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Last Friday’s update…

Starting weight: 209
Ending weight: 208

Saturday: Bike 21 miles
Sunday: Run 7 miles
Monday: Rest
Tuesday: Bike 50k
Wednesday: Rest
Thursday: Lift
Friday: Rest

I feel like I’ve fallen into one of my classic downfalls over the past two weeks. I’ve been working out regularly, tracking my food intake fairly rigorously, and been productive getting things done in my personal life. I’m feeling so good that I start taking the things that make me successful for granted and I stop doing them. Since last week, I stopped tracking what I’ve been eating and I missed working out three days in a row for the first time since May. Despite feeling good about things, I’m still 20 pounds overweight and nowhere near as in shape as I was just a few years ago.

How will I respond to this? Will I rest on my 10 pound lighter laurels and probably slide back up the scale or buck up and keep doing the things that make me successful. Well, I’m feeling positive and I did a Martina workout for the first time in two weeks today. I plan to go out for a run this afternoon. Look for a Friday update and hopefully I’ll post again with a happy update.

I finally finished weeding the garden today. The herbs are holding their own, and two pepper plants survived. Of the four tomato plants, two have small green fruits on them and there are lots of yellow flowers. The tomatoes are staying in their cages pretty well, and the one without a cage is staying upright and healthy. The green beans are blooming, with one tiny baby bean growing so far. The green bean plants are very small, with smaller and fewer leaves than last year. I don’t know if it’s the weather, or possibly planting in the same soil where good green-bean-nutrients are a bit depleted. Only about half the bean plants came up, but I think a few more are trying now, and I re-seeded a few just to see if they’d do anything.

The greens are coming up in clumps, as usual, so I tried to thin out the really crowded ones and move a few into the gaps where none grew, hoping that all will have more room to leaf out. We’ll see if the transplants go or not. But, the piece de resistance: we harvested our first salad today – enough for two dinner salads and one serving left over. There was a tasty mix of red and green, frilly, plain, and pointy leaf lettuces.

1. It’s surprisingly hard to just get enough sleep, exercise, and healthy food in a day, let alone in a week. A lot of our energy these days is spent on balancing these three things. You’d think after thousands of years, humans would figure this out. I don’t think we have, or at least we keep cluttering up our lives with other things the bump off the top three physical needs.

2. “Lots” is a pretty good substitute for interesting – this applies to work and to food. Being busy can almost cover up boredom, but not quite. Lots of food makes you feel full, but it’s different from being satisfied. Eventually, we yearn for quality, not just quantity.

3. A problem with the phone as a primary communications tool is that it lacks multi-sensory input. I have started looking for mindless multi-sensory activities to do while talking on the phone. Freecell is my current choice. Compare the phone to email – email, unfortunately, has the benefit on engaging the mind in what to say, the fingers in how it feels to type, and the eyes in watching the words appear on the page. Sometimes even beeps when I type in something incorrectly. Phones are just hearing.

Eating is actually quite compelling – eyes, nose, mouth and fingers – but the munching can be really distracting to others if I’m not on mute. What do I do with my fingers and eyes without engaging my brain? Now, for the bonus round – figure out something productive and work-appropriate I can do in the classified lab (no cell phone, blackberry, and limited computer access). Maybe I should leave some crocheting in the lab – it worked for house meetings in college, and it would keep me warm when the A/C goes into overdrive.

4. It’s hard to have a really great day when it’s raining. Driving requires more care, and is slower. Walking usually involves and umbrella or extra clothing. It’s dreary to just look out the window. I think it subconsciously affects people’s moods. Even if you’re doing great, it doesn’t feel like it. Does anyone have a really kickin’ day when it’s grey outside?

What’s with starting a pickle post with chocolate chip cookies? Just keeping you on your toes as we review a chronological account of the eating highlights from this weekend. It turns out that chocolate chip cookies are a great start to a weekend. Brian made perfect cookies as a treat on Friday night. It was really nice to come home to a sweet smelling kitchen and tasty treats.

Saturday held even more cooking adventures. First, gazpacho. There are two schools of gazpacho thought – the chunky approach and the smooth pureed approach. Brian tried a hybrid, putting the tomatoes, garlic and olive oil in the blender to provide a smooth base, then adding the diced cucumbers, peppers, celery and onions to the soup. I really liked it, but am anxious to taste it again tomorrow as leftovers once the flavors have had a chance to blend. I think it might be even better.

Second on the docket for Saturday: pickles. When we visited the Gladdings in Fort Wayne, we saw their large jars of sun pickles basking on a plank in the back yard. Since Dad had some tasty gherkin-sized cukes from his garden, and I have a jar of pickling spice, I wanted to give it a try. After reviewing various recipes on the internet and asking Mrs. Gladding for her recipe (via my Mom), we decided that we needed jars with lids, vinegar, spices, cucumbers and a couple sunny days. After procuring the lids for the jars, our ingredients were in place, and Saturday afternoon we concocted our pickle experiment.

Then Dan Dunn drove up for a bike ride. We had fun exploring Georgetown, Groveland and Byfield. I did very well clipping in and out, so next time I’ll tackle drafting (and hard braking) if the guys are patient enough. Afterward we sat in the back yard enjoying the breeze, the gazpacho and some grilled chicken breasts that had been marinating. Using jalapeños in the marinade worked very well – good flavor and permeating hotness. (The guys also ate corn on the cob – I passed reluctantly. It’s so sad to be from a corn state and not be able to digest corn.) We also tried some healthy snacks – veggie chips and hummus and grapes.

We indulged in Agave on Sunday because we ran 7+ miles in the heat of the day and were really craving some tasty salty Mexican food. Yum.

Leap ahead to Monday – the pickles have had Saturday afternoon, Sunday all day and Monday all day to brew in the sun. We decided to give them a try. They are tasty! I think they’ll be even better refrigerated. Evidently you can’t go wrong with the basic approach. We’re tempted to start pickling more than just cucumbers … I mean, what CAN’T you pickle?

Starting weight: 211
Ending weight: 209

Saturday: Run 5k fast
Sunday: Martina workout
Monday: Rest
Tuesday: Bike 1 hour and Martina workout
Wednesday: Martina workout
Thursday: Hike Mt. Hancock and South Hancock
Friday: Rest

At 9am today I checked the weather report and saw CLEAR for all of today so I grabbed my pack and headed off to hike Mt. Hancock and South Hancock for my 22nd and 23rd 4000′ peaks. What the trail lacked in adequate signage and views it made up for in black flies.

On the way up the trail I found myself in a clearing with no obvious way to go. I set off in what I thought was the proper trail but it dead ended in short order. I worked my way back and tried another path which led me to a stream I had been following. Since I knew my trail crossed the stream further up, I hiked up the flowing stream for about 1/4 mile until I hit what was obviously the trail.

There was a decent view from an overlook near Mt. Hancock’s summit but the entire trail above 3500′ was swarming in black flies. The ridge connector between Hancock and S. Hancock was flat with gentle rolling hills. Combined with the recent rains this area was an insect ridden bog that I hiked through quite quickly. On the descent at one point my altimeter watch had me losing 70 feet per minute — that is *steep* combined with me in a hurry to escape the flies.
On the way down I was determined to find where I had gone wrong on the way up. I found my way down to the clearing and STILL couldn’t identify the proper way down. I wandered for a few minutes before eventually finding the path. That section needs to be blazed or signed much more clearly.

At the poorly marked clearing I stumbled across a name and arrow made of sticks in the dirt that pointed to some empty tents pitched on the trail. At first I thought it was someone camping illegally/inconsiderately, but about halfway down I started worrying maybe someone was lost. When I got off the mountain I tried to call the ranger station and eventually got hooked up with the State Police who took my report. I hope I was just being paranoid.

All in all it was a beautiful day for hiking and hopefully the weather will reward me with another great day soon.

The most notable difference in this trip to the midwest is that we didn’t drive straight through. Call us old and responsible, but we had a much more enjoyable time both going and coming by stopping in Batavia (about halfway). We got to Fort Wayne on Saturday after lunch feeling basically normal, and returned home the following Sunday feeling rested and able to unpack, exercise and settle in before the work week.

Another improvement was working out – we walked a lot, went jogging, and did two Martina workouts. It was very easy to pack an extra bag with the Xerdisc, foam roller and elastic band, and both the Woodmansee and Judd households had hand weights. We walked around Avalon, jogged Avalon and Lake Shores in FW, jogged at Oak Openings, walked at Secor and ran a quick 5K at Swan Creek in Toledo, and also walked to Steak and Shake.

As for the actual visit, we had a really good time. We looked at gardens everywhere – my Dad had eggplant (yum!), zucchini (we ate nearly all of it in Toledo if you count sharing some with the Holliker clan), cucumbers, snap peas and green peppers for us to eat, plus lots of other veggies looking healthy. Mr. Gladding shared his beets and some yellow zucchini with us. We walked around Lakeside Park, which has both rose gardens and annuals now around the reflecting pool. Dawn has a cute back yard with flowers, the most perfectly shaped tree, and a few vegetables. Sue has a container garden on her patio plus a beautiful landscaped bed in her front yard. Grandma Hume has a garden with several tomatoes, zucchini and green beans just starting to bloom. Lynn has a big garden with lots of different vegetables! Seems like everyone puts our garden to shame (or reinforces our desire to re-landscape the back yard).

We went to the Fort Wayne zoo on Sunday after church, looked at a couple houses (including this one we think is a good investment!) with Dad, played softball, cooked out, had dinner with Dawn, and generally did lots of talking with my parents. My grandparents were feeling great so we went out to lunch on Tuesday and then for a drive around St. Marys, stopped by to see Sue, and then headed back to Fort Wayne (with an important stop at the Tastee Twirl to sample creme brulee and butter pecan soft serve. Yum.).

July 4 was a big family party at Grandma Hume’s. Uncle Greg flew in from OK and Aunt Loretta was there from Arizona. In the evening we went to the Mudhens game with Ken and Leslie, which included fireworks. Thursday we went to Grandma Krueger’s, and got to see not only Aunt Diane and Steve but also Aunt Ellen (who drove in from Houston) and her kids Ashley and Daniel, plus Ashley’s daughter Aubrey. It was great to all be together and to finally meet Ellen. We stopped over to see Greg and Grandma H again, so Leslie could go through some boxes in the basement. This turned into oral reading of Leslie’s 8th grade journal, which was both funny and rather telling. Friday we had a “down” day to sleep in, do our Martina workout (Barb had already done her toning at 7am but joined us a for a few planks) go for a walk and hang out.

Saturday rolled around, and it was time to pack up and head to Edon for one more family get-together before heading back to Newburyport. It’s good to see family and enjoy catching up.

Starting weight: 213
Ending weight: 211

Saturday: Rest
Sunday: Rest
Monday: Run 42 minutes
Tuesday: Martina workout
Wednesday: Rest
Thursday: Run 51 minutes
Friday: Martina workout

We went to the Midwest for a week and I managed to stay on a good workout schedule. The Monday run was slow, but the Thursday run picked it up a bit and was longer (5.3 miles). I also managed to avoid gorging on all the tasty BBQ food that was served at the various picnics I attended. I still managed to sample a bit of everything and enjoy myself without going overboard.

The workout highlight of the week for me was Saturday morning (will be on workout list for this week) when Susan and I ran a 5k time trial to see how fast we could actually move. We ran 3.3 miles in 27:24 for an 8:18 pace. Our 5k time would have been 25:45. So despite not getting to race with Leslie and Ken Wednesday morning, we tried to participate remotely.

I have many pet peeves, probably too many. A frequent subject of ranting on this blog is the supermarket which is usually good for some enragement/humor value. However, today’s pet peeve is a serious one and not particularly humorous, especially since I have a lot of friends with young kids.

Bicycle Safety! We’ve made a ton of progress over the past 20 years in teaching people to wear helmets all the time when riding, but helmet wearing alone is not the be all/end all in bicycle safety. While running today I witnessed two things which made me want to write about this.

1) I saw a woman on a bike with her son (maybe 9 or 10) riding behind her up High Street. They were traveling against traffic and were hugging the edge of the road very tightly. When they had to pass parked cars they would essentially swerve into the flow of traffic to pass the parked car before quickly ducking back against the curb.

2) I saw a man on a road bike with riding shorts/jersey (implying he was at least a semi-regular rider) cut inside a corner at a 4 way intersection while traveling at full speed in front of turning traffic (which had the right-of-way). The oncoming car had to brake quickly in the middle of the intersection because it was unclear what the rider was doing. Observing the situation, it was clear after the fact that the rider chose to cut the corner so he could turn away from the traffic, but the erratic nature made the driver have to stop quickly to evaluate.

Bikes on the road are for all intents and purposes vehicles and have to obey the same basic rules that apply to automobiles. In the first case it’s dangerous to ride against the flow of traffic. Even if you can see oncoming traffic better, you’re traveling at a fast enough speed to close the distance between you and oncoming cars faster than you or the car can react if something goes wrong. Even when riding with the flow of traffic it’s not safe to hug the curb tightly and have to swerve into traffic to avoid obstacles such as drains and parked cars. In general it’s better to travel a slight distance away from the curb. It gives cars behind you better visibility of you and by moving straight forward without sudden swerves they’re more likely to treat you like the vehicle you are and pass you safely without trying to squeak by while you’re hugging the curb.

In the second case, the man should have put on the brakes, stopped at the red light like a car would have, and accepted the fact that he didn’t make the light. By cutting across an empty lane of traffic that a turning car was about to occupy he put himself in danger and gave other cyclists a bad name in the eyes of car drivers who observe this reckless behavior.

I’ve spent many years riding a bicycle and when I was younger I remember my parents making me learn the rules of the road before I was allowed out of the driveway and onto the road (or sidewalks for that matter). Almost every town will have an annual bike rodeo/safety day often sponsored by the local fire department. Bicycle safety rules should also be available at the RMV so you can learn how to ride safely. I think a big part of being a safe teenage driver for me stemmed from the fact that by the time I was 16 I had ridden hundreds of miles on the road on my bike over the years and I was already trained to think like a car and know what cars did on the road.

Helmeting up is a wonderful lesson, but with knowledge of how to ride safely hopefully the helmet will never be needed. Teach your kids how to ride properly, and if you don’t know how to ride properly, take the time to learn.

Starting weight: 215
Ending weight: 213

Saturday: Bike 1:20 and Martina workout
Sunday: Run 10k
Monday: Rest
Tuesday: Martina workout
Wednesday: Martina workout
Thursday: Rest
Friday: Run 10k and Martina workout

Su already posted about our workouts last weekend. The 10k run on Sunday was the longest I’ve run I ran 10k on May 17, 2005. My legs expected to run 4 miles and starting getting cranky about 5 miles. The rest of this week was mostly Martina’s conditioning workouts until this morning when I decided to run the 10k route again. I ran it 20 seconds a mile faster and my heart rate was 20bpm lower than last Sunday. I’d say my heart is getting whipped into shape pretty well!

Controlling my food intake also continues to go well. I’m not seeing super fast results on the scale, but I can certainly tell in my overall body shape. I may have only lost 5 pounds in the past 3 weeks but I’m a much healthier person and it’s starting to show.