end of a snowy week

Hitting the road today was not as easy as I thought it would be. Afterall there was a new 3" of snow on the ground and it was still snowing, lightly! But while checking in on Facebook (as I do most mornings) one of the other women meeting me for mileage IM'd and said "I'll see you at 8:30." And there it was - commitment. Staring me in the face. The night before I had invited her to come meet up at 8:30 and now, despite the momentary "go-back-to-bed" syndrome trying to sink in, I had to commit! "Yes, I guess I need to go brush off the car." I IM'd back. "Oh, we're you thinking of not going?" she countered. "Only momentarily," I replied. "I'll see you at 8:30," I confirmed. And so there it was. Time to get dressed (thank goodness for clear gear!) and I had already eaten my oatmeal (breakfast of champions in my book). The question was "How to layer?" for the weather. And don't forget the Yak Trax! So there I was getting all prepared inside and when I looked out the window and realized my sweetie of a husband had already cleaned off my car and scooped the driveway! No stopping me now! And he even brought in my snowboots which I had inadvertantly left in the car overnight! What a guy! He is my champion. My number one "cheerleader". Making it possible for me to go 2, 3 and 4 times a week for mile upon mile. And don't you worry - he's been thanked! But just in case he ever reads this - thanks honey!! So I got in 3 on Thurs. and 3 more on Fri. and 4 today! Ah ha - 10 miles so far this week ... and a possible 6 tomorrow. The coming week should put me back on my training schedule for the Half-marathon (on April 11th!!) - only 6 weeks away!

checking in during school vacation

I have been racking up the miles during my school vacation ... mostly by traveling. Drive to Albany. Train to NYC and back. Drive back from Albany. Then drive to Geneva, NY. Another drive to Rochester, NY. And back to geneva. Tomorrow I drive back from Geneva. So all in all, about 1000 miles by means other than "by foot".

Now you may be wondering, just how many "by foot" miles have I logged this week. Well, I'll start by saying that after being on the train for over 2 1/2 hours Monday I was ready for an afternoon walk! So with the cooperation of the weather in the Big Apple I walked about a mile before having the opportunity to indulge in a specialty order of Chocolate Chunk and Raspberry Pancakes at the Clinton Baking Co! Another mile+ after dinner was very helpful for settling that very satisfied feeling of eating an amazing dinner - even if it was pancakes!

Tuesday morning I started right off by getting in 3 miles (my standard mileage) in the early stages of a light snow! Now, keeping a steady pace during the morning rush hour of bodies headed to work is no easy task ... especially in a light snowfall. Thank goodness I was not worried about looking fashionable at 8:00 AM! I was able to pop in to Crumbs for a pickup of muffins, croissant and classic cupcakes.

Following this outing I logged another mile or so of leisurely walking in the snow doing errands and such with my girls and then we headed uptown for a wonderful lunch at Sarabeth's ( a favorite of ours!) I had a wonderful cheddar burger that came with guacamole. Yum! Then a short walk to the Cooper Hewitt Museum for a small exhibit of Rodarte clothing and then over to Central Park. For those of you who don't know the Cooper Hewitt is located at 91st str. and 5th Ave. right near the entrance to Central Park at the reservoir. So off we went, southbound! Taking pictures and people watching took us 20 blocks south to the Alice in Wonderland statue at the Boat Pond. Here we exited the park and walked down 5th Avenue to Rockefeller Center and then over to Crumbs (yes, again!). And then we walked down to my daughter's apt. at 20th bet. 7th/8th Aves. Well, you do the math. 20 city blocks to the mile! and the east-west clocks are twice as long as a north-south block. Every foot matters (well, to me!) Once back at the apt. it was time to crash and eat pasta! One more evening walk about capped the day! I figured about 6.5 miles total.

Wednesday started with about a mile and a quick lunch at a favorite in my daughter's Chelsea neighborhood, Elmo. A delicious and light chicken breast sandwich curbed the appetite for anything more. Then off for another casual stroll which lasted an hour and a half and covered a couple more miles. During the outing I was in the Times Sq. area, 44th and Broadway, and actually bumped into a fellow townsperson - who said, "I never bump into people." And I replied, "Actually, this happens to me a lot!" Once my daughter's class was over we met up at 38th and 7th and chose a dining spot over on the East side (60th and bet. 3rd & 2nd), Serendipity, known for Frozen Hot Chocolate. My city daughter has been there before with me, but my VT daughter had not had the pleasure yet. So off we went. And despite an almost hour wait (well worth it!) we were seated upstairs and the girls shared a Mint Frozen Hot Chocolate. Okay - I had a couple of spoonfuls! Mostly I enjoyed a footlong hotdog!

And what does one do after dinner? Why walk more of course! Back over to 5th Avenue to see Bergdorf's windows and on down, again, to 20th and 7th o the apt. So - another 6 miles for the day.

Are you keeping track? Well, I am figuring for the NYC trip somewhere close to 16 miles total. Not too shabby.

Did I mention I also did Week 6, Day 1 pushups? Well, I did!

Thursday there was the travel back to VT - lots of sitting in a train and a car. And guess what? That was fine by me! A day off is good!

Friday brought the drive to Geneva. Reunion with my sister and brother-in-law... and pizza! After hours of conversation and a shared viewing of The Patriot (Mel Gibson and Heath Ledger!) I decided to just see how my consecutive pushup level was coming along and the answer was 60 modifieds! Pleased by this, I went to bed with a clear conscience having not walked measurable mileage either Thursday or Friday.

Welcome to Saturday. Off to the University of Rochester campus to pick up my niece and we roamed about "tour-style") for close to an hour. Then off to the local mall - Eastview. Now maling is stop & start walking, but we were at it for 3 hours! Gotta be some mileage in that. And yes, there was lunch at Johnny Rockets (a burger again!) but I skipped a shake ... and I shared french fries!

And that brings me to the here and now. The smell of roast beef cooking (thanks to my sister and brother-in-law) as well as Yorkshire Pudding. And let's not forget the red wine!

Sunday will bring 4 plus hours of driving ... but my sister has mentioned we can go walking at the indoor track in the morning!

Hmmm ... What to do? What to do ? Stay tuned.

pacing myself

Very excited to report that I eked out my Week 5, Day 2 Column 2 pushups this morning ... 160 over almost 8 minutes (that includes the short rests between sets). And I have to tell you that my arms were vibrating by the time I finished! Not quite sure what to make of that. But I am encouraged that I got through it!
As the day wore on it became clear to me that I was NOT going to take part in the evening training walk/run.
In short I opted for casual faculty volleyball... 2 on 2 for 45 minutes! Fun and actually a nice workout.
So what did I do instead of walking my 3 miles and dong hill work? I visited a very close friend and had half a turkey sub, some cheese bread and a small slice of calzone ... and a Blue Moon (albeit without the orange slice!).
So I am counting this as a cross-training day and I will get back to chasing down 100 miles tomorrow.

Mileage home stretch ... and about those pushups?

Entering this week I have completed 85 miles, so I should hit 100 sometime this week! Yea! This is definitely the easy part of the whole mileage, pushup challenge. Since I am training for a half-marathon I am racking up between 12-20 miles a week. This coming week for example: three outings of 3-4 miles each and then the endurance day of 9 miles.
Turns out there is a Valentine's Day 4-mile race nearby, so several of us are going to take part in that, and then do a one-mile warm-up, leaving the remaining 4 miles for after the race. We are told there will be post-race Valentine's Day cookies .... which we can take with us for after the additional mileage!
Now about those pushups! Week 4 was hard. Yes, I admit it! And frankly, I never liked doing pushups! But I am not a quitter. I feel like I gave Week 4 an honest effort and although I did not meet the minimum repetitions of Set 5 each day, I went ahead and did an exhaustion tes to see where I am at overall.
So I did 36 consecutive modified pushups which puts me in the middle column going into Week 5. This means my repetitions are a little less demanding which is so okay by me!
Today was Day 1 of Week 5. And honestly, my workout was somewhere between Column 1 and Column 2. But that being said, I am still doing some 100-plus pushups overall in a 7 minute workout period, with rests of about 60-90 seconds in between the sets of 20-25 each. So that is something. Well, it is to me! The Week 5 workout changes on Day 2 to less repetitions per set but the number of sets goes up to 8.
This sounds better to me, but we'll find out when I get down to it.

Am I hitting a pushup wall?

I had already planned not to go on the training group's night walk this evening as a bit of a cold-like feeling has been developing. I decided to just stay at the gym and wait for the toning and stretching part of the evening. So I got to read for a while. Then I tried doing my Week 4, Day 1 pushup routine (a repeat as I "failed" to complete the 5th set, of at least 32, the 1st time I tried on Monday).
I managed the 1st thru 4th sets okay ... doing 21, 25, 21 and 21. But then once again I did not have enough "in the tank" to pull off anywhere close to 32! Ugh.
I will accomplish this week's goals ... but man, this is hard! I knew I needed better upper body strength!

motivation

I continue to think 100 miles is easy. I have walked 71 miles so far since January 10th and the cut off for the 100 mile challenge is March 13th. So no worries there.
The 100 consecutive pushups part of the challenge is a whole other story.
But here's what I am finding out: by talking about the challenge here, online, or with others face-to-face, it keeps the challenge real.
And that is my motivation. It is real and I am accountable to myself!
Today was a tough pushup day. Week 4, Day 1.
And to tell you the truth I actually had a "low motivation" day today.
My 3-mile walk has become a "maintenance" level distance now, so it was more walk and talk with two ladies and then- Coffee!!
But back to the pushups ... the first 4 sets I did were okay, but the last set was killer and I , gasp!, quit at a half-way point in this final set.
This evening a Facebook friend looked to me for exercise motivation and my reply was this, "sometimes the body tells you, 'slow down... take a day off!' (it was telling me that wasn't it Patty?) and when that happens you need to look ahead and rebound the next day.
So tonight I am saying, "Here's looking ahead to Wednesday!!!"