Mid-Summer Update: Running Partners Rock

Hi everyone! I see that I haven't posted in a while, so I just want to give you a little update.

I've been exercising fairly regularly -- not killing myself or anything, but trying simply to Move More. And the big news is that I've started jogging with a running buddy! I'm actually beyond Dawn in endurance, so we are working on building up our running time. We started with 1 minute of walking, 1 minute of running, and repeated it until we got up to about 2 miles. That worked well for the first day or two. Then I noticed Dawn was huffing and puffing a lot less, so for the last 2 times we've been doing 90 seconds walking, 90 seconds running -- and we've been going a little faster too. But again, the huffing and puffing has mostly ceased, so next time it'll be 2 minutes on, 2 minutes off.

It's GREAT to jog with someone else! The run goes by SO much faster, because we are talking the whole time. And it also provides a good way to pace ourselves -- the advice to "keep a conversational pace" takes on a whole new meaning when you are actually trying to carry on a conversation.

We mostly jog together, but toward the end I often jog on ahead or keep on going after the 90 seconds is up. I eventually walk back to her, but those little bursts of solo running are quite fulfilling. Last night, after feeling heavy and plundering for the first mile or so, I started to get into my groove in the second half of the jog, and I fell into a hard yet satisfying pace. It was awesome.

I've also been asked by a couple several Choral Arts people who hadn't seen me in a couple months, "Have you lost weight??" I have lost about 5 pounds in the last month or so. I am told I look good. And I do look better in pictures lately. So that's nice. :-) Here's what I looked like this weekend when my friend Donnie came to visit:


So, that's all! I'll keep on jogging with Dawn, and walking 5 miles a day when I'm playing Tourist with friends who come to visit, and I'll try not to stuff my face too much, and hopefully there will be a lot more green triangles in my future. :-)