Pedometers and daily steps

Have you ever seen a sloth??

Thats me today. Slothful, lazy, defiant, sulky, mean, I will not move today. No valid reason. None.
So no workout. I know, I lost to my inner sloth. But sometimes one has to lose a round to win the game.
But my mind and the fingers seem to be working OK , so I spent the last one hour feeding the inner sloth and another sitting in front of the computer, my eyes glazed, frozen in the neck out, chest in posture which will make my upper back hurt but hey! who cares!

By now everyone interested even remotely in health and fitness has heard about the pedometer and the daily goal of 10,000 steps. I too bought pedometers rangeing from free from McDonalds to $ 4 at Walmart to $ 20 at a sports shop . I dont know how to set the fancy ones, too much math calculation required and so used them the way they came. There were days when I crossed 5000 steps but only if I had been especially active doing a small walk etc. There were days when I would be tired car-pooling the kids to and from soccer practice but the pedometer would read a measly 3-4000.

Ever since I started R/W ing I thought I must be doing OK in that department . Then I read somewhere, either the complete running site or some article , that 3o min of running/walking equals 3000 steps. That means the 45min I TRY to do most days of the week barely equals 4500-5000 steps and the rest of the day must be another 2-3000. So even when I push myself to move, I am not actually doing the 10,000 steps.

That is my conclusion. Now I am going to buy another one of those pedometers and see if I am right about this. If yes, I will have to increase my workout time to atleast 60 min. Beyond that, my family will divorce me!!

And that again underlines the fact that to lose weight and keep it off one has to be active thru out the day . Concentrated bouts of exercise followed by slothful behaviour have no major effect on your weight. I know , I know, your heart and lungs and the diabetes and cholesterol all thankyou for the movement but the numbers around the waist and on the weight machine - those remain the exact same, so there!!

Ok, now I should really log off before I start ranting against I dont know what and I dont know why.

Hope u see me in a better mood tomorow, I should be, tomorrow is official rest day!

XT--Walk

Today walked for the XT session.

This walk is a circle from my sub-division, very beautiful and somewhat difficult to do.
If I go clockwise, there is a short hill,followed by another one which is slightly longer but has a sharper gradient. Then there is maybe half a mile of flat road followed by a gradual incline lasting a mile and it gets steeper in the end. Then the last 1 mile is flat again.

I have noticed that when I do this clockwise I take longer to do it and feel more tired than if I go the anticlockwise way- which is walking a mile on a flat level, 1 mile of going down hill and then 2 short but steeper hills. Maybe its just my imagination , maybe it is something scientific related to muscles and how they trigger off, but I find it interesting and will surely keep a note of it. '

I like doing this walk for XT so each week I will do it in a different direction. Even tho I still take 50-60 min to complete this walk, today it felt easier. Good job!!

Speed session

Did 5mphx1min/3mphx1min and 2 sessions at 5.5mph. 33 min. The 5mph felt comfortable today, the 5.5mph felt as if I would fly off the tmill. And it took me more than a minute to regain my breath, I dont know if that is OK or not, will have to read up on it.

I do hope these speed sessions are helping me in some way, I dont get any extra soreness after these, and I feel good after.

Weight is still a problem, more than weight its the eating- too much indiscriminate eating going on at the present time. Stress?Laziness?

Speaking of laziness- you know the naturally slim people are also very active! Ok, duh!!
What I mean is that even tho I do atleast 30 min of exercise most days of the week , I am prone to sit on the couch/in my office chair the rest of the time. For e.g., I clean my house in 3 hours and spend the rest of the time watching TV which is the same as stuffing myself. Whereas a slimmer lady wuld take 6 hours to clean the same house and therefore be moving for those 6 hours, even if slowly.
If you observe me, I like to finish my chores faster and use the rest of the time to read. A slimmer lady would just keep on with her chores and complain about having no time to read, but she would have the pleasure of being her high -school weight.
So much for being efficient!!

Difficult day-junk miles?

Started off in the evening, on the tmill, with a nice program on the DVR, was feeling pretty good and actually was trying to increase my speed tp 4.4 instead of the 4.2mph. Stopped at the 20 min point to take in a sip of water and after that just could not run.

I have noticed this even during our long runs. I will be OK for the first couple of miles after the warmup mile and then as soon as I take in the water of gatorade, it is very difficult to get back into the rhythm again. Wonder what causes this?

Anyway finished the rest of the workout walking, didnt feel like it, only so can count it towards the 20/30 workouts I have to do each month. So this is what 'junk miles' means- a workout with no goal.

Lets see how I fare tomorrow. I get worried nowadays that I am not pushing myself enough. I read the blogs and everyone seems to be ending their workouts with soreness and pain- me, I am OK after the cooldown.

XT- walk

Today is XT day.
I had planned to walk in the evening but some friends called to say they would visit this evening, so plan changed to morning.
I love to sleep in the morning hours- as soon as it gets warmer in the summer, my sleep patterns change. I sleep early at around 9.30 pm, wake up at 2AM because am so hot and then get the best deep sleep in the early hours from 4AM till 6/7 AM.
GB also decided to walk with me, tho I think she wanted to run, but I am going exactly by the marathon training schedule, today is XT on that, so I am not going to push myself to run. So far have had no major physical setbacks and I hope that continues.
Started at 5.25 AM, nice cool breeze, finished at 6.35 AM, sun was out, but we were walking on a nice shady path so it didnt trouble us too much. I like this area of our town, we had done our first 6 mile run here, long back, and GB and I were recalling that day- we were so tired by the end of it!! We were dragging our feet, I was worried about a lack of restrooms, 6 miles now is childs play.
Next weekend LSD is 7 miles and we will do it again on this side.
So done for the day, might do some weights and stretches later on- actually have to, so will find some time for that.

LSD 6Miles

Today started out at 5.40 AM to beat the morning sun but even then part of the run was facing it.
Woke up GB at 5 AM, reached her house at 5.20. Started with walking for atleast 10min , then ran for a total of 2 miles, finished the first 2 miles in 26 min, then took a 5 min walking break to drink some Gatorade and that I think broke the rhythm, we just couldnot get into the previous running mode. Anyway, pushed ourselves for another mile or so, the sun shining bright on our capless heads and into our sunglasses deprived eyes, so that I was running almost with my eyes closed.
Then we came to a part shaded by trees, but that was a hill, so walked up that. On a side note, the maximum elevation at the San Francisco marathon is 375 m and this hill is almost that. But This one is short, maybe 0.4mile whereas the one in the marathon is longer. Anyway it was good practice, and I think we will incorporate this hill into most of our LSD.
After the hill, we got into sync, so that for almost another mile we were running in tandem- the way GB wants us to run, but we dont because one of us is either behind or in the front. I think we walked the last 0.3-4 mile and finished in 1hr35 min.
GB measured the route later and got 5.9miles, I did it and got 6.1 miles, so we averaged out at 6miles. So we are still doing a pace of 4mph, I dont think we are running slow, its the walk breaks , we just walk too slow. I saw a lady this morning on my way to GB's house who was powerwalking , thats the way I want to be able to walk.
I am satisfied with my run today, told GB that at 6 miles into our half-M, we had already started feeling the distance, and were tired. Today, I felt fresh even after finishing the session. I think the earlier start also helped, we were home at 7 AM, I have the whole day to do as I please. I did sleep for an hour, woke up with some stiffness in the knees which got better after icing.

Next LSD at 5 AM.

Overall mood-Satisfied
(copied from http://partystefanie.livejournal.com, she started running in March 2007, is an inspiration, has a cute frog at the end of her post which tells the mood of the day, I like her blog.

Regular run

Walked 3.7m, including 1 small hill in 60 min +2o min of weights and ab exercises.Yesterday.

2.4m in 46 min, 4.2mph/3mph, 1 min intervals. Today.

Its getting hot, not warm, hot!. Today is 100 degrees and it was bad running on the tmill at home. I had the windows open, we dont start the AC till we start wilting in the heat- cheap and global warming prevention together.
So there I was slogging on the tmill, dripping sweat- sorry, I know, I was past the stage of glowing and perspiring. My kids were in the room with me, watching Zoey101,which I think should be banned, but thats a different story.
So there I am , hot and irritated, and doing the last min of 4.2 mph, when my 6yo calls me - doesnt tell me why, just calls me-mama? And I, without knowing anything just started out yelling- let me finish..., why do you have to call me at the end of the workout?..., why not before or after...?? Just the fact I could yell at that level tells me I had a lot of energy still in me.
My 13yo ran down to see what it was and after I am done in the next 2 min, she tells me it was the neighbour .
I was mortified!!.
They have kids too, so I am hoping they will not think too badly about me. Even if they do, what can I do to change their perception? Sorry, dont cross my path when I am pushing myself on the tmill.

The heat has its own challenges, I have to drink water more often. I have to try and finish the workout in the AM- if you read my posts you'll see thats been a goal since the beginning. I will do it one day.