Monday, July 7, 2008

The shallow end of the gene pool

Last night I sat down and made out a schedule of when I'm going to do which workout. I haven't been doing enough of any of them, and have been meaning to double up some of them, but just haven't figured out what, when, and how long. Today I walked 5 miles, and tomorrow I will be biking and running.

I subscribe to Runner's World Magazine, which I enjoy, it has lots of great information. But the last couple issues have also had some depressing profiles of runners. They're people who were overweight, but they started walking (and started losing weight), then gradually started running a little (lost more weight), started running longer distances (got down to their goal weight), and ran their first marathon in 3:30 (or less). And it took less than a year for all of this to happen. I walked 6 miles a day, 3 days a week, pushing DD in her jogging stroller, for more than a year, and never lost weight. I added in running several times a week when I was training for the half marathon I did last fall. I still didn't lose anything, and it took me 3 hours to do a half marathon. I took a couple months off because of the move and the weather, but have been walking, running, biking and swimming for about 3 months, and still haven't lost anything! Ok, I am building muscle right now, but that's not the point. And it's not like I'm eating whatever I want, I try to be real careful about what I eat and how much. Not that it seems to make much of a difference. Sometimes it's really depressing coming from the shallow end of the gene pool.

However, I've decided I like the way I feel in my bike shorts. I don't know how I actually look (the mirror is blocked by remodeling stuff right now), but I doubt I look as good as I feel. There's just something about the stretchy fabric that hugs your body and somehow, against all odds, makes you feel thin (well, thinner than your normal clothes make you feel, anyway). Maybe this is why so many larger people wear spandex shorts. Though in my defense, I only wear my bike shorts when exercising, never to the grocery store or the post office. Something to ponder....

Today my dad and I went to Lowe's to get more stuff for the remodels while the 10% military discount was still in effect. We took my car because I thought we wouldn't have any problems fitting everything in (I'm a master packer, and we have hauled all sorts of things, including a monstrous roll of carpet that should not have fit, but did). Unfortunately, the bead board panels were a lot longer than would fit in my car. So we tossed a blanket on the roof and tied the panels to the roof. Some key ideas to keep in mind when tying large sheets of wood to the roof of a vehicle: 1. Make sure you tie all the sides down, so that when you stop they don't slide forward down your hood and onto the street. In my defense, I didn't tie them down, my dad did. He remembered the back, but didn't think about the front. 2. Make sure there is no breeze at all. We went 30 mph the whole way home, and still had problems with the wind picking up the panels. 3. Make sure you have long arms for reaching out the window to hold onto the panels so you know when to slow down even more. I don't have long arms and it was awkward and painful. As I told my dad when we finally made it home: not an adventure I want to repeat.

The bathroom is going way slower than I had hoped, but dad's still not far enough along for me to help move things along. He did get the shower pan and drain in, as well as the backer board on the floor. Hopefully we can get lots done tomorrow, though I think we'll end up spending more time outside than in. My parents ordered a big roll-away dumpster for all the remodeling refuse, and it's being delivered tomorrow. So we'll have to load it up with the pile that's currently behind the house, and then we have to go around the yard and look for anything else that's just sitting around, taking up space, needing to be thrown out.

I did finally make dentist appointments for DD and myself, something I've been meaning to do for the last 3 months. Mine is this week, DD's isn't till August. Most regular dental clinics won't see kids under 4 years old, so I had to call around till I found a pediatric clinic that takes our insurance. It was a pain, as is the fact that the closest one I could find is twice as far away as the clinic I can go to. I guess I'm just peeved because the pediatric dental clinic we took DD to last fall, before we moved, was closer than the clinic I went to, and neither one was very far away.

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