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jimsjournal

It's not spring yet -- 02/22/11




It's not spring yet.

This is what I saw when I stepped outside yesterday morning...


Oh, it wasn't that bad, just an inch of snow (and it was light and fluffy not like the 12 to 15 inches that hit Minneapolis and other places out that way) but it certainly made things look as if winter is still here. So... we will have to wait a bit for spring to arrive. Technically spring arrives this year on March 20th..

In the meanwhile, I enjoyed getting out for a run around the neighborhood today.

I'm gradually getting myself back into shape. Today I was able to "run" two and a half miles -- I put the quotation marks there because it was really more like jogging... slow jogging... but definitely faster than walking.

I kind of bloated up in November and December... too much Thanksgiving feasting and too much food of all kinds in December, especially cookies and cakes and pies. I always take the week between Christmas and New Year as vacation time and I had planned on using that time to get a good workout plan into effect -- and then I had that bug that made me take to bed for a couple of days and left me with a really bad cough. So I came into the new year overweight and out of shape. However, I finally feel as if I am beginning to get back into a routine of working out. Today I warmed up with weights and such in the basement and then headed outside... walked half a mile, then jogged two and a half miles, and then finished off by walking another half a mile. That is close enough to what I would consider a basic workout (a three mile run) that I am pleased.

Tomorrow, I'll do an indoor workout -- leg lifts and rows and such in the basement and then eight to ten miles on the exercise bike. Thursday, another outdoor workout where I plan on running three miles. Friday, indoors. Saturday, another three mile run, etc.

Sunday, March 6th (just a week and a half away) brings Kelley's Pace March Hare Hop 3 mile race (start & finish at the Olde Mistick Village shopping center in Mystic, Connecticut). Jill and I rarely miss this race since we first ran it in 1997. It's been the "first race of the year" since we moved to Rhode Island. (Well, actually, I'm not sure what was our first race of the year in 1996, but since then I think I've only missed it a couple of times -- 2010 being one of those years. I won't even mind that I am going to be very slow this year. As the first race of the year, it is usually the slowest one, so I am used to that... and, besides which, I've gotten to the age where speed doesn't enter all that much into my thoughts. (My personal best for a 5K was run at a 6:59 per mile pace back in the early 1990's and it has been many years since I have been young enough to have a prayer of even being in the neighborhood of that pace... or, for that matter, since I could run even a single mile at that pace.)

I just want to get into shape and stay in shape... and have fun running in races... and not do too badly in comparison to the other runners in my age group.

*sigh*

It can be a problem to look through old running logs... and to see just how much faster I was then... and how many more miles I ran... and then, in entries where I mention my weight. Oh, my goodness, there used to be much less of me then. I just glanced through my 1990 log. I began the year at 180 pounds... and gradually got my weight down to 171 by the end of July. That was when I was training to run not just the 20K race I liked to run in June, but to do a half marathon later in the summer.

Oh, my goodness, I need to lose some weight! (Okay, actually, a whole lot of weight!)





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