It's a Beautiful Day in our Neighborhood!

Today was a beautiful day in Boise. Temperatures were in the mid-70's. As usual we got a bit of a late start, which works perfectly for me because I'm a night owl by nature! It was a running around day for me.

I heard a sound on my back passenger side tire last time I took the car out that sounded like I had studded tires on! I was concerned that I'd run over a big nail or something that was stuck in the tire and if I didn't take care of it, when I started my freeway drive back home it might cause the tire to blow. So I was going to head to the Firestone dealer, but I decided to check one more time this morning to see if I could find the source of the noise. Sure enough in the light of day without rain, I found a large rock lodged in between the tire treads. Thankfully there was no damage to the tire, so I pulled it out and went on my way.

First on the agenda was to get a Tdap immunization. There's been an outbreak of whooping cough in Washington. It's at epidemic proportions, and is the worst they've seen since the 1940's. I felt that it was important to get immunized since we have baby Brooklyn and then baby Vona that we'll be around, and they can't be immunized for it until they're 2 months old. Darvin already got his at work.

Got that taken care of at a RiteAid that has a walk-in clinic in the store. Afterwards I went to a women's running store named SeeJaneRun. Got fitted for a good sports bra and some running shoes as mine are starting to show signs of wear. It was a very comfortable shopping experience. The ladies were all very nice and they had me walk barefoot and then run on the treadmill to check my gait. My feet overpronate, most notably on the left foot. Apparently since I had the broken big toe on this foot I might subconsciously try to compensate for it. It tends to have pain where the phalange meets the metatarsal bone. The shoes I chose are Brooks (same brand as last pair). They give me plenty of room across the toes and they're nice and lightweight with plenty of support. I bought the Adrenaline GTS 12 in size 8.5 medium width (B) (that's so I have a record for next time I purchase some!). I'm looking forward to putting 3-400 miles on these babies! I'd told the ladies I am just finishing my c25k training program and then will begin training for a half marathon for September. They told me next time I'm in Boise to check back in and give them a 'report'!

I went looking for capris or burmuda short at Old Navy, but didn't find any that looked decent on me. Went next door to Nordstrom Rack in search of sunglasses. I've lost mine in a box somewhere at home and I realized that on my return trip home on Monday I'll probably be heading into the sun for a few hours, so thought I'd better go ahead and get a new pair. Found a decent pair with a hard case (I'm hard on sunglasses if they don't have a hard case for protection). Also found another sports bra. So no excuses for not getting out there and doing that exercise 6 days a week!

I came back to Lindsey and Thomas's, cooked some dinner and then went out on my 45 minute bike ride. It was a nice ride. Took the greenbelt up to BSU to where they've blocked off the greenbelt, then on the way back detoured over the bridge to the zoo and park and headed for home. Worked up a sweat and got a sore butt, and it felt good!

Getting Healthy Challenge

It's been a little over a week since I started the "Getting Healthy Challenge". Marci Fillmore in our ward had participated in the program with her sisters and sent out an email wondering if any of the women in the ward wanted to start a 'round'. We've been split up into teams and our program lasts 7 weeks. We receive points each day for the following categories:

2 pts: Contact with Teammate
5 pts: 64 oz Water
5 pts: Stop eating before 8:30 pm
5 pts: 5 fruits and vegetable Servings (1/2 cup per serving)
5 pts: No Sweets/Sugary Treats - Bonus 20 points if you go 6 days without
5 pts: 30 min. exercise OR 7 pts: 45 min. exercise (6 days)
5 pts: Healthy snacking (up to 2 snacks a day: morning and afternoon, healthy, at least 2 hours before meal)
3 pts: Not over eating all day (eat until you are 80-90% full)
3 pts: At least 7 hours of sleep from the night previous
2 pts: Flossing once a day
5 pts: Scripture reading (at least 15 min.)
5 pts: Journal
6 pts: Prayers (3 for morning, 3 for evening)

After the 1st week there is a rotating 'area of focus' that's worth double points. For this 2nd week (which started on Monday) we receive 10 pts for exercising 30 minutes or 14 pts for exercising 45 minutes. I am so excited about this program because it's helping me improve in areas of my life that should be high priorities but sometimes get shoved to the 'if I have time' category.

I'm proud of myself because the challenge started at a difficult time for me. We only received a couple of days notice that it would start on Memorial Day which was 2 days after Brooklyn was born. And of course I'm not at home. I could have made excuses about why I couldn't do it, but I just decided that it was too important not to start and give it 100%. Lindsey and Thomas have been very supportive while I've been here in Boise. Thomas was my exercise partner last week which gave me a great start.

We just got an email with our weekly totals. Although our team "Mission Slim-Possible" didn't do particularly well as a whole, two of the members of our team made the top two for points, me and Dadra Clement (go Clement women!!)! Both of us got 100% on our points plus lost weight. Dadra had 432 points and I had the top spot with 438 points because I lost 7 pounds. I know much of that may be water weight lost, but I'll take it! I also know that the weight loss from here on out will be much slower, but that's all right too. I'm trying to eat healthy, sensible portions and with the exercise each day I'm sure slowly but surely the weight will come off.

Being the oldest member of my team it's kind of thrilling to be setting the bar high for the rest of the ladies. I realize that their lives may be more complicated on a regular day to day basis (with young families), but this first week, my life was pretty complicated too. So, I'm just going to be prideful and bask in the limelight for a second here!

I'm still in the process of my Couch to 5k training program. These past weeks I'd been walking and running about 30-35 minutes three times a week, but with the Getting Healthy Challenge, I've increased my daily exercise time to 45 minutes six days a week. With the sidetracks I had coming to Boise for Brooklyn's birth it's taking me a little longer than the cookie cutter program, but I can't beat myself up too much about it. After all, 8 weeks ago I could barely alternate jogging 60 seconds and running 90 seconds for a total of 20 minutes. Now I'm running (at a snail's pace mind you, but still running) 28 minutes in a row. That's certainly progress and I will persevere! After I 'graduate' from the c25k program I'll have a couple of weeks that I'll work on increasing my distance and then I'll begin my 10 week half marathon training.

I still can't imagine running for a total of 13.1 miles. I'm committed to running the Indian Summer half marathon in tri-cities toward the end of September. I have two goals: finish the race and don't finish last! If I have to jog/walk then so be it, but I WILL finish!

I don't want to end up being one of those sedentary old people taking handfuls of medication and watching life pass them by. And "If it is to be, it's up to ME!" So, I'm going for it!

Happy Day!

Today started out like any other Saturday. We'd invited some friends the Seger's over for dinner. So most of the day was spent cooking and cleaning. Darvin bar-b-cued some spicy chicken basil & tomato dogs and chicken skewers, I'd made some marinated vegetables skewers that we bar-b-cued as well. We had homemade potato salad and Darvin cooked some biscuits in his grandpa's biscuit dutch oven. They were cooked to PERFECTION! We had corn on the cob and strawberries, watermelon and black cherry ice cream for dessert.

Unfortunately I've been one day behind schedule with my running training program all week since I was too tired on Monday. So that meant I HAD to get my run in today. It was the 1st workout of week 7 on the couch to 5k training program. This is a 5 minute warmup and then 25 minutes of continuous running. Well I didn't get the run in this morning, so I knew I had to get it done tonight. Seger's stayed pretty late and then after cleaning up and putting away I needed to add some music to my MP3 player to keep me going on these longer runs. Darvin got some of his CD's out and tried to download music to the computer and then my MP3 player for me. He was getting frustrated, so I finally tried my hand at it. After some trial and error I got it figured out and had downloaded quite a few songs. I was getting ready to remove the MP3 player from the computer and knocked it slightly with my hand and the MP3 player fell apart! After some finagling I was able to get it back together and as long as it's plugged into the battery section of the player it shouldn't fall apart. I'm strongly considering getting the super glue out to try for a permanent fix.

So...after all this we were working on getting out the door right around 10 p.m. Thankfully Darvin has a head lamp that I can borrow when I go out at night and Abby likes to run day or night. I was a little worried that she'd be too tired tonight since she'd played so hard while Seger's were here. But there was no need to fear, she's always up for a run! I was determined to get this done! And I was also determined to beat my previous best which was running continuously for 15 1/2 minutes.

I decided that I'd run at the high school track. At night I prefer to stay off the county roads, it just seems too dangerous to be on them as a pedestrian in the dark. We did our 5 minute warmup which usually takes us from our house to the street light on the corner of Zier and 96th Avenue. Then started the running. I decided that I'd run for 5 songs without looking at my watch to see how much time I had left. We got to the track and around and around we went...Part way into it I decided that it would be all right to look at my watch after 4 songs. Well when the 4th song was over I realized that we hadn't gone around the track enough times to be close to the 25 minutes so I decided to wait until we'd gone around the track at least 2 more times or when the 5th song was finished. My watch is a Garmin Forerunner 405 and it beeps at me when I finish an interval in the workout. Unfortunately when I have my headset on to listen to music I can't always hear the watch beeping at me. I don't like to look at it too often or I tend to get discouraged and think I can't complete the workout. So, pathetic! But it is my true story!!

Anyway, I held out and when I looked at the watch I had 2 minutes and 40 or 50 odd seconds left. When I saw that, I decided I COULD finish the workout without walking. I actually wasn't sure how long the run was because I didn't double check it ahead of time. That was probably a good thing because I probably would have been psyching myself out convincing myself that I couldn't run a continuous 25 minutes. Anyway, I am so happy that I went the whole 25 minutes without walking at all! I ran a full 2.01 miles and had an average pace of 12:26. I came home sweating like a pig-a first for me on my runs. I am tired, but not exhausted, I feel like I CAN be ready for a 5k race in a couple of weeks AND it IS possible for me to keep training and be able to run a 1/2 marathon in September.

Oh, HAPPY DAY!

C2 WHAT...???

I must be having a mid-life crisis finally...or something! Somehow I got the hair-brained idea that it would be a good idea to run a 1/2 marathon, yeah, me the aging non-runner! Speaking of hair-brained, that's kind of where the story turns!

As mentioned, I have never been a runner, never even really entertained the thought of becoming one. Yes, I did sort of train to 'run' the Wenatchee 5k a few years ago, but I really didn't believe that I'd run it, just that I could give it my really best 'speed walk' effort. I was, after all, raised by Mr. Speed Walker himself, Jerry Larkin.

When I was a kid if you wanted to go anywhere with Dad, you darn well better have your tennis shoes on because there was no 'lolly gagging' around. No sir-eee, WE went places with a PURPOSE! Anyway, that was pretty much the extent of my life long training except when I was getting ready for the Wenatchee race and did some speed walking with a tiny smattering of jogging...UNTIL I went to my hair dresser this spring.

So...I go to Danna just to get a haircut mind you and the darn girl inspires me to add a 1/2 marathon to my bucket list! You see, Danna has never been a runner either, but in 4 months she prepared herself to run a 1/2 marathon. Now keep in mind, my hair dresser is a friend of my daughter Lindsey. They are in their 20s for pete's sake not approaching 50! So in my warped aging mind I figure, well Denise if Danna can prepare in 4 months and you're older than she is, you should give yourself a little extra time. So, in a moment of generosity I decide that 6 months is plenty of time for a 49 year old total couch potato to prepare.

I still don't understand what came over me! But, I'm happy to report that I started the runners journey on April 7th with the Couch to 5k program (aka c25k). This is my first baby step to preparing for a 1/2 marathon, because it's really hard to run 13.1 miles if you can't even run from the front yard to the back! I'm determined to achieve my goal and have made sure that even when I have sick days I do makeup work so I stay on track. I committed (paid my entrance fee) to run a 5k in the Free Wheeling Run in Eagle, ID on June 9th when I'll be in Boise for Lindsey's baby Brooklyn's birth. My final c25k training day is on Wednesday the 6th and then race day on Saturday!

I have my eye on the Indian Summer Run in Tri-Cities at the end of September for my 1/2 marathon (registration doesn't open until June). That would keep me within my 6 month goal and would have me running a 1/2 marathon a few weeks before my 50th birthday. That'd be a pretty good way to celebrate a milestone birthday, don't you think?

My oh my!!