jump to navigation

PANIC!!! September 21, 2007

Posted by kimayars Las Vegas Half Marathon, Ramblings Digg! this story! Digg! this story. , 3comments

Jeff just made our flight reservations for Las Vegas for the LVHM.  ERCK!  I’m so gonna die…

Reflections on a lifestyle change… September 21, 2007

Posted by kimayars Diet, Ramblings Digg! this story! Digg! this story. , 5comments

I’m 4 1/2 weeks into my diet lifestyle change, and found myself thinking about it a lot today.  It all started when I wondered what I had for lunch yesterday. I am VERY food centric.  Love food. Love to eat.  If it’s chocolate, deep fried, and covered in salt I’ll be the first in line to try it.  But I couldn’t remember.  I know I wouldn’t have skipped lunch. I would never do THAT.  Not me. Ever. Even if I did skip lunch, I would have made up for it with some sinful snack that afternoon (probably a masterful creation by Starbucks). But I didn’t.  Hmmm… It was a mystery.

 A little over 4 weeks ago I bought the book “You on a Diet” by Drs. Mehmet Oz and Michael Roizen.  They advocate eating smarter.  Use what science knows to work in your favor.  Eat whole grains. Avoid high-fructose corn syrup. Remove “hydrogenated-X” from your menu. 

The first week was brutal.  I was hungry, cranky, and unsatisfied.  The book said to stick with it.  Let your body adjust. So I did. There was just a lot of grumbling involved.

For week two I found I had a rhythm.  I followed their advice on picking your hardest meal and eating the same thing for that meal every day.  For me, lunch is the worst, mostly because I tend to skip it and then it’s a slow slide into disaster for the rest of the day.  I found some soups I liked, and had soup and a salad for the entire week.  Week 2 was proving to be easier.  Cravings were subsiding.

Week three was the real test.  This week was the week before “THE WEEK” (and girls, you know what that is).  It’s a wonderful time of bloating, cramping, and “give me chocolate or die”.  But I must say overall I felt better than I have before.  I was beginning to think that I’m moving in the right direction.

Last week (week four) I went out for dinner with my friend Sherene.  I knew I wanted to have a great time with food and drink, and I did. I ate a lot, drank a lot (argh, the hangover) and enjoyed 5 hours of wonderful company.  But it wasn’t so bad to go back to “the plan”.  I was actually starting to be optimistic.

So that brings us to the mystery of yesterday’s lunch.  I eventually did remember: I had pizza during a lunch meeting.  But it was only half a piece with some salad.  I ate like a skinny person, and didn’t even give it a second thought.  Hallelujah! This actually works.

I’ve had to go back to the basics a few times, but each time it gets easier to stay on track. It’s sounds silly, but when I make a mistake I actually tell myself: “Make an authorized YOU-turn”.  (If you read the book you’ll get that.) It gives me permission to stop, regroup, and make a better decision.  I’m listening to my body more (am I really hungry?) and overall feel so much better.  So far, this is a good thing.

Tomorrow is my 5K  fun run.  I found myself wishing I had registered for the 8K.  Maybe I’ll ask if I can switch…  (I must be nuts.)

This Little Light of Mine September 20, 2007

Posted by kimayars Run Digg! this story! Digg! this story. , 1 comment so far

I SOOO did not want to run today.  I woke up about 2am this morning unable to sleep.  About 2:30 I realized I had a leg cramp, so I got up and took some Advil and had a glass of water. The last time I looked at the clock was 3am, and the next thing I knew was that my alarm went off.

Beth suggested we just get warmed up and then see where we wanted to go.  She had a great suggestion because by the time we had to make a decision about where to go I was feeling much better.  We did a flat 4 miles today, and threw in a loop around our Factory Outlet Mall (we have a Coach store now!) so we wouldn’t have to address the “Hill to Hemlock”.

I was most impressed with our pace.  Our average pace was 11:08 due to waiting for lights to change, but when I look back at the history data, we had a few intervals at 8:50 and 9:00 miles.

I wore my little headlamp today which really helped us not kill ourselves on curbs, rocks, branches, trash, vermin… I felt like a beacon in the early morning hours, lighting our path.  At one point I was wondering if Lewis and Clark felt the same way when exploring the West.  Every turn seemed to light up something new, and the run just didn’t look the same as in daylight hours. Then I remembered they didn’t have batteries.  Or LEDs. So no, probably wasn’t the same. (Man, do I need some sleep.)  The lamp was significantly dimmer by the time we got back so the return trip was a tad more treacherous.  I need to remember to get a battery today for next week.

Workout:

Of Half-Halts and Short Stirrups… September 19, 2007

Posted by kimayars Blogroll, Ramblings Digg! this story! Digg! this story. , 2comments

I’ve been asked by a few people what half-halts are and why has my ego taken a beating when I need to shorten my stirrups.  Here’s my best attempt at both.  I’ll start with the half-halt…

Half-halts are pretty accurately described on Wikipedia.  It’s basically an application of “whoa” and “go” to rebalance the horse.  If your horse isn’t listening to your aids, and you don’t have a “whoa” or a “go” then you can’t apply a half-halt.  Your aid set can be lateral (inside-to-inside or outside-to-outside), longitudinal (front-to-back or back-to-front), or diagonal (inside-to-outside or outside-to-inside).  They vary in intensity and frequency depending on what the horse is doing and what you want them to do.  In my exercises on Monday, I was applying half-halts about every 3-4 strides. Somedays you need more, some days you need less. They take a lot of practice to master, and require a finesse and timing that is a challenge to achieve.

Now for the stirrups…

Suppose you are a cyclist, and have been working toward that amazing aero position where your handebars are quite low.  Now imagine that you think everything is going great, until someone (who you respect and trust) tells you that you’re not quite ready for that, and should raise your handlebars.  You know they’re right, but you think that if you just work on it a little bit more then you can fix those problems and keep them low.  But in the back of your mind, you know you should raise them.  In a way, it’s admitting defeat.

That’s where I am with stirrups.  Handlebars = stirrups.

To be honest, I’m getting used to it.  I still feel like my knees are in my nose, but each ride gets a little more comfortable.  Rasyn had a big shy on Sunday, and because I was more balanced with my stirrups raised, I was able to move with him and not have a visit with the arena floor.  With my stirrups where they were a week ago, there is a good chance I would have gotten behind the motion and he would have left me in the dust (literally).

That’s my best crack. (Well, actually I only have one crack.)  :-)  Feel free to ask questions and I’ll try and answer them.

Tomorrow morning is a run with Beth. This time with a headlamp!

Hello! Here’s your can of whoop-ass… September 17, 2007

Posted by kimayars Uncategorized Digg! this story! Digg! this story. , 6comments

Running 4 miles + 1 hour riding lesson = 1 severely kicked ass

I had my lesson with Rasyn today and to be honest, it was fabulous.  Two weeks ago we were working on just getting on. Today we were working on leg yield on a circle and did some canter work. Every ride gets a little bit better and I couldn’t be happier.  But I’ve got a serious case of hurtin’ going on.

My legs were a little noodly to begin with.  Couple that with the change in position from last Wednesday (shorter stirrups and a bruised ego) and my calves and hamstrings took the brunt of my efforts.  Needless to say I’m a little achy and am looking forward to a hot bath tonight after the kiddos are done.

My lesson was beyond my expectations.  We started off working on transitions, which is what we introduced last week.  Ray come together MUCH quicker this time, so we worked on leg yield on a circle. The goal here is to encourage a true bend in the horse by showing him that I want him to fill up my outside rein.  So, it was about 25 minutes of moving him off my inside leg, half-halting on the outside aids, and maintaining the flexion to the inside.  Think of it as 25 minutes of leg curls and hip adcuctors, all while keeping your heels down, your thighs long, your core firm, your hips relaxed, your hands within six inches of each other, and feeling “supple”.  I be fried.  ;-)

Workout: