Cycling isn't for Sissys

What can I say.....it started last night when I ran up to the bike shop to pick up a pair of the ever essential, necessary bike shorts. Because the shorts have bike in front of them the price can get pretty expensive, well I had been looking on line and had an idea of what they might cost because there is not much worst than to see me go into sticker shock. I can get a little dramatic...."I am not spending that much, what is it made of gold etc....." here is what I was not ready for the sales clerk (man) saying to me you don't wear DRAWS with bike shorts. (insert sounds of birds chirping)WHAT? no one told me that (Lisa). This was a comment I made to the sales clerk "when I did my research I didn't understand all the conversation regarding chafing, well I do now" the sales man said well we have a product up be the register that you put on your skin and chamois that helps a lot. Eyebrows rise, I said I don't understand rub on the chamois, what about my "undergarment"???? he looks at me and said "you don't wear draws". Ok, now I go to try these things on, my legs are a little longer than some and I like my shorts a little longer, first challenge. Second challenge I come out the dressing room and with shorts on and the sales man says those should fit tighter. REALLY??? how tight is to tight? the key to this he said is compression--- call it what you want they fit like skin. So now I am changing in and out of compression shorts and asking a stranger if these are tight enough. So I go to the register to pay for my "compression shorts, I pick up a pair of gloves (another story) the cream for chafing water bottle and matching cage". In comes this gal with her bike and a little tote on the back seat and I said to the guy ringing me up is that her tire changing kit. His response eyebrows raised "YES, don't you have one" sheepishly I say no. SO now the budget is really blown I get all that is necessary to change a tire and a quick lesson on how. My lips are poked out and feelings a little hurt because I think I am such a sucker. UNTIL this morning at mile 11 when I realize my rear tire feels a little different.....you guessed it I had a flat. Interestingly enough I thought to myself before I left the house ....tear the info out of the magazine about taking the wheel off the rear of the bike and I stuck a pair of glasses in the tote so I can read the instructions. WHO KNEW that I did good this morning, can I tell you I was a little concerned about changing the rear tire. the difference between the front and the rear is the cog, gear, chain etc. Well it took me a little longer than some but I did it. BOY am I glad that blew my budget on something that I really did need. I was feeling pretty good about myself I have never before today change a bike tire, then I realized I have to ride back 11 or 12 miles to the car and it is now so "freekin" hot that I am going to melt. I made it back at a snails pace and the sign by the car said 95 degrees way too hot for me. But what an adventure I had today.....I luv this.

Bike Racks, Wet Suits and Open Water Swims

IT'S ALL TOO MUCH, just too much Candace said to me yesterday. As I explained to her that I would be getting a bike rack for my car....which car the "VOLVO" really mom? Why would you do that? Are you serious? Next thing is you going to do put all those bumper sticker on the back of the car....13.1/26.2/5K or the because I can sticker, WHO EVEN KNOWS WHAT THAT STUFF MEANS? I said probably not the 26.2 but the others stand a good chance that I will put them on the car, PLEASE not on the car don't become one of those people (what/who are those people?)yes, yes, yes Candace...OMG she is gone up stairs now shaking her head.....In your mind's eye imagine Candace's just fussing that I am just too much, that this entire bike "thingy" is too much.....LOL I then go on to explain to her about open water swims and wet suits it occurs to me that just maybe I would be able to do that in Freeman Lake in Elizabethtown now she is tweeting people and telling them that I have lost my mind and calling me "Crazy Cakes" then decides that I will need a new look for the open swim... BO DERECK braids and beads(colored)...????? Again use your mind's eye for this......she said you will need to have a life guard around before you jump in the lake (crazy cakes) my response I will get Lisa to come down here and........again she tweets, rolls her eyes in the back of her head.....MOM you are just too much! You now read "Bicycling" magazines....who does that??? I am just want to be informed about different aspects of cycling. Then I send her completely over the edge when she said something about a bike(????) my response you mean a "performance cycles" (cause a bike that costs as much as a mortgage payment is not just a "bicycle" some cost as much a a mid-size car). She told me again that is just "not a part of her lifestyle". I explain to her like her eyeshadow this makes me happy on the inside...now if I could just find folks that would enjoy doing this with me my world would be complete. LOL

It wasn't pretty, but I did it and got a medal for it

What a journey this has been, I started out in January wanting to improve my health and compete in a 5K. My friend Pam said why not run in the 5K run her school is sponsoring I thought about it and said ok I can do this. What the heck was I thinking so I began training(?) the goal was to get it done in 30 minutes. As the the run grew closer and I started running outside and the cold weather moved in I decided that if I could just finish the run that would be good. My son and sister and nephews were all coming in to watch me run. Well the day before the run I have to run a few errands and went outside and OMG it was cold, so I decide to go get some fancy cold weather gear. I was able to get running tights and top so when my track star son comes in Friday night I am telling him about all training and oh yeah the new cool running tights and shirt. He looks and said do you know that the theft tag is still on the pants and shirt and if you try and take it off dye will ruin the clothes? MAN! Is this a sign of what the run will be like? MAYBE I don't get very nervous, but I was very nervous about this run. Had I trained enough?NO Would I be able to come in at around 33-34 minutes?PROBABLY NOT Or completely embarrass myself? OH MAN I HOPE NOT Well it's Saturday morning and it is cold as ** so I wore ledotard tights under my regular running pants and 3 shirts, 2 pairs of gloves and an ear band. It was below freezing (30 degrees) and really dark, we arrive for the race and to my surprise there are other crazy people out there ready to run --lots of them. Now I am really nervous, I start to run a short warm up lap around this area and my son said you need to do that at least 4 times, drink more water and ......(WHAT?) oh ok, just as I hit the 3rd lap and I think I am not going to make it I am already breathing hard and it is SO COLD. He doesn't know there isn't a lot of gas in my tank and he wants me to waste all of it out here in the parking lot. My sister and the her boys arrive they have signs for me to cheer me on, MAN that is so nice what will they think of me if I don't make it???? Show no fear! Poker Face!

Runners get set go, and off I go did I tell you how cold it was out there. We start off it is dark, we are running in a large pack, up in a distance you can already see the folks that are going to win the run today, immediately I think please do not come in last. My legs are stiff and cold I am breathing heavy and wondering when I will hit the 1.5M marker they promised water. But my legs and breathing are telling me you have got to be further along than that because if not you won't make it. I finally get to the "1.5M" water table, I think of Lisa and our talk of "elite athletes" which of course I am not, I take the water from the volunteers and swoosh it around in my mouth and spit it out and throw the cup down (in the waste can) just like the "elite athletes" some how that made me smile and feel stronger. I continue to run not very fast finally another volunteer shouts out my time 20min and __sec. For a brief moment I thought well maybe you are on track Pattey but then naa....nothing about this run reminds me of the training I have been doing. As I am coming up a hill I look behind me to check and see if there are any other folks running behind me ....other than small children and puppies. Thank goodness there are....translated mean Pattey you won't be last adult. As I come around corner I see my son and sister, I think oh I have done so poorly they are checking up on me....there only small children and puppies behind me! how sad are you? They are cheering I try hard to pick up my pace, my son joins me and said Mom you doing great, I tell him between tears that I hoped this would be a much better run for him to see and he said your doing great. Just then we turn the last corner I look up and the clock, OMG it said 30:30 is it possible am I going to come in before 31, if I tell you that last 100 yards was ugly.....I gave whatever I had left in me to finish that race. I made it 30:53 my sister gives me the biggest huge ever and tells me she is so proud of me, my son has that look in his eyes and I am exhausted but I feel so high and if this makes any sense I am proud that my family was proud of me. Marcellus said I am a distance runner .....I wouldn't go that far but I can run a 5k. Oh yeah, they gave me a medal for it 2nd place in my age bracket. (ooooh shinny)

BMI-Body Mass Index

I went to the doctor's office a few weeks ago for my annual check up and the Doctor and I chat and he said that you look very fit, healthy "etc". All is well I am in good shape....in my opinion probably the best shape of my life. As a young woman I was an athlete and in good healthy shape but pretty much after getting married, having children and a very busy life I didn't do very much healthy. Then when all of that changed, I realized I was not in the best shape and could loose a few (many) pounds. Anywho, so while there at the Doctor's office I checked out the BMI chart and according to it I am within the normal range by a 1 point. One more point I am considered overweight. Which I find very interesting because I am very healthy, I eat well, drink with moderation and exercise like I want to be a TV personality (really, damn near daily). Well while reading Danielle Belton's The Black Snob's blog post I found an article regarding BMI. This is very interesting but it was printed last year, so with that said I believe they have not finalized the study but it may explain some things.

Widely Used Body Fat Measurements Overestimate Fatness In African-Americans, Study Finds ScienceDaily (June 22, 2009)

— The body mass index (BMI) and waistline measurement overestimate obesity in African-Americans, according to a new study. The results, which were presented at The Endocrine Society's 91st Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C., suggest that conventional methods for estimating body fat may need to become race-specific.

"Compared to Caucasians, African-Americans of the same age, gender, waist circumference, weight and height may have lower total and abdominal fat mass," said principal investigator and study leader Samuel Dagogo-Jack, MD, professor of medicine and chief, Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis. "These findings argue for a review of the existing cutoffs for healthy BMI and waist circumference among African-Americans."
BMI is a simple and common method of estimating someone's body fat levels, based on that person's weight and height measurement. Obesity experts classify an adult who has a BMI less than 18.5 as underweight; normal weight is 18.5 to 24.9, overweight is 25 to 29.9 and obese is more than 30. An indirect measurement, BMI is not a reliable indicator of body fat for people who have a large body frame or lots of lean muscle. More specialized methods, such as DEXA bone density scanning or computed tomography (CT), can directly measure total and regional body fat, but these methods are expensive and more time-consuming.
The waist circumference is used to identify abdominal obesity. This fat around the middle carries a higher risk for obesity-related complications such as diabetes and heart disease. Experts define abdominal obesity as a waist circumference greater than 40 inches in men and more than 35 inches in nonpregnant women.
National data show that blacks have higher rates of obesity and type 2 diabetes than whites. Dagogo-Jack and his co-workers therefore examined whether the relationship between body fat and BMI would differ by race. In a study funded by the National Institutes of Health and the American Diabetes Association, they compared how close BMI was to body fat directly measured by DEXA in whites and blacks. The researchers performed the same comparison for waist circumference and abdominal fat. They studied 93 nondiabetic adults (53 blacks and 40 whites) who have one or both parents with type 2 diabetes. Subjects had a broad range of body weights.
The correlation between DEXA-measured total fat and the BMI was higher in whites than blacks, the authors reported. The same was true for the correlation between directly measured abdominal fat and waist size.
Therefore, body fat is likely to be lower in blacks than in whites of the same weight and height, Dagogo-Jack said. He said their data suggest that muscle mass may be higher in blacks, which would explain the dissociation between weight expressed as BMI and measured body fat.
"If our results are confirmed in a larger study population by other researchers, the obesity field will need to develop ethnic-specific cutoffs for what values represent overweight and obesity," he concluded.

TOO MUCH! WAY TOO MUCH!

Well I am still in training for my 5K run next month, to really make sure I do this I went ahead and paid the fee. Now of course I can't back out or make any excuses so I am there. Running this event is as much a mental challenge as a physical one for me. I know that once I get this under my belt I will do other races and that makes me smile. ......Anyway have you ever heard this expression "Pain is just a weakness leaving your body"? That has to be the most DA thing I have ever heard. Pain is Pain it is just that simple..... But with all my so called training, running on the treadmill to build endurance, strengthening my leg muscles and then finally going outside to run and almost burning out my lungs. I have stayed outside to prepare myself for the run. I have let my other workouts fall to the side my Lifting, Zumba, Salsa and Spin classes. I am/was feeling a little guilty since I did my long run on Sunday, I thought I would not run Monday and instead go to the gym to do a leg (weight) workout. Well that I did....and pushed myself pretty hard considering I haven't been in there for a while. I figured I needed to make up for lost time. (Note to self running miles can be and is considered by some a leg workout.) Well Tuesday morning when I woke up OMG what the heck is going on with my legs I need to run but walking is a challenge. So I thought well I will go to the gym since I don't/can't /want to run and do an ab rotation and regular weight rotation instead. I got there and pushed it hard, (I sometimes (most of the time) think go hard or go home) was feeling pretty good so before I left I thought well go ahead and get some treadmill time in....quickly I realized that I could not run, so I decided that would walk on the treadmill with a slight incline at a pretty good click for 45minutes. During that time all was well, I felt fine and even thought you are back you can make up for this wasted day on Wednesday. Well Wednesday morning came and if I tell you that I literally rolled out of the bed believe me. My poor, poor body was in so much pain and ached in places that it had not ached before my chest, my arms and my legs were as stiff as boards, to walk yesterday was a real effort, walking was not natural it was almost as if my brain had to send an impulse down to my legs and say go move forward. So I decided not to do anything and allow my body to heal for a day. I was still so uncomfortable last night that I considered taking some Motrin or muscle relaxers (didn't). This morning I feel 50% better still sore but not to the point that I think my knees won't bend without authorization from my brain, so I hope I am back on track because my race is coming and it is challenging enough for me without adding unnecessary physical pain. I will not do any more leg (weight) exercises before the race and I will cut back on some of the other lifting until after the race. Today is Thursday and I will run and I have not run since Sunday but I will keep on.

All the right stuff

This morning I did something new, (love new things, yeah right) I went to run today with the local HS Cross Country team. These young men run at 6:00am before school .....2, 3, 5 miles and then in the afternoon they have regular practice. Our local HS Cross Country team has a few of the best distance runners in the State. So I am most appreciative that their Coach would even allow me to participate in their morning run. They sent me out with one of their "slower runners" (yeah right) I said to the young man don't worry about me and off he went. I was with him for about the first 400 meters (with him means could see his flasher)and then it happened.....my lung said OMG what the heck is this cold stuff , I pretty much lost sight of the flasher then. I have been running inside on thread mill for a couple of weeks finally manged to get up to 4 miles without a break so I thought I can do a 2 mile run outside. I need to practice outside running so that I can run the 5K in November. My lungs said the air is very, very different out here, we are not going to be able to run this with out a break today. I thought you can do this you have all the right stuff, head lamp, flasher, GPS, HR monitor, watch, IPod. The only thing I hadn't planned on the differences in the air ..it was about 50 degrees, it was so dark, the broken sidewalks, up and down roads, jumping over mess on the sidwalks. So today I didn't perform as well I had hoped but I will go back out in the morning (after the sun comes up)and try this again because I am going to run with (follow) the Cross Country team again Monday morning. Oh yeah I did get in before the guy I left with......(he ran 3 miles)

Running to nowhere

I am back at training for my first 5K. I am running on the treadmill, running to nowhere, a fellow asked me today why, you lift, you have a trainer, you do too many classes, do you want to do it all? he asks. No I don't think so, but this year has been a year filled with the unknown, so.......I want to do something that I have never done before. Sure I ran in HS, but I have never run as an adult. (At the beginning of this journey my goal was to compete in a 5K run this past summer. I did not run for many reasons, but I lift weights, hired a trainer, join too many classes. But now as my birthday approaches I have decided that I must do this run and I can do this run, so I am on the treadmill now trying to find a pace and build up endurance.) My goal this week is not to blow out a lung, the fellow asked me at the gym something about sprinting and I said it felt like I was moving, hauling ass, getting out, doing my "own" thing, but I suspect if there were a video camera I would look as slow as the day is long. I will go again tomorrow and run again until I can't take another step or blow a lung which ever comes first.