Brushing off the dust...

It started with a sneeze.

I had been doing so well! I was 22 days into the 100 I was aiming for. I had upped my exercise time and intensity; I was determined... and then I sneezed.

Once, twice, ten times. Hard sneezes. My hubby wondered if I had an allergy, but I don't.

As the day wore on, I started feeling very, very poorly. Fever. Blocked sinuses. By evening, I was totally miserable. I spent the next four days on Tylenol and Mucinex. Exercise was out of the question. The fifth day, I finally felt better. But the next day we were leaving for a long weekend, so it wasn't worth it to go to the gym for just one day...

After the long weekend, my arms and back were sore from water skiing. So, no gym. By the time I got over that, I had totally lost all my momentum. I was gym-free for the rest of that week, too.

The crazy thing is, that after months of exercising and eating right, without losing a single little pound, not an ounce, in those two weeks that I didn't exercise and I was eating whatever I felt like, I lost five pounds, at last. Does that make sense?

Here's what I think: my body is so well programmed to hold on to its weight, that it struggled to hang on through all that exercise and dieting. But when I upped the exercise, my body just couldn't keep up with the calorie burn any longer. Even so, it fought all the way. At last I broke through the threshold and began to lose weight, but my body fought so hard it made me sick!

The next thing was to get started exercising again. Not an easy task. But that's what we do, isn't it! We fall. We get up. We brush of the dust. We start again.

Saturday, I met with my running club. That's the upside of belonging to a small, close-knit group like ours. It's more than a running buddy; it's ten running buddies. And if nothing else, I have my pride. So there I was, 6:30 a.m. Saturday morning. We meet, we run, we meet again. We have different levels of skill (they are all better runners than I am), so I sometimes end up running alone. At least I was spared the embarrassment of anyone witnessing my sorry little jog!

Fifteen minutes into the run, I felt utterly sick, and had to make for the nearest restroom, another half hour away. I almost didn't make it, I tell you! I toyed with the idea of turning around and going back--by that time I was well past the half-way time for the run--but I was stubborn enough to go ahead and head up the hill and on to finish my route.

I got back to our meeting place 20 minutes late. My friends were waiting, welcomed me, chatted for just a bit and then we all headed home. I was tired, but satisfied. It had been a rough day, a rough run, and I didn't beat any PR's. But I had gone out and I had done my 8.5 miles. I congratulated myself.

The dust was off. Day one of one hundred.

Yours for a happier, healthier life,

The Jogging Grandma

Wow! I just realized...

You know what they say about the subconscious working towards your goals even while you aren't thinking about them?

I just realized that without realizing it, I have reached a goal I set for myself several years ago!

In 2006, when I was learning about the power of goal-setting, I wrote this physical fitness improvement goal:

"I CAN RUN FOR TWO HOURS, UP AND DOWN HILLS, WITHOUT STOPPING."

That's the way you're supposed to state your goal, in the present tense, phrasing it in a positive way, and making it clearly measurable.

At the time, it seemed almost unattainable. I could run a 5 K by then, and I was doing daily runs of about 2.5 miles, but I had never been able to run farther than that. I had tried longer runs a few times, but always had to stop and walk.

Nevertheless, I repeated that goal, along with some other major goals for different areas of my life, out loud, several times a day, every day, for months!

The year came and went. I gave up on chanting my goals out loud to myself every day. They seemed ridiculous and I became discouraged.

Now, suddenly, as I was writing another blog entry, I realized that when I do my weekly 8.5 mile runs--and as I say, my times are slow-- I AM ACTUALLY RUNNING FOR TWO HOURS, UP AND DOWN HILLS, WITHOUT STOPPING, and doing it every week. My goal, which I chanted over and over to myself, has become reality, without me even realizing it!

How did this happen? Well, here's what I think.

That subconscious goal must have influenced my decision to join the running club when I was invited. And it must have helped me push this old body of mine from a 6 mile walk to a 6 mile run. It could be what inspired me to go ahead and try the longer, 8.5 mile route, and kept me putting one foot in front of the other, no matter what. Even on days that my running partners slept in and left me to run alone. Even when I was very, very tired. Even when my running partners stopped to walk, or wanted to take a shorter route. Something kept pushing me on. I thought I was just running to improve my fitness, but it is too amazing to be a coincidence, for me to come so quickly up to exactly what that goal--which I reinforced over and over a few years back--had prepared me for: running for two hours, up and down hills, without stopping!!!!

Simply amazing. Think I'll pull out those old goals--still valid--and begin to chant them to myself again! And I'll begin saying to myself: "I can run a marathon in under five hours."

Yours for a happier, healthier life,

The Jogging Grandma

The Exercise Program

During my previous program, I was doing strength building exercises three days a week and 20 minutes of aerobic intervals on the eliptical machine the other two days a week. I joined a running club and began running on Saturdays, starting with a 6 mile "walk" and ending up doing an 8.5 mile weekly "jog". Slow times, true, but just being able to jog that far in itself was a great deal of progress.

So now we're upping the ante. I'm going to keep the strength training program, because it is good, thorough and balanced. Upper body one day, lower body and abs the next, MWF, very methodical and intense, following the program outlined by Bill Phillips in his classic masterpiece, "Body for Life." I'm feeling very strong, and can see progress, increasing my weights every few weeks and improving my form from session to session.

Now, for my new program, on these strength-training days I've added an aerobic component: a 20 minute interval stint on the elliptical and a 30-lap swim (aiming for 20 minutes).

On Tuesdays and Thursdays, while my weight-lifting muscles are recuperating, I'm going to be doing a 60 minute run (aiming for five miles) and a 60 lap swim (aiming for 40 minutes).

This new program more than doubles the total exercise that I was doing previously. SOMETHING different (and good) should happen, right?

Yours for a happier, healthier life,

The Jogging Grandma

Taking Stock

I tried to take stock of what might have gone wrong.

1) The detox program. Maybe it was all bunk. Maybe all those terrible toxins we take in (and coffee and diet coke are full of them!) actually have little to do with our waistlines. I mean, it all sounds reasonable, but who knows? What science says today it changes tomorrow--that we have all experienced! But the detox program probably wasn't hurting any, either.

2) The nutrition program. We were supposed to be eating 6 small meals a day--high protein, low carbs. Well, I had tried the 6-meals-a-day before, and gained weight on it! But I thought I would try again. It makes sense to keep the blood sugar levels on a more even keel. And smaller meals would make for a smaller stomach, over time, which should make it easier to eat less, right? But I found the nutrition part the hardest to follow. First of all, because I was exercising a lot, and the more I exercise, the hungrier I feel.

In the past, the only way I have ever been able to lose weight has been by starving myself. I mean, really drastically reducing caloric intake. Now, all my reading indicated that this is not the best way of doing things; the body goes into starvation mode and lowers its metabolism, and muscle is torn down. So I tried to eat a moderate, well-balanced, evenly distributed diet. But it was hard. Often I would follow it all day, only to go on a ravenous eating binge in the evening. Hmmm. No, I had not found peace with this part of the program.

3) The exercise program. I was faithfully following a well-balanced exercise program. Strength training three days a week, aerobic two days a week. I joined a running club to get extra work in on the weekend. I think what I was doing was good; it was just not enough.

In the end, losing weight has to be about stimulating the metabolism and expending more calories than you take in, right? But somehow, I could see that I needed to make some adjustments to my program if I was going to see any results.

Yours for a happier, healthier life,

The Jogging Grandma

Whew!

Sometimes I get so caught up in LIVING that I don't get a chance to REFLECT on life...

Lately I've had a lot of fun. We had out-of-state visitors, which meant trips to Disneyland, Hollywood, the mountains, the desert, the ocean... all the typical Southern California "Things to See."

Then from April 22-24, I participated in the much-awaited "Ragnar Relay Race." 200 miles along the coast, from Ventura to Dana Point. Twelve runners, running three legs of the race each. Two vans, transporting runners from one Exchange Point to another. We left for Ventura at noon Thursday; our team had dinner together there (carb-loading, you know) Thursday evening and stayed overnight. The first teams left Ventura at 6:00 a.m. Friday morning; our team left at 10:30 a.m., arriving at Dana Point about 5 p.m. Saturday afternoon.

Running is often a lonely sport, extremely individualized. But belonging to a little running club like ours makes it more sociable, and a great event like a Ragnar Relay makes it an absolute blast!

I actually didn't run this time, myself. Each team needs to provide three volunteers, and I was my team's three volunteers :) So I spent the first 24 hours of the race, from 5 am Friday to 5 am Saturday, helping to man the posts at three different Exchanges. It was a lot of fun, calling in the runner's team numbers as they approached the Exchange, so their relay partner could be ready for them to come in, cheering them on, seeing all the fun costumes and great runners. I had a wonderful time. I didn't know if I could stay awake, working hard for 24 hours, but I did it!!!!

When my last shift was over, I caught up with my team and spent the rest of the day hanging out with them. Some of the legs of the race went through city streets, but others were along the very edge of the Ocean, and it was an absolutely perfect day, weather-wise!

If you ever get a chance, don't miss out on an experience like this! I wouldn't have missed it for anything!

Happy jogging!

Something New Every Week

Every week I try to do something new in my exercise routine. My fitness run, for example.

About 8 weeks ago, my 26-year-old daughter invited me to join a little running club she belongs to, that meets Saturday mornings at 7 a.m. I was very happy to do so, if for nothing else, to have a chance to hang out with my charming but busy daughter!

I had not done any running at all for a couple of years now, and was pretty much totally out of shape:) That first week, one of the experienced runners and my daughter took me "under their wing". They picked a fairly flat, 6 mile run. I jogged as long as I could, then walked the rest of the way. They were good sports, running ahead and then running back to me, then running ahead again. They got in a lot of good exercise, and I felt encouraged and accompanied as I puffed along.

The second week, I jogged a greater part of the same run, and the third week, it was about half walking and half jogging. The 4th week, I jogged more than I walked, and the 5th week I managed to jog the whole route. My pace was slow, but I managed to jog the whole time.

I was gone skiing for the following weekend, and when I got back, my daughter told me she had been doing a harder run during the midweek: about three miles out, a couple of miles of uphill, and then three plus miles back in. Hmmm... I always love a challenge, so we tried it together that weekend. I made it the three miles out, but I had to walk the uphill stretch, and the last three miles was walk/run/walk/run.

So this last weekend I summoned up all my determination, and kept jogging the entire 8.5 miles, uphill stretch and all. My pace was nothing to brag about, but I am very proud of myself for keeping going the whole way.

I think I'm on my way to getting back in shape!

With best wishes for a long and healthy life,

The Jogging Grandma

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Fit at First

Anyway, during those first few years after turning fifty, I managed to stay pretty fit. I was going for long swims at the gym nearly every day. I was running in 5 K's and 10 K's on a regular basis. I found a "hiking buddy" and was hiking in the mountains every now and then. And the weekends I wasn't doing a race or a hike, I usually ended up at the beach for a good swim in the ocean.

I wanted to learn to surf, but that didn't happen. My overall fitness improved, though!

I did learn to snowboard. It was very painful for the first three years or so, but I finally mastered the necessary skills well enough so that I wasn't falling down all the time, and then snowboarding got to be fun.

For my 55th birthday, I decided to try skydiving. In tandem, of course! It was a great thrill, and besides, when I landed, the man I had been dating for the past several months presented me with a ring and asked me to marry him! That was in June, and we married in August! (By the way... we met on a ski trip!)

With best wishes for a long and healthy life,

The Jogging Grandma

What Have I Done?

We're going to fast forward a little here... I'll tell you how I got to the point I'm at, a little later.

For the time being, let me tell you that there is a 178-mile relay race coming up, April 23 and 24, from Ventura, California, all along the coast down to Dana Point. This is called the Ragnar Relay Race, and the same people organize similar races in other parts of the country, too. (Check them out at ragnarrelay.com.) The race begins Friday morning and runs approximately 24 hours :) Fun!

This is a really cool race. You get together 12 teammates, and divide up the 36 legs of the race, 3 per runner. It's great, because some legs are longer, others shorter; some are steeper, others are flatter... You work things out with your teammates, so you can include novices as well as more experienced runners, just by distributing the legs appropriately.

And no, I am not running in this one :) But I AM supporting my team by signing up as a volunteer. Each team that has at least one member living within a hundred miles of the race is responsible for finding three volunteers to help out with the organization. Or, in our case, one volunteer who is willing to work three shifts...

So when the time slot for signing up as a volunteer opened this morning, I was right there on my computer, ready to sign up. My main goal was to find three shifts I could work consecutively, all in the same place in the race. I frantically scanned through the available shifts (which were being filled by the minute) and found three that looked compatible. I sighed with relief as I finished signing up for all three.

Only then did it hit me what I had done. I am now signed up to work from midnight to six a.m., then six a.m. to noon, and then one-thirty p.m. until seven p.m. If you had told me fifteen minutes before that, that I would end up agreeing to such a crazy schedule, I wouldn't have believed it! But that is what I signed up for!

This is going to be some adventure!!!!

With best wishes for a long and healthy life,

The Jogging Grandma

How Running Became Fun

I had never seen the sense in running--during all my childraising years, I was so exhausted at the end of the day, I could not see the sense in expending more energy unnecessarily.

But now, of course, it was different. First of all, because other than my evening-shift 8-hour-a-day job, I had no other obligations, and my weekends were my own. The question now was how to fill them profitably.

One weekend, a friend invited me to a race he was running. I went to cheer him on, and the truth was it looked like fun. The next time he entered a race, I signed up for the 5 k. After that I began to participate regularly in 5 k's and 10 k's. I loved it! It was more than just running. There was the whole race ambiance, meeting other runners, the excitement of the starting gun, the tension of the competition--to see who I could pass or who was passing me--, the euphoric feeling that comes with exertion, the sense of satisfaction at the end, and then the after-race browsing at the booths or local shops, and a well-deserved brunch. It was all extremely enjoyable and rewarding, and my fitness was improving!

With best wishes for a long and healthy life,

The Jogging Grandma

P.S. When you're ready to start strength training, you might want to check this out!