Scale tale

Not mine, though. Jonathan wrote yesterday that determining someone else's goal weight is "a subject I am completely unable to speak intelligently about."

Jonathan, you may not be able to speak intelligently about that – it is, after all, a very personal subject, and probably best left to health care professionals. But you certainly can speak intelligently about the factors each individual needs to consider before determining the magic number.

The rest of his post yesterday says so much, so well. Rather than quote it all here, if you haven't already read it, I hope you will.

I can't even choose one or two lines to discuss here, because the entire post really sums up so much of how I feel about the scale. So go read it, already. What are you waiting for?

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Jeannie asked in yesterday's comments if I keep the treadmill flat when I run on it. I set the incline at 2.5 or 3, usually, which increases the calorie burn rather dramatically. I figure I get enough hill work when I'm able to be outside that I don't need to add it when I have to stay indoors. If it was my only option, though, I'd use a hill program on a regular basis. She says she's doing the half-marathon training, but doesn't mention whether she's doing a race or not. Jeannie? Which finish line should we line up at to cheer you on?

•••

I guess most home-use treadmills stop at 99 minutes … which makes sense. They'd have to include a more complicated digital monitor to make it three digits, wouldn't they?

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Lori, when and where is your marathon?

•••

Peyton, when and where is your next game? Oh ... Miami ... in two weeks. Now I remember! [And wasn't it funny that Tony Dungy thought they might as well play Chicago in Ft. Wayne? Heh.]

•••

I may have said this last year, because I say it every winter: There are some muscles one uses only for certain tasks, like, say, shoveling snow. Yesterday was a rest or cross-training day, according to the schedule. [I've settled on the Smart Coach plan, by the way.] So I shoveled snow in the morning, salted our 100-foot-long driveway and scraped ice in the afternoon. A couple of times.

I remember how very sore I was last year the first time I shoveled snow. I feel ever so much more fit for the task this year. Mr. Shrinking Knitter didn't even warn me that shoveling wet snow is dangerous, as he has done for the past several years.

It's a good kind of soreness I'm feeling this morning. Tangible proof that what I'm doing is good for me, no matter what the scale says.

Ninety-six days until race day.