Please shine sun

We had a dark, cold, rainy weekend. I bought new shoes from Payless, browsed at Barnes & Noble, walked up and down Wanamaker (THE shopping street in Topeka) in the mist. I was glad I schlepped an umbrella around because when I got off the bus to walk back to my house it started pouring. I fixed a fresh fruit salad with lots of citrus to brighten the day and then hit the stationary bike for 20 min. I'm working on adding to the time I spend on the bike. I tried to pedal as fast as I could to work up a sweat. I've never been on a spinning bike so I don't have a feel for the cadence.



Sunday it was supposed to rain all day so I had my mind set on the bike again and maybe a yoga DVD but around noon the sidewalks were dry so I walked to and around the Washburn campus and got in a good hour. It felt good. I was dripping even though the temp was only in the 50's. Why don't I feel like I get as good a workout on the bike? I added romaine lettuce and baby spinach to what was left of the fruit salad. At least the food was springy.



I've started investigating a walking/hiking tour in Vermont for the fall of 2011. I found a company in the back of Outside magazine called Backroads that offers walking, hiking, biking, and multisport vacations all over the world. I sent for one of their catalogs and have been dreaming ever since. As soon as they publish the dates for 2011 I'm going to make a reservation and look forward to doing this. Working toward having the fitness to walk 5-7 miles a day for several days consecutively should keep me motivated. They have trips for all fitness levels. I chose a lower one for my first adventure. (BTW the photo is from their catalog)

More later...

Salad Day

Friday must be salad day at our cafeteria. Everything on the hot food line was breaded or battered. I mixed spinach, mushrooms, grape tomatoes, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, a couple of cubes of swiss cheese and I added a small can of tuna from my stash. I also ate a banana. I imagine there will be a container of yogurt this afternoon and an apple which won't survive til Monday.

I walked on the treadmill this morning for 30 min at 2.8 mph and 1.0 elevation. It wasn't long enough but I didn't want to clock-in late. I parked as far away from the building as I could and I did the stairs from the basement to the 7th floor. I'm going to do some stretching this afternoon and this weekend I'm going to curl up with a green monster and two issues of Outside that I borrowed from the library.

Yum.

Have an exercise filled weekend...

It's a new day

Exercise-wise - excellent weekend

Food-wise - ugh

Saturday I joined the NAMI group walking around the campus. I kinda held back and let them go ahead so that I could walk at my own pace. It was warm and sunny. I used sunscreen which ran into my eyes. I see sportscreen in my future. I didn't time myself but I know I kept up about a 2.8 mph pace for most of the walk. My eating wasn't good. I had two peanut butter sandwiches and about a half bag of white corn chips. No fruit or veggies except for a couple of overripe bananas. Corn chex for breakfast with organic nonfat milk.

Sunday I stopped at the KwikShop just before I got to the campus and got a bottle of water with a pop top. I know, I know - bad plastic bottles. I needed the water thought and until I can get a green container to carry on my walks I'll reuse the plastic one. Time 1:01:59. That's counting the trip into the store so I imagine that took a couple of minutes. Eating not good again. I ate a whole bag of caramel rice cakes.

My weekend inspiration came from the May issue of Outside. I used to read this magazine all the time but let my subscription lapse when I quit taking care of myself. I picked it up at Barnes & Noble which is my favorite bookstore. I used to work there as a second job and I made good use of the 30% discount. This month there was an article on the Moab Utah bike race. It sounds like fun and I started making a list of things around Topeka that I could take part in. It was nice to make plans related to getting fit and healthy. In June there's the annual Tinman Triathlon. No, I'm not going to participate in the race itself but I'm going to volunteer to be a part of the event. I'm looking forward to watching the competition.

Today it's 1:20PM and so far I've eaten 6-7 servings of fresh fruit and veggies. I've got to keep them stocked at home because I know that by now if I have them available that's what I'll choose.

More later...