Wednesday, September 05, 2007

A nip in the air

When I left the prison last night, the sky was black, the stars were out and there was a definite nip of fall in the air. Today's temperatures will still feel like summer, but relief is on the way. It's September, after all!

I ate a bunch o' crap yesterday; just couldn't seem to stop grazing. I was able to rein it in under the calorie limit, thanks to a "clean" kitchen – for the most part, my pantry and refrigerator are junk-food-free – but my nutrition was way off. Only 13% protein and 50% fat. Not a good combo. And it didn't even taste that great.

When you get into a grazing mood, it really doesn't matter how food tastes, does it? Just so it's food.

Since I'm Garmin-less, I have to rely on my car's odometer to determine my mileage. I've double-checked the flat roads at MapMyRun, and the odometer is correct. But when I used MMR to check the 6.6-mile loop I do on the road on which I live, it came out to 7.3 miles. Can hills make that much difference? I'd love to use the longer distance – that's an instant improvement in my pace! – but I probably should stay with the more conservative number. It took 94 minutes yesterday to do the loop. I ran halfway up most of the hills, all the way up one and flew down all of them.

PQ, if you're lookin' for hills, we've got 'em! I tried to get the elevation of my road, but … dial-up. Need I say more? Or maybe I'm just getting more impatient the older I get. Heh.

I had the Shuffle with me and made a mental note of the songs that got me moving. Keeping in mind that I'm a. Slow and b. Short, you might find some of these tunes worthy of adding to your playlist:
  • Thunder on the Mountain, Bob Dylan
  • Elvis Presley Blues, Jimmy Buffett
  • Run Like Hell, Pink Floyd
  • Pressure, Billy Joel
  • Graceland, Paul Simon
  • Rain, The Cult
  • Real Wild Child, Christopher Otcasek
  • Tell Me What the Papers Say, Elton John
  • You May Be Right, Billy Joel
  • Yours to Keep, Teddybears
  • Running Free, Iron Maiden
  • Run and Run, Psychedelic Furs
  • Run, Run, Run, Velvet Underground
  • Running on Empty, Jackson Browne
and one from my daughter's playlist:
  • Straw Hat and Old Dirty Hank, Barenaked Ladies
Stealing a technique from the Wendy, I leave you with these most appropriate lyrics from Billy Joel's "Pressure":

You have to learn to pace yourself
Pressure
You're just like everybody else
Pressure
You've only had to run so far
So good
But you will come to a place
Where the only thing you feel
Are loaded guns in your face
And you'll have to deal with
Pressure

6 comments:

ws said...

baked cheetos and diet soda = breakfast of champions today. no wonder I've been feeling like ass. Did you really count all those pretzel sticks?

I don't know how you survive Garmin-less. Interestingly, climbing hills is not problematic for me, but descending is awful.

An all male artist playlist, I love it!

Jack Sprat said...

Gosh, I hope MMR is reasonably accurate, since it's what I use to figure out all of my running routes! I have no garmin, and the traffic patterns of the city don't allow me to drive the precise route of my runs.

-J

Grumpy Chair said...

It's funny how one person's "crappiest food day" is another's good day.

M@rla said...

ok that is the worst food day I've ever seen. peanut butter, ice cream, pretzels, hot dogs. oh no wait, I see you ate some carrots! that's ok then.

Mary Gee said...

I couldn't get your food diary to come up, but I can speculate. I actually ate a mcdonald's cheeseburger and fries for lunch today. I was surprised that a bolt of lightening didn't come down and get me for that!

marygrace said...

i came across your blog today from a link on half of me. while i haven't read tons of your blog entries, i did look at your food log. obviously you are trying to lose weight, but have you ever tried eating more? i only suggest this because it seems like you do a lot of physical activity (i saw on one of your blog entries you run about 25 miles per week). usually, a 140 lb woman who runs that much should be taking in around 2500 calories a day in order to maintain a healthy weight. of course your weight might be different than this, but you still probably have a caloric allowance somewhat or even much larger than what you're currently consuming. i myself run between 25-30 miles each week, and could never imagine trying to subsist on the small amounts of food that you eat.

perhaps you are sending your body into starvation mode? my mother has been trying to lose weight for a couple of months now by "controlling" her portions, but i really think she is actually eating too little, and signalling her body to hold onto the weight. she will usually only eat something like half a sandwich or a cup of soup for a meal. i can't see that amount of food satisfying anyone!

i don't mean to come off as a know-it-all or anything like that, or to act as if i know more about your personal situation than i actually do. these are just the things that came to mind after reading your food log; i hope you don't mind.