Rainy Run Reward

      1 Comment on Rainy Run Reward

I’ll tell you what, at some point, something’s got to give. There is just so much going on in my life, and it’s hard to keep up with everything. But I’m trying! Still, I know I’m getting pretty bad about posting—but a few posts a month is better than none, right?

Here’s a brief summary of what I’ve been up to the last couple weeks:

I mentioned that I’ve been training for the Free Press marathon, and that I’ve also cut way down on my alcohol consumption as a result. I only have wine one night per week, Saturday, because right now Sunday mornings are the only day I’m not getting up and running. That first week that I cut out all alcohol, I unintentionally cut it out for almost two weeks! After five days without drinking, we had Jamie’s hockey team golf outing on that Saturday. I took pictures during the event and just in general helped with the coordination. It was almost an hour’s drive from our house, and since Jason was unable to attend due to a funeral, I of course had to drive myself home. So, no alcohol for me. It was a very long day, and by the time I got home around 9:30, I didn’t want to do anything but sleep. I barely even ate anything before I crashed that night. The next day, it was back to no drinking for 6 days, so a total of 13 days without a drink.  That makes me sound like I have a problem, doesn’t it, lol?  I don’t, I swear! 😉

I weighed myself that Monday (7/16), and discovered that tracking every day and not drinking seemed to help.

I honestly expected more of a weight loss, because I have been running a lot more, and with the lack of alcohol, I’ve been leaving a lot of calories “on the table.” But it’s summer and I find it harder to lose weight in the summer, so I’ll take what I can get.

This past Saturday (7/21), I had 6 miles on the schedule, but I decided I would like to do 8, because my long runs haven’t been very long lately. I just feel like I need to build up more of a base, because the Hanson’s plan gets really intense very quickly after week four. My friends Jennifer and Ann were unable to run, but Toddra was willing to do four with me. I met her at her house, and we went out and did four even though the weather wasn’t great. Bless her heart, she ran 4 miles in the rain, while wearing glasses!

After we got back to her house, I went back out for another four, and by that time, it really started pouring. I do not like running in the rain, but I braved through it. At first, I try to avoid the huge puddles from all the standing water, but eventually I realized that was stupid, since I was already soaked, so I just ran right through them. Every part of me was wet, and my shoes squished with every step.

Thankfully, I had gotten a Ziploc bag from Toddra before I went back out, so at least my phone didn’t get drenched. The rest of me did.

While running through Wyandotte, I passed a familiar house, and I just had to stop and take a picture.

That’s the Wyandotte Historical Museum, located in the MacNichol house, a home built in 1896. The reason it’s significant is because it was the site of my first docent experience when I was all of 16 years old. At the time, I was so excited that I was going to get to talk to people about all the history of the home during the city’s Heritage Days Festival.  They had given me a book to study and of course I read it cover to cover and memorized most of it so I could speak knowledgably without referring to notes.  Unfortunately, when I got there for my assignment, they put me in the basement.  FYI, there is nothing in the basement! (OK, there are couple of displays about Indians and I think there were some displays about the Wyandotte chemical company, but it was nothing compared to being in the parlor or the entry hall or the master bedroom.)  It’s rather funny to think that from my inauspicious beginnings at this museum, I am now not only the cofounder and president of my local historical society, but I live in a home that’s actually four years older than that one. I like to think that I’ve come along way, ha ha!

After I sloshed back to Toddra’s, I invited her to breakfast. Luckily, I had brought a change of clothes (although I forgot extra shoes and socks, duh!). We ended up going to a rather trendy restaurant in Trenton that we often run by on our Saturday morning runs: Promenade. It certainly wasn’t cheap, but it worth the cost.

The raspberry pecan Danish was amazing, and the French press was so good, I had two! Toddra got a bacon tomato quiche and gave me a bite. It was also very good. I took home a blueberry muffin and another piece of the Danish for Jason and the boys, and they all devoured them.

Saturday night, after 13 “dry” days (ha ha!), I finally had some wine. I only had two 4-ounce glasses, but I will say that I definitely felt it. From just 8 ounces! Although I missed my wine during the week a little, I definitely feel better in the mornings when I run without any alcohol in my system. Even after just 8 ounces on Saturday, I woke up with a dry mouth and just need feeling 100%.  But that’s okay, because I didn’t have to run! I sincerely doubt that I will cut out alcohol completely between now and race day, but I think that limiting it is definitely a good thing.

On the bright side, cutting out alcohol means cutting out the calories from alcohol, and that’s at the same time that I am earning a lot of extra calories due to all the intense running required from the Hanson’s method. Last week I ran 29.57 miles. (Had I known I was so close to 30, I would’ve run another half mile on Saturday. 😛 ) Still, that’s the most weekly miles I’ve run since last fall. I did two 5-mile runs last week, plus a couple four-milers and a three-miler, and then the 8-mile run on Saturday. But with all that running, I found that I was so busy and so tired at the end of the day that I wasn’t eating all my calories burned. Here’s a chart showing my calories over (below the line) or under (above the line) my daily goal for the week. I know it’s backwards, but being above the line means I was below my calories for that day.

All the numbers are positive, which means I stayed within my goal—and in most cases, I had a lot of calories leftover! I thought that would translate to a huge loss on Monday, but it did not.

I’ll admit that I was disappointed, but on the other hand, I am well aware that a loss is always better than a gain, especially in the summer, when water retention makes it hard to lose.

There has been a lot more going on, but that’s probably enough for now. I will try to be more regular in my posting. I’ll leave you with some pictures of the sunrises I’ve seen over the last couple of weeks on my morning runs.  I can’t deny that it is hard to get out of bed at 4:30 or 5am, but the views are definitely worth it.

 

Thank you for reading, despite my inconsistency!

 

1 thought on “Rainy Run Reward

  1. Meg B

    Whew. Running in the rain is most impressive!

    I do performances in the theatre right next to he museum! I know that place!

    Good job on the no wine drinking and the good eating and the running. Go runner go!

    Reply

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