Another Week…

Just grinding away the miles and the calories.

• Monday: Scheduled rest
• Tuesday: 3 miles (done)
• Wednesday: 2 miles (done)
• Thursday: 3 miles
• Friday: Scheduled rest
• Saturday: 4 miles
• Sunday: 3 miles
• Total planned: 15 miles

It seems like ages ago when I used to whip out 30 miles a week without thinking twice. Oh well. At least I’m back to grinding the miles.

On the calorie front:

Monday:

• Calorie budget: 1690
• Calories eaten: 1699
• Exercise burn: 0
• Calorie deficit: -9

Tuesday:

• Calorie budget: 1690
• Calories eaten: 2201
• Exercise burn: 616
• Calorie deficit: 105

Wednesday:

• Calorie budget: 1690
• Calories eaten: 2047
• Exercise burn: 462
• Calorie deficit: 105

I’ll have a weight loss report this Saturday. Believe it or not, I didn’t weigh myself when I first started this cycle.

Went for a Run and a Hike Broke Out!

It’s not often these days that I can find someone to force me out the door, but, on Saturday, I caught wind that one of my “buds” from Colorado was in town. Turns out that she had just finished a trail run on Saturday, so I thought I would be safe and offer to take her on another run on Sunday. After all, who would want to run trails two days in a row?

Well, I may have found out why some people are in shape and improving and I’m not. She accepted! So, I met up with Ali and Yas Sunday morning for a trail run. I know that we don’t have anything in Southern California that compares to the majesty of the pines and elevation in Colorado, but we do have our own little gems. I decided to take them on a little jaunt through the oak canopy that lines many of our hills here.

Luckily we met early, because the sun was already out and blazing at 8:30. We headed into Laurel Canyon in the Laguna Coast Wilderness Park.

I was maybe a mile and half into our run when I figured out that the one think I had left behind was a rope so Yas and Ali could pull me up the hills! Oh well. Thankfully they waited around and made sure I made it back down in one piece. Thanks for making me get out there and get it done gals!

On the calorie front – at least the exercise let me have a Mexican dinner out. It’s amazing what those tortilla chips can do to a diet:

• Calorie budget: 1690
• Calories eaten: 2294
• Exercise: 477
• Deficit: –127

That’s two days in a row of exceeding my budget. Hmmm……

Software Pitfalls

So, after a few days of tracking and watching my calories and exercise, I noticed something that is a little distressing. According to MyFitnessPal, every mile that I run at a leisurely 12 min/mile pace (well - leisurely for most), I'm burning 185 calories. Say what? That's a full 50% greater than my Garmin reports.

What this really points out is that calories counting is an estimate at best. And depending the program that you're using those estimates can be grossly off - both for food ingested and exercise burn.

For the time being, I'm going to assume that the algorithms in MyFitnessPal are equally off for both sides of the equation. If they are, then the deficit is still correct - which is why I'm really aiming for. Today's lesson? Due diligence.....

As far as yesterday's burn:

Calorie goal: 1690
Calories eaten: 1727
Exercise burn: 0 (scheduled rest day)
Calorie deficit: -37

Whew. Glad I decided to pass on dinner out with the family last night.


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Arrrrgh!

So, just as I was heading out the door yesterday afternoon, my phone decided to ring. I spent the next half hour talking instead of running.

It’s not a big deal exercise wise – it was only two miles that I missed. But missing a workout results in a *huge* rippling effect to my diet. That’s 200 calories that I need to be careful I don’t put in the pie hole….

So, I had to portion control even more than I normally do. Bottom line:

• Calorie goal: 1690
• Calories eaten: 1646
• Exercise: 0
• Calorie deficit: 44

So this is the way it feels to wake up hungry……

Underway…

Got it started. Again. Three easy peasy miles. Hey. It’s a start (or a restart actually). Two more this afternoon….

On the calorie front:

• Calorie budget: 1690
• Eaten: 1783
• Exercise: 286
• Calorie deficit: 193

My “Other” Hobby

So, I’ve let it slip in these pages a few times that I have this *other* hobby. Some consider it a vice. There are times it can be unhealthy – making those who partake in it stay in a sedentary, seated position for hours on end. I like it because there’s a lot of mental stimulation in this hobby. Calculating odds, equities, and probabilities on the fly with real money involved. When everything is going well, it adds a little spending money to the budget. When not, well…..

Those of you who know me know that I’m talking poker. I spend somewhere between 6 and 10 hours a week playing. I’m no expert by any stretch of the imagination. Every hand I see seems to have some type of learning experience associated with it. Just like running, you get better at poker by practicing. The only difference is that practice in poker involves studying hands and situations. I’ve been looking for a way to put hand histories in a database for later study, and the thought of including them in a blog crossed my mind this past weekend. Why not?

So, if you’ve ever been just a little intrigued by watching poker on TV, come and visit my new blog: Poker Perdition. Just a warning before you do though – it’s nothing like you see on TV!

Can We Talk?

To borrow a line from a popular comedienne from the past...

So I pulled the handle marked "CAUTION: EJECT". It was pretty apparent a couple weeks ago that 400 feet a mile was going to give me trouble. Much less 400 feet a mile for 6 plus miles. So much for the 2011 edition of the Billy Goat Half (But - check out Madison's report. She finished fourth female over all. Outstanding!)

As I alluded to in Friday's post - sometimes life does not go as planned. Some of you may remember some posts I did a while back about being in career search mode (I believe the euphemism is "transition"?). Well, job search has resulted in nothing. Nada. Career search these days is much more a personal marketing campaign than it is just looking for work. So, about two weeks ago I decided it was time to revamp the existing campaign. Come up with a new spin. Start forging new relationships. New networks with new people. All that takes time and effort. Not to mention that a lot of networking opportunities come only after those gainfully employed are off work. I had every intention of getting the miles in, but a coffee meeting here, a lunch there, a mixer here and there, and before I knew it, training was out the window.

It occurred to me late last week that if I'm going to get my training in, I am going to have to treat it like any other important meeting. Put it on my schedule. So there you go:




Every training day. Same time. That means this week:

Tuesday: 3 miles
Wednesday: 2 miles
Thursday: 3 miles
Saturday: 4 miles

Watch for photos!

Tomorrow: A new blog I'm working on for my other "hobby".

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Race on Saturday?

About 10 seconds into this video sums up what I’m doing about my race on Saturday:

Yeah. Basically I had no time to put in any training for the last two weeks. That’s why I’ve been quiet around these parts. I’m around and I’m healthy. No injuries or anything. Sometimes life just sucks.

I’ll be back tomorrow though to talk about what’s next. Just as soon as I wade through 500 items in my Google Reader. Yikes!

It Just Occurred to Me…

It’s been over a week since I’ve even looked at my blog roll. Yikes! 265 items in Google Reader!

I may be absent from these pages, but I’m still getting out a couple or three times a week. Here’s a little video from one of my treks in the hills last week:

It’s pretty impressive – the entire area in this video was once filled with agriculture and cattle ranching. And not so long ago either - I can remember cattle grazing in some of the canyons in this video when I first moved here in the mid 1970’s. Gads! Okay, maybe it *has* been a while.

After watching this video, I’m feeling a little guilty too. I was complaining that it was in the low 60’s with a stiff onshore wind blowing. Jeesh.

It’s two weeks until my next race. While my training has been happening, it has been anything but consistent. I have a feeling that I’m going to be paying for my transgressions.

I’ll be out in the hills at least three days this week. Who knows – I might even put in something over 10 miles this weekend….