Work In Progress

Ran with Alan Jackson tonight.

2.5 miles. I'm running for 30 minutes at a time. I know I should be able to get more mileage than that, but I am what I am.
And today I'm a slow runner that likes to eat blueberry granola with flax from Target. It's so good, I know it must not be good for me.

Had leftovers for lunch and dinner. See an earlier post and make your best guess. Today was day four with no soda. I did have an iced tea from Wendy's in the afternoon. With it, I got a free jr frosty. It's really small.

13.5 Mile Week

2.3 miles tonight. It's not high mileage and it's not fast mileage, but it's outdoors and it's enjoyable.

I'm trying to be more concious of what I'm putting into the ole pie hole. So, I'm snapping pictures with my new palm pre. I just had to get a phone named after a runner.

Anyway, Amy won a cheesecake at Albertson's. I had a small slice yesterday.
I do like popcorn. Had some while we watched Charlotte Grey last night.

Dinner yesterday was a baked chicken breast, broccoli, three cherry tomatoes and some fruit (bananas and straberries). The bowl to the right was some kind of spicy stuff Amy wipped up. Oh, and that's a homemade roll. Part whole wheat and part white flour. It taste much better than it looks. I forgot to take a picture of tonights dinner. We had a salad, spaghetti with a little bit of chicken and a broccoli salad. I helped make it. I diced onion, grated cheese and made a sweet and sour mayo mix. It had sugar and vinegar in it. Tasted great. We used half the amount of mayo and sugar that the recipe called for.

Lunch yesterday and today was left over Mostocholi. One bowl was for me and one was for Emily.

Not pictured were a hand full of cashews, three sugar cookies (small ones) and one myoplex (after tonites run). Breakfast was a bowl of Target blueberry granola cereal with milk.

NO SODAS FOR TWO STRAIGHT DAYS.

The Joy of Running

Ran another 2.4 miles last night. My 'joy of running' is high, even though my 'endurance' is low. 11.2 miles done for the week. That includes lots of walking/scrambling in South Mountain park on Thursday.

Did anyone watch Food Revolution on ABC? Jaimy Oliver (The Naked Chef) has come over from the British Empire and is trying to help the fine folks of West Virginia eat less fried food and road kill. So, the Monahan's of Arizona plan to start eating a lot better too. Less refined sugars and more whole foods. I'll try to document our progress here. With pictures.

So, your job is to be brutally honest with me. Like, "Pat, I don't think a Peanut Buster Parfait from Dairy Queen for five days in a row is what you planned" or "Pat, that salmon bake with brown rice looked awful, how'd you eat it?"

Now, this is a meal. Maybe cut that steak up into three meals, less potatos and more veggies. Bon Appetit!

Of course this was my breakfast.

Hiking Day

After two run days I took it easy with a hike in South Mountain. I started just before 5 pm, so I knew I'd have to turn around 2 miles in so that I could get back before it got to dark. I probably could have gone 3 miles.

I ran into the park on Pima Canyon road, a sort of fire road. Then I hiked south in a dry wash. At this point I was all alone. I heard the occassional bee, which had me worried about swarms. About every 50-100 yards I would have to scramble up boulders - a dryfall that I imagine looks great after a heavy rain.

Hopefully next week, I can do this again and get deeper into the park to were the rock tunnels are. Below are some maps of my day. I traveled about 3.7 miles.

Pirate On The Run

2nd day of running. 2.56 miles in 30 minutes listening to one artist the whole time. Can you guess which one from the title?

If you like the Artist guessing game, go over and say hi to Magazine Smiles. Where every post is a song title and you get to guess who the artist is. If you don't know music that well, just keep answering the same band and eventually Irene will throw you a bone.





Answer to title question

Or my daughter would like this version.

27 Days Ago

27 Days ago . . . I was a runner.

Today, I am a runner again.

January thru April is a busy time for REALTORS in Arizona and I got to the point that I was too tired to run. Around February 24th, I got really busy. 2 days turned into 5, which turned into 20 and then 27. I learned that when you quit running you start seeing loads of people running. I'd be in my car with clients driving in Scottsdale, Chandler or Gilbert and I'd see someone running down the road. One moment I'm explaining short sales and the next I'm rubber necking watching the runners go by. I half expected my clients to start snapping their fingers telling me to "Focus, Pat Focus."

The good news. 27 days off and 1 pound gained.

So, tonight I got out and ran for 30 minutes. I ran some, I walked some. 2.46 miles later I was done and I loved it.

The NYC Marathon lottery has not happened yet. It won't until April 7th. But, today I start training for the NYC Marathon that will take place on November 7th, 2010. My 49th Birthday. The plan is to be under 200 pounds for that marathon and to run it in under 5 hours.

And Tomorrow I will be a runner again.