One more, one more!

Thanks for sharing your NSVs yesterday. If you weren't here, we were sharing a few Non-Scale Victories – things like collarbones and muscles and such. It's a treat to find them when you haven't noticed them for a while.

The big one I forgot about is one that can't be seen, except as data on a piece of paper, and that's blood chemistry results. For me, it was a cholesterol reading that dropped from 239 [November, 2005] to 169 [October, 2006]. The LDL ["bad" cholesterol] went from 160 to 98.8, and the ratio improved from 5.1 to 3.1.

I give exercise all the credit for those great results, as I've been eating more-or-less healthfully for years. Portion sizes – in other words, calories – count, even when you're eating low-fat food, and that, in addition to exercise, was another of my missing links in weight control.

I don't know what the missing link is this week. I stayed the same, even though at one point during the week I was down two pounds. Up, down, up, down ... I try to tell myself what Jonathan keeps reiterating: The number on the scale is information, not a value judgment.

Average calories consumed daily: 1368
Average calories burned daily: 512

I ran or walked 24 miles last week and spent an hour on the rowing machine.

Enough about that.

Yesterday was like a present from Mother Nature, wrapped in a breeze and embellished with birdsong. The temperature topped out at 47 degrees by mid-afternoon, with thin, high clouds that only added to the glory of the sky. I did my 'easy' four-mile run on the treadmill in the morning, but I just couldn't let the day end without getting outside. I threw on a jacket and headed out at about 2 p.m. and walked for two miles, which took between 35 and 40 minutes. I really wasn't counting. I didn't take the Shuffle and I didn't break into a jog. I was so happy to be outside in the sun.

The breeze was getting breezier by the time I got back to my driveway, and I'd forgotten a hat, so two miles was plenty … a little bit of a spring teaser. I saw a flock of fat robins who all looked perfectly happy to be here. For this Ohio native, robins are the first sign of spring.

I can't wait to get back outside on a regular basis again. Maybe today, although it's supposed to rain. Today is a cross-training day on the half-marathon schedule, and I'd rather walk outside than row inside any time. I'm going to do the YOAD strength workout today, as well. It's a 20-minute routine you can do with resistance bands, with weights or without weights. Since the beauty of it, for me anyway, is that you can do it without weights, that's how I'll tackle it today. If it seems too easy, I can add bands or weights next time.

Sixty-seven days until race day.