Christmas and Virtual 10K Race Recap

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Merry Christmas 2012

Happy Holidays to you!  I hope that you were able to spend lots of time with family and friends celebrating the Christmas holiday.  We spent last weekend in Wisconsin with my family and Christmas day was spent with my husband's family.  I love being able to spend time with both families though it does come with a little anxiety on how to control my food intake.  To balance this out we tried to increase our activity level.  When in Wisconsin we hit the hotel fitness room and then later the pool and when we were home we took the dogs on some long walks.  We even found a new path to walk which, even using a couple of short cuts, makes the total route about 3.5 miles (which is longer than my daily 3.1 mile route).

Speaking of distance... late last week on a blog that I read was mention of a Virtual 10K Race.  What is this you ask?  There had been talk about the lack of races around Christmas but since everyone was travelling it wasn't possible to get everyone to meet in one spot and go out so a couple of bloggers organized an event where you register online, do the 10K at your leisure between Friday and Monday and then register your time with the organizers (they provided a form to do this).  So I signed up and told Dan about it and he mapped out a route and we figured we could confirm the distance using my Forerunner.  Unfortunately, less than halfway in, I thought I'd turned the timer off by accident so we didn't have an accurate read.  Note to self, always trust the Forerunner.  At the end of the walk we'd gone 4.35 miles and I was disappointed but exhausted and freezing and I didn't think I had another 1+ mile in me.  So we called it a day but I was determined to do the full 6.2 miles.

Yesterday after a brief, but emergent, trip to the vet's office I headed over to the fitness center.  The rules said it was OK to complete the miles on the treadmill so that was what I was going to do.  I'd never used this treadmill before but there was a 10K program button right on it.  I wearing my new Foot Pod for my Forerunner except that when I calibrated my food pod I did something wrong and my watch thought I went 12 miles.  I didn't.  I barely made it through 6.2 miles but I signed up for the full 10K and so by the grace of everything in me I was going to finish.  I did.  It just took me a LONG time.  I didn't have an exact time because even the treadmill was conspiring against me.  The treadmill said I completed it in 4:53... I'm guessing some numbers were missing there!!  It was more like 1 hour 44 minutes and 53 seconds, though I can't be certain but it was pretty close to that.

My hips are sore today (but after 15+ miles between Friday and Monday something was bound to hurt!) so I was happy it was Tuesday, aka REST DAY!  It was also the last weigh-in of 2011 and I was fairly happy with that too.  Oh, and I made a new page - you should check out my race schedule for 2012 and let me know if you're interested in joining me for any of the races.  Some races are still tentative but I did them this year so am planning on doing them next year too.

I'm taller and I weigh less.... It's a Christmas MIRACLE!!

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Over Thanksgiving I was in Wisconsin and I went along on a drive with the deer hunters.  For those who are unfamiliar with the terminology - in my case it was a hike.  I didn't carry a weapon, aside from my witty personality, so I was basically along for the extra activity.   Somewhere along the way I picked up a little friend and didn't realize it until the next day when I sat down and felt like I had a sliver in my back.  Anyway... not sure what it was, even with the medical opinion of many relatives (did I mention this was a good time for me?! *insert eye rolling here*) I went to the doctor who told me if the appearance didn't change to come back and see the nurse practioner, which I did last night.  As the nurse is walking you from the waiting room to the exam room she says ok we're going to get your weight and height.  My weight was .5 pounds more than 30 minutes earlier when I'd been in my WW meeting (apparently the grande skinny latte that I got on the way to the doctor's office adds that extra half pound?) but the best news was that I was also taller than I thought.  Not like now I'm 6'2" which would have been all kinds of awesome... no but I am 3/4 of an inch taller.

Anyway... weigh-in last night was great, especially considering the train wreck of food I ate over the weekend. I was extremely please to realize I lost 3.4 pounds!  I've also discovered that if you make oatmeal from actual oats instead of the instant packet that your serving size is like quadrupled.  This morning I made 1/2 c. of dry whole grain oats, added 14 grams of cranberries (I measured them because I didn't know if they were free points or not.  They are.) and 10 grams of chopped dates.  I also grated some clementine zest over the oatmeal and cooked it all for like a minute.  I added a little splenda to counteract the tartness of the cranberry and came out with a WHOPPING size portion of oatmeal this morning.  Seriously, this portion is huge.  What have I been doing this whole time messing around with the instant packets???

Have you made any great health finds lately?