stachedwalker’s BodyBlog

A fellow employee at my company was also taking a sabbatical about the same time I was.  His started 7 weeks ahead of mine.  We had a little competition going to see who A) lost the most weight or B) gained the least amount of weight while on our sabbaticals.   Rob gained about 15 lbs … I lost about 3 lbs.   Woot!!!  I Won!

Well, 10 weeks of vacation are over and it’s back to work.  I was on the road for about 28 days of those 70 days … and I’m happy to say I did not blow up like a balloon.  Vacations are to be enjoyed and not feel bad about what you eat or how often you hit the gym (or not).  With that said, however, there are ways to enjoy yourself and not let the build slide.   I did lots of sightseeing out in gardens/museums … climbing hills … with over 30+ lbs of camera and computer equipment on my back.  By the time I got back to the hotel rooms, I would be drenched with sweat from all the hiking.  I wasn’t in the gym, but I sure as heck was working out!!   Lots of MRP bars were brought with me for eating in the airport, breakfast,  etc.  Most meals you eat out are a lot more than what one would eat at home.  So moderation is the key there.  When I was on a cruise everyone hit the cardio machines and left the weights alone … I got some half decent workouts with the weights in … and skipped every midnight buffet    I did not forsake the beer, either.   But get a glass of water at the same time as the beer … keeps you down to only having one beer.   Desserts I passed on, but I’m not a dessert fan anyway so that part was easy.

Now it’s on to getting ready for a 1/2 marathon … only two months to go.  Those buns had better get cracking!

The idea is good … the execution is poor.  Major bugs in the code that maintains this section is really causing it to be too much of a headache or useable to me.  Hence, I’m in the process of deleting all my mutural friends and folk’s I’m stalking.  I’ll use the tried and true method of bookmarking the URLs for their bodyspaces in the browser of my choice in order to maintain some easy to use links to their profiles.   I hope no one gets upset how suddenly finds me off their friends list.  Trust me .. you still are … I’m just using a working method to maintain connectivity. 

Or otherwise known as "Ah … Phoenix" … ‘cuz the 1/2 is done in Jan.  I’ve been in Phoenix in July and then it’s definitely "Argh!! Phoenix!!!".

But the weather was Mahvulous!!  Lows were in the lower 50s at night, and highs in the middles 70s … no clouds in the sky.  In fact, Saturday i stepped out side to see what the temp was like at about 7am, as that’s when I would be at the starting line.  I was fine in a T-shirt.  I had been considering what light jacket to wear … or long sleeve tech shirt to wear during the race.  I ended up going for the lightest thing that I could find that I brought with me.   Strangely enough, it was the exact thing I wore last year for the 1/2 in Arizona.  LOL

The race began promptly at 8:30 …. and it took me until about 9:10 to get to the starting line.  Yes, it seemed to take forever to get to the start.  Well, when you’ve got 23000 1/2 marathoners it’s gonna take a while.  Besides the do wave starts …. I was in corral #18 and I saw it go up to 26 at least!   We’re talking endless miles of humanity in front and behind.

This year I did train more towards the end of the year than I did last year.   My problem this year was length of runs/walks and it showed … but more on that.  The first 9 miles of the course are flat ..flat .. flat!!!.   There’s no reason to do as fast of a 9 miles as you possibly can here.  The only problem (really) is the congestion getting water.  With so many folks on the course you’re getting cut off and slowing down because of people jumping in front of you to get to the water & cytomax.  Also, the ground is very wet at these water stations and you actually slip and slide there … so you need to go slower and be more careful.  At about mile 9-10, you start a small uphill.  It’s not bad but this year we ran into quite a stiff breeze at this point that lasted until the finish.  My times showed this.  At mile #10 I was 12 minutes of head of my time from the previous year.  By the time I crossed the finish line I had slowed down to only 5 minutes faster.  Still a lot better (2 hours, 46 minutes and change), but if I had been in better shape due to long walks and w/o a breeze I could have definitely done a whole lot better.   But I’m still happy with my results … and improvement.   Some day I’m going to do a half in under 2:30

Hmmm, the auto fill-in says I’ve written about this before

Today was the annual Helvetia Half Marathon.  The weather was quite a bit different than last year.  Last year it started in the 60s with overcast skies and slight sprinkles … and then dropped down into the 50s before by the end.  Today was almost cloudless (trust me, that sunburn I’m currently sporting on the neck is testimony to this .. Ouch! Ooch! Youch!!!).  Temps were in the low 50s to begin with at the race and finished up into the lower 60s by 11:30.   Outside of above mentioned sunburn, a really great day for competing.  Only headwinds we hand were on the last mile, but I should have guessed that would happen!  LOL.  

As though of you who know me know … I didn’t train as much as I should, but I still managed my Golden Rule … which is "Thou Shalt NOT take more than Three Hours to do a 1/2".  2:50:27 was my time.  About 9 minutes off last year’s time but not too shabby all things considered.   I’ll need to find out the details, but I think I did the last 1/2 faster than the 1st.  Once again, no blisters (Ya!) and no "honeybucket" visits (Ya!!) helped with times.  I can’t say enough about the on-route facilities.  About every 1 1/2 miles there were water, glukos (sp?) and toilets.  You never ran out of anything nor were the lines 20 long  with frantically hopping up and down folks waiting for their turn.   The Helvetia Half is one of the nicest 1/2 marathons I’ve seen.  The down side to finishing is the fact that you’re in a football stadium and have to climb up the bleachers to get out.  LOL.  The lady who gave me my medal took one look at me and told me where the beer stand was (Bless you, My Child!!!).  After grabbing my T-shirt I did INDEED head over to the beer section, watched people finishing the race, and listened to a band play off to the side.  

On to the next one!!

Well, seeing as this is T+85 hours it’s obvious that I didn’t kill myself (I hope!).   I’d like to give a big "THANKS" to everyone in the Phoenix area who ordered great weather ‘cuz it sure was delivered …. lows about 45, highs about 67 and no wind or rain.   Great weather to be out sight seeing … oh yeah, and doing the Phoenix Rock n Roll 1/2 marathon.  

I did make my goal of being under 3 hours … 2:52:22.   Would have been nice to do faster, but given that I hadn’t really walked at 5mph for many weeks, I’m happy with that.  As usual, slowed down the last 3 miles as I was running out of gas.  Sucks to be old.    Next up (as far as I know) is the Helvetia Half Marathon in June here in Portland.  We have BEER at the finish line (C’mon .. this is the land of Brewpubs!).   I can also spend time now lifting heavy weights.  Well, heavy for me.  Guys like Phil Wylie, John (Hercules53) and Steve (pitbull75) might mistake my barbell weights for individual dumbbell weights (lol), but i’m not arm wrestling them for the tab or anything else for that matter.  So it’s pushing as much weight as I can (right now) in the best form that I can muster up.  

Maybe this year I’ll hit the Portland Marathon again.

yup … only ’bout 40 more hours of fun in the Sun in lovely (espeically if you just can from rainy Portland) Phoenix Arizona before the PF Chang Rock n Roll full and 1/2 marathon.  I’m gonna carb load by behind off unto Sunday morning!  i had a great morning visiting with Cowboy Gene … and yes, folks, he DOES have the best private gym that probably anyone has ever seen.  This is a serious workout space. 

No more training walks (outside of pushing wheelchairs .. which can be exercise enough) before the race.  I’ll write my experiences of this 1/2 when I’m done and back home. 

In less than 2 weeks I’ll be on a plane to Phoenix for the RnR Marathon & 1/2 marathon (I’m doing the half).  2 weeks from Sunday is the big day (13th of Jan).  After being a total sloth this month, I was on the road for 1:57 today, racking up 8.5 miles.  It wasn’t raining (or sleeting or snowing) for change so I wasn’t bad weather to be outside in.  Oh yeah, 40 degrees, too.    The distance/time wasn’t too bad.  I would like to have broken 9 miles but it just didn’t happen.  

I also didn’t think the times were too bad given not a whole lot of sleep last night.  I’m taking care of an abandoned cat right now and let it sleep with me last night.  This cat has NOT figured out how to lie next to a human, it needs to be ON the human.  As in starting on the stomach, progressing up the chest, front paws either on the chin or around the neck and purring nose about 5-6" from your face.  It wants to make sure you FEEL the LOVE.   I’d feel it better if I got some more shut eye.  LOL.  

Maybe one more long walk and the rest of the time will be 1 hour walks aiming more for speed than anything else so that I get more used to walking fast.

Relaxing … but not really inactive.  While I didn’t do any training for racewalking I was running around a lot and got some 3 hours of hiking in the desert into Tuesday’s activities … with 20 lbs of a backpack with camera gear strapped to my back.  Wed. I got to meet Ian (secondfocus) as he noted in his bodyblog.  What he failed to mentioned was that two camera geeks (well, at least me!) with cameras sitting outside a coffee place means everything going by was photographed for comparisons, analysis, etc. LOL.    I sure learned a lot!  And, assuming I don’t mess this up, here’s a non-gym photo of Ian.

Another long session on the treadmill.  It was supposed to snow .. but nada!  Anway, 10 miles today.  about 2:07 to get that done and used up about 1225 calories.  Since you need to replenish your carbs when you finish this off … what better way to do that than head right on down to your local McMenamins have a nice pint of Terminator Stout while waiting for your Grilled Chicken Brewers salad to be prepared.   Hey, It’s my excuse!  LOL   I was reasonably happy with the workout today.  About 6 more weeks until the 1/2 marathon.