I logged exactly 1 mile to almost finish the yard. The back was a bit thick and after restarting the mower 4 times, I was done. I felt like it was a job well done. Minus the GPS showing me mowing the street and his front door. Silly technology.
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I logged exactly 1 mile to almost finish the yard. The back was a bit thick and after restarting the mower 4 times, I was done. I felt like it was a job well done. Minus the GPS showing me mowing the street and his front door. Silly technology.
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I'm still waiting on my thank you card. Meow.
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The show was divided into 3 sets....
Science - This part was all about eating habits. She went through food labels describing the top 5 ingredients you don't want to see on labels. An interesting point she made was about all the different sugar variations that are used because if companies just used "sugar" it would have to be listed first. So instead they use a ton of different varieties... Glucose, sucrose, this list went on. Another good point she made was about "value" meals at certain fast food joints. How much "value" can you really get for a buck?! How quality is that meal that you are buying for 100 pennies? It can't be quality and it can't be good for you. Instead the money you think you are saving, you will later spend on medical bills from the illnesses you'll eventually come down with.
A few other interesting points
Sweat - Jillian said the big secret............... Eat less. Move more.
I totally agree. For me, food is fuel. My philosophy is to approach food as individual calories. You start to think about having to burn those calories. If you don't burn it, it's stays with you as pounds. Now for the math portion. 1 pound = 3500 calories. You have to net burn through 3500 calories to lose one single pound. That seems daunting for anyone I imagine. So how do you break it down? Start with BMR - Basal Metabolic Rate.
BMR is the number of calories you'd burn if you stayed in bed all day. I stand by the importance of this number. Not BMI. BMI is a waste. My definition of BMR is how many calories you can eat without worry. Mine is 1400. She then had you pick your activity level 1-4. 1 = sedentary activity, 2 = low active, 3 = active, 4 = very active. Picking your activity level will get you your AMR - Active Metabolic Rate, the number of calories you burn in a day. BMR multiplied by 1.#activity level = AMR. Even if I have a low active 2 day, my AMR works out to be 1680.
AMR becomes your maintenance number. To maintain your current weight, that's the number of calories to eat. So if you want to lose weight, you either eat less or move more. Simple! All of this I already knew, but it was a good reminder to hear it from another source. Proves the concept is legit. The new number I learned to add to my calculations was my THR, target heart rate. JM wants you to work out at 85% effort level. For this calculation you subtract your age from 220 then multiply by .85. Mine works out to 26.2 beats for a 10 sec period. I'll be checking this frequently in my workouts now.
Self - I got more out of this portion that I thought I would. KV and I had discussed leaving early but ended up really digging what JM was saying. A few highlights:
Best part, JM didn't push her products on us at all! If she comes to your city, it's worth the ticket price. Well, our ticket price was under $30 and we were upgraded when we got to the show! So overall, that made the show an A+ for me!
]]>It's that time of year again! #6 for Mom, #12 for me. Holy cow, those are some numbers! We arrived just on time to get in our corral, hits some balls, and trot to the start!
A bunch of other runners had belts full of water, juice, and fuel. I was armed with the "Mama Belt". Umbrella, check. Banana, check.
Always a highlight to see, the elephants were out welcoming us to mile 1. Baby Peanut!
Mom was definitely in the spirit of fun for the race. Usually there is a group of firemen in suits. This day, we found a solo one. Ready for the camera... she puts her arm around the guy but his tank was in the way, so her hand was directed lower to the buttocks. The guy says "Did you know you are grabbing my butt?" Yes sir I do, because your tank is in the way!
For the past 2 years, Mom has been 1 minute slower overall at finishing this race. So my goal was to not let that happen this year. I was keeping a 16:20/mile pace in my head. Then I remembered, I was now a smart phone owner. Use your resources!
I took a screen shot of the pace chart so I would know if we were ahead of the game. And we were. I'm not allowed to tell Mom where we are at mileage-wise while on the course. It is a mood buster some times. So I just say "We're doing great!" To also keep our mood up, we ran into several friends along the course. She saw a local friend at mile 2. JV said hi at mile 3. PR joined us at mile 4, so we were in good company! At the track, I had my first "new" mascot sighting, the Cowardly Lion!
As we cruise off the track, I kept checking the pace. We were still 7 minutes ahead of pace, even with our first and only bathroom break! Mom was in high gear! And not stopping! She was figuring out her groove and would start running to change up the muscle memory we'd built up over the miles. I was truly impressed! She was rocking it! ROCKED IT all the way to the finish with a 3h 23m PR!!! No more 1 minute slower, 1 year older formula for this chick! She was 9 minutes faster than ever!
She employed the "Fuller Training Program" (patent pending) this year and it paid off. My methods work, but can't be explained. Don't question us.
Proud of my Mom! Still rocking out with her umbrella out!
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No pain, no gain. And no championship. Boo.
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(Forgot a Wayne Newton sighting on day 1 at the hotel. Was too tired to pursue for a pic.)
The must-see Bellagio Conservatory.
Best slot machine I've ever seen.
1 workout for the whole trip = 7.0 mile run.
Old Vegas, don't miss it. My Mom's text response, "Please wash your hands."
Cabana living.
Shopping splurge #1, Coach.
Shopping splurge #2, CL's. My heart's desire for the past 3 years.
Le Rev - Cirque du Soleil show @ the Wynn. Never go to Vegas without going to one of these.
Another Belliago must see
YOLO people!
It wasn't a baby and a tiger...
...but we woke up with this in our hotel room. Fernando & Pony.
Last ride in Vegas, the New York New York roller coaster.
Got home and had 1 hour to get ready for the next event. No rest for the wicked!
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Thank you War Memorial.
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None of us had a clue what we were in for. To me, that made it so much fun. No judgments. No preconceived notions. Just fun. We were at our own table of 8. Each table had the same script and characters while using clues to figure out who the culprit was. Introducing our cast....
Walter Ski, and sheriff
Rusty Crankshaft
Wanda Lust
Trikki Shuffles
Mae West
Fifi Galores
Barry Glitters
Sylvester Stillstone
Throughout dinner, we received clues to help us or take us off track to figuring out the killer. We picked myself, Trikki, and Barry in a gay-love-financial-tryst. Turned out we were only 1/2 right. I had nothing to do with it. It all landed on Barry! Phew!
But, we found the ultimate man room on the tour of the house... well, just add a TV. Then, perfect!
For $3, we got a Planetarium show on focusing on Jupiter. Grainy iPhone photos.
Then got to see the main telescope on the top. 30,000 pounds worth!
Our guide liked to make jokes about the year 2000 computer equipment that was running the show at Butler compared to the high tech stuff at other colleges that they can also control via computers and networks. At the end, we were treated to actually seeing Jupiter through a high powered telescope they brought out into the yard. It was so powerful you could see the moons orbiting it.
www.mikesastrophotos.com
It brought me back to the evenings when my Dad & I would try to find planets using a K-Mart telescope on our drive way. I think we need one at the lake.
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Nothing better...
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After me, the team still had one last spot to fill. With a recent request from my friend Head to find an Ultra relay for us this year, I invited him to partake as a trial run. He agreed. Then 2 days before the event I get the following text:
Guess I should have looked at my flight schedule better. I get in from Alaska at 4am Saturday.
My response, "Man Up." He was looking for "No worries, I have a back up for you." Not how I roll.
I offered to go first in our relay order since I knew I'd be the slowest. Get me out of the way so the boys could do their speedy stuff at the end. It was a 2.2 mile loop with that last 0.2 miles being a series of twisting turns through the park. Really annoying. Lap 1 felt good. I look my normal "awesome" in the photos.
Split - 16:48, Pace - 7:38
After your lap, you wait 40+ minutes for your next turn. At least my team did because we were doing true relay order 1x1 lap. We each could have ran all our laps at once, then handed off but this seemed more fun. Everyone got to hang out this way.
Lap 2 didn't seem bad.Why do I look like a shaved sasquatch?!
Split - 16:54, Pace - 7:40, Cumulative - 01:16:57.4
Lap 3 sucked. My hamstrings felt like little tiny rubber bands that were about ready to snap.
Split - 17:08, Pace - 7:47, Cumulative - 02:17:11.2
After my last lap, my team started paying attention to who was crossing the line to complete their final laps. We kept asking each other, "Did anyone pass you?" We knew there were a couple of teams ahead of us but with all the exchanges it was hard to tell where everyone was at. Head wasn't sure what to think. In his own words "I've never won anything!" I told him we may need to stay around for awhile and to call the wife. JP was in charge of our last lap. The orange shoes were off! As he approaches the last straight-away, the emcee yells "It's a sprint to the exchange! Who's it going to be?!" WTF... Nooooooooooo. On the final lap you veer left to finish. So, I run in front of the exchange and yell "LEFT, LEFT, LEFT". JP catches on, so does the emcee. JP turns around and the emcee says "Just go under the ropes." Details, people.
In the end, on the very last lap, we wanted to break 3 hours. Before that, we didn't really have a true goal. Which, depending on my environment, is the right or wrong way to approach a race. Here, I just had fun. Ended up really fun! 1st place overall was a 3 person team (4 laps each). 2nd place was a 2 person team (6 laps each). We were 3rd overall!! Winners in the 4 person team @ 03:01:05.5! Head became a Champ.
We will be back to defend in 2014. For now, the memories (and the reminder I was best at exchanging the ankle strap)...
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I also got this guy!
This data is going to be pretty cool year after year.
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