bed, the leading edge of a thunderstorm (dark red on the lower right) was bearing down on us. My morning training was doomed.

At least I managed to get downstairs and let the doggies out before it hit.

Speaking of the doggies, when CeCe was still alive, she and Meg would get up with Hubby in the mornings, go outside, come back in, get their goodbye-I’ll-be-back-biscuit when Hubby left, then come back to bed. Belle used to be a total morning girl. I guess we’re a bad influence. Now, when Hubby is leaving for work, the dogs stay in bed, barely lifting their heads to say goodbye when he goes. They both wait until I get up before they’ll budge. Isn’t that weird?

Back to the training plans. I guess I’ll be sweating it out again later today (big sigh). The good news is, it’s getting much easier for me to walk. I’m up to 45-minute brisk walks. Next week, I actually start adding short jogs into the regimen. It’ll be interesting to see how that feels.

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I Have a Plan

I was talking to Amy this past Sunday and she asked me if I have been running. When I replied with a “no,” she got sort of quiet.

I imagine she wanted to ask me why. If I don’t start running, and start running NOW, how do I plan on running ten whole miles in October?

I have a plan. It’s pretty realistic. It starts with baby steps. But that’s what I need. I am really out of shape.

The plan actually starts with walking. Last week, I had to walk every other day (a total of three days) for 30 minutes at a moderate pace. This week, I have to walk on four separate days for 30 minutes at a moderate pace. Next week, the pace speeds up. The week after that, I do run/walks. And so on.

It may not sound like much, but I can already tell a difference. I am getting ready, I’m just taking baby steps. But everyone has to start somewhere, right?