What I did this week

There was no way I could keep up last week's pace, so I did not even try. Here is what I did instead:

Monday: The kid and I took a walk, probably about 30 minutes, maybe 25.
Tuesday: I did Zumba
Wednesday: I did lunch duty (two hours of standing and walking around) and then we went swimming. I did about 30 laps plus some jogging around.
Thursday: I did lunch duty again. Other than walking about four minutes one way to pick up some kids for an after-school program, that was it.
Friday: Swimming again, with another 25 laps plus jogging around.

I am happy with the amount of activity, though I wish I had gotten a run in. I hope to next week, as I am planning to sign up for the Race for Pace, which is two weeks away. Not sure how I will do in that as I have not run over two miles in quite awhile, but we shall see.

I am pretty sure this week won't be like last

My legs (ankles, thighs, calves) have been sore off and on (mostly on) since last Monday. I guess I overdid it in the physical activity department from Monday to Friday. I was a crazy weekday warrior, if you will.

Friday I stood on my feet for about two hours helping out with a school event. I went home to do laundry, vacuum, and clean the bathtub. When I headed back to school a few hours later, I ran around the outside of the gym for between 10 and 15 minutes, and that run included a handful of trips up and down the steps next to the gym and the steps leading to the main church lot. I am not sure for exactly how long I ran because I had to take a couple-minute break to move my car. I stood again for about 1.5 hours at the park that evening, and that was pretty much it.

I took it easy yesterday with my only exercise resulting from shopping at two stores for brief periods of time. Mostly I sat around. Ah, relief.

Today it is my intent to swim, but buying a new oven and the Steeler game may get in the way.

About the only thing I am certain about is that this coming week won't look too much like last week in terms of exercise. My 40-year-old body will fight me on that.

But despite the soreness, I do feel good. As if my body did great things this week. And, in a way, I guess it kind of did.

But wait, it gets worse

For three days this week, I was pretty crazy with exercise. I basically crammed five days of working out into three. And I am suffering for it. My aching body.

After Monday's over-abundance of physical activity, I (comparatively) took it easy on Tuesday with an hour of Zumba. But Wednesday I went for another marathon of activity.

I stared off doing lunch duty. The school has three lunches, each lasting 40 minutes. As a monitor, I walk up and down the aisles making sure kids are doing what they are supposed to. After about 25 to 35 minutes, I walk the kids up a few steps and down a bunch more to go outside, where I again walk up and down the playground many times. Then we bring them back in and do it two more times. Although I cannot call that working out, it seems pretty reasonable to "count" it as exercise.

About an hour after I finished that, I went for a run. My stomach was probably a little too full to do it well, but I wanted to get that run in, since the weather was nice. Turns out the 60 degrees kind of felt too cold during the first mile; in fact, my ears actually briefly "burned" as they do in the winter. Crazy.

I don't have much to say about the run, other than I struggled a bit. But when I remind myself that I had already walked, ran steps, swam, did Zumba, stood on my feet for three hours for three mornings in row while subbing, and did a lunch duty within a 54-hour period, finishing the two miles is an accomplishment in itself. Let's go with that.

Mile 1: 10:57
Mile 2: 8:58

An hour later, I swam almost 15 laps and tread water for a bit.

I sort of took the day off today, other than a couple hours of standing while subbing and another two hours of lunch duty.

Who knows what tomorrow will bring. But I am pretty sure my feet, thighs, and ankles wish it would be lying completely still. 

A walk, some steps, and a swim

When I last blogged, I lamented how I was not doing as much physical activity as I wanted. I swam on Friday, which included about an hour of treading water, but then did nothing on Saturday or Sunday. So today I was determined to make up for my inactivity.

Late this morning, I met some friends downtown for lunch. I parked at the Second Avenue Garage and made the trek to Market Square. I am not sure how far I walked, but I kept a pretty brisk pace there and back, despite my impractical sandals. It ended up taking me about 25 minutes round trip, plus the steps up and down to my car. Not bad (but let's not talk about the Chipotle lunch I had while in Market Square).

Then I headed to school and for the 63 or 64 steps. For some reason, I made better time the first 10 trips, and I was delighted I did not fall ill, as I was only about 1.25 hours removed from eating. I took a two-minute break to catch my breath and gulp some water, and then I ran up and down another 10 times.

First 10 steps: 8:15
Second 10 steps: 8:35

Once again my heart rate was up around 180 bpm when I was done, but I walked around a bit after and felt fine within a few minutes.

Within an hour, I was in the pool, and I ended up swimming 15 laps, plus general moving and splashing around. It was definitely slow going, but I was glad I did it as well as a few arms exercises.

All in all, a great day exercising. But let's also not talk about my dinner either...

Slacking a bit

Since I last blogged, I have not been as physically active as I had hoped. I did Zumba on Thursday. I pretty much just sweated for hours on Friday, thanks to the oppressive heat and humidity. Saturday, I swam, though I don't recall how many laps. Sunday I did very little, other than running some errands. Monday was a bit fat nothing (besides lunch duty). Tuesday was Zumba, and yesterday was swimming. Only three laps but much treading water and moving.

I have been so busy lately that I have not had as much time to workout. Today was the first day I had almost five hours to myself. I really should have gone back to the pool or went running, but I was just so happy to have no meetings, appointments, volunteer work, or errands, plus I am down on sleep so feeling lazy (which is a great reason to exercise, I know!). Unfortunately, I have to pick my kid up from school early before taking my dad to a doc's appointment, so I won't be able to run (i.e., get sweaty). Tomorrow, if all goes well, I should be able to run after lunch duty and before I go swimming. I vow to at least get some steps in.

After all, I have lots of eating to make up for.

Oh, and a little part of me wants to run in the Race for Pace in four weeks. Not sure if that will happen, though.

Continuing to blame it on the heat

This afternoon, I finally tackled my "usual" two-mile round trip school run. I had well over an hour to get it in, so I figured even if I had to crawl the last mile, I should be able to make it back in time for pickup.

Most of the run was without pain, so there is that. I do recall feeling some ankle pain (I forget which foot) early on, but it subsided quickly. Or, the constant panting took over, "drowning" out any other suffering.

The temps were around 80-couple degrees, but, once again, the humidity was pretty high, or so it felt to me. But I was determined not to let the heat, my age, and my inconsistent/rare running keep me from doing what I set out to do. Part of me really wanted to get a longer run in since I had the time, but wanting to know where I stood time-wise for my usual run won out.

Here are the stats:

Mile 1: 10:43
Mile 2: 9:00

Looking back at previous posts, this is definitely one of my worst runs, and I fought to get the first mile under 11 minutes! But between the heat and my running so little this year (probably six to eight times the first eight months of the year), I won't beat myself up about it too much. Besides, once I got my almost 20 minutes in, I jogged around the outside of the gym and up the outside steps over a half dozen times, for about eight or nine minutes. On top of that, my heart rate gets up pretty high when I am running uphill or up steps (between 160 and 180 bpm), which I know is not good, so I feel a little limited.

I also swam about 25 laps on Sunday and 30 laps yesterday, with some pool jogging and leg and arm work thrown in for good measure. If I can round the week out with Zumba and another swim, then yee-haw for me!

Nothing like running steps in 90-degree weather

In addition to running about 1.5 miles this week (along with a Zumba class and two days of swimming), I also ran up the 65-ish fun-filled steps 10 times. Several people told me I was nuts as it was 90 degrees. And I did not disagree with them. But I guess I felt as if I had something to prove to myself.

I kept the pace rather slow as I was sweating (so much for clothes that wick away perspiration) and struggling. In the end, I finished in 8:55, which I was happy with considering the temps. When I was finished and had a few minutes to catch my breath, I decided to run around the gym and up those steps four times. To me, exercising for only nine minutes hardly "counts." That too was no easy task considering the heat, but I was happy to get another five minutes of movement.

I wish I could be happy with walking as it is probably not a good idea to get my 40-year-old heart up to 180 bpm, but it seems so inefficient and boring. However, if the heat continues (and I don't think it will), then I may have to slow down the pace.

Stay tuned.

Way out of running shape

Despite my rare appearance on this blog, I have been exercising. I managed to do Zumba once a week during August (including one week with two classes) as well as swim two to three times per week all month long. Unfortunately, I had not gone running since the beginning of July. That is until last week.

Now that school is back in session, and I have had time to kill between lunch duty and pick up, I figured I had no excuse not to lace up the running shoes. So this past Tuesday, I finally got back out there. It started off okay, though I felt warm almost right away. I don't recall feeling too much, if any, pain, but realizing I was struggling mightily, I decided to run only to the stop sign just before the final (big) hill during the last couple tenths of the first mile. I could not risk running out of gas and then leaving my kid stranded in the parking lot on the first full day of school.

When I finished my run, I was convinced it had to be about 90 degrees. Turns out it was only 81, but the humidity was definitely high. Between the heat and my not-in-running-shape body, it took me probably 10 minutes to stop panting. At least two parents in the lot after commenting on how I seemed to be struggling while running (they drove past me), and I told them they were not wrong, but I considered it a victory that I was still walking. I cannot recall how long it took me to run that approximately 1.5-mile route, but it was irrelevant. Since I had not run that route since March, I am not overly disappointed. Hopefully before too long I can get the two miles in.