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Good Morning, FS Warriors! Up at 4 and out the door. I have determined that the old guy is not going to be the last one to cross the finish line in that half marathon. We went to a seniors potluck last night. It's for everyone over 50 from the surrounding Nazarene churches. It only happens once a month. Of course, all the food is always fantastic, but I did better than I usually do, and that, almost through no fault of my own. We have a lady, probably in her early 70's, that wears a leg brace, and really struggles to walk, but doesn't ask for help until she needs it, and doesn't want you to help until she asks for it. So, I asked her last night if she wanted me to carry her plate for her, and she said yes. So, I go through the line with her and put things on her plate as she indicates she wants this and that. Well, she wants just about everything on the line. After a while, I asked her if she wanted another plate, but she said no, and just started layering when the plate got full. This woman is fairly thin, and kind of feisty, but it takes a long time for her to take a step, and then, when she does, she kind of has to drag her leg from the back to the front. So, I have no idea where she puts all this food, but I get her and her plate back to the table and go get in the back of the line again. Now, they never run out of food at one of these potlucks, but they do run out of the favorites right away. The fried chicken was gone, as was the spaghetti, scalloped corn, deviled eggs, you get the picture. But, for some reason the meatloaf was hardly touched, and there was a big bowl of goulash yet. Well, I took a slice of meatloaf, a spoonful of goulash, and a little potato salad and it was delicious. Now, that alone probably put me near my RDI, but did I tell you these ladies make fabulous desserts? Well, I did try a piece of raspberry pie. It was a little tart, but you know how it is, you can't waste food. And there was some kind of lemon pie mixed with angel food cake that I was real curious about. Curiosity satisfied, it was pretty good. One thing I just can't get over; these women (can't say I saw any men doing this) carried plastic food bags in their purses, and would put chicken, desserts, breads, anything they liked in these bags down in their purses. And they were kind of sneaky how they did it. Now, maybe some of these women have meager earnings, but I know some of them are fairly affluent. And none of them lived through the depression, so it kind of surprised me. I guess they figured they brought food for people to eat for free, so they were going to get their share. Believe me, they ate their share - before or while they filled their purses. You see it happen at buffets now and then also. Interesting. Am I the only one that has witnessed this phenomenon.
Good thing I decided that today is the day I get serious about my training. Did a pretty intense upper body workout last night - after dinner. I know I have a six pack under this fat suit. We may never see it, but it's nice to know that it's there. It's my story and I'll tell it any way I want to. The Ultimate Body Works machine is really paying for itself. You have to learn just how high to sit or lay on the backboard for things to work together smoothly, but once you get the technique down, everything just seems to fall in place, and moves right along. I'm huffing and puffing when I get done, so I'm getting some cardio out of it for sure.
Warmed up pretty well this morning and did some speed workouts. I had quit doing intervals a while back, and paid for it in my 5K times. I figured if I just kept increasing my distances, I would just naturally get stronger and run faster. That dog don't hunt. The only reason I got even a bit faster doing that, is because I was increasing my endurance, and wouldn't have been able to do it at all otherwise. I have found that if you want to run faster, you have to train to run faster. Worked on my form, shortened up my stride some, increased my leg turnover, and found I was running a lot faster with less effort already. My plan is to make the workouts count, but decrease the number of running workouts each week, giving myself more time for recovery, and cross-train on the non-running days. It's about 8 months to the half-marathon. Even if I lose only 5 pounds a month during the course of my training, I will be below goal when I get to the starting line. Notice I said will and not would. I'm going for it! Hoo Rah! Toodles!
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