kicking ass and taking names

Today's WW weigh-in: down 1 pound for a total of 31.2...

It's exciting to watch those numbers go down, and even better to realize that, in the end, it's good old-fashioned eating and exercise that equals weight loss. Not a fad, not a pill, and certainly not prepackaged foods (I have a hard enough time with Lean Cuisine).

Thursday afternoon when I was running, my friend Mary ran up behind me. She's a triathlon junkie, one of my nursing school classmates, and what I like to hope of as the "fit" me: same height, same general bone structure, except she is all lean and sinewy and could totally kick anyone's ass in the street. And kick my ass is just what she did: after we ran together for about a minute - and I am panting trying to keep up with her "slow" pace" - she announces that the hill up ahead is the one I am going to run with her. Now, realize that I was at the end of my run, it was a bajillion degrees outside, I was tired and verging on total dehydration, and I was pathetically unable to keep up with her at her normal pace. Before getting to the hill, she had me do a 10-second sprint, and I was able to get out of the hill by pleading lateness (I had to go to rehearsal), but man, did I feel like a whiny weakling! It showed me how much I need to challenge myself instead of running in this comfortable sort of rut where I maybe add a 1/2 mile to my distance every month or so, but I don't get any faster.

Kicking my ass was a good thing. If she can run 8 and 9 minute miles, well, SO CAN I. I'm planning on doing some speed work once a week when I run and not just doing what's comfortable all the time... I've even gotten bold and asked for one of these nifty GPS/heart rate monitors to gauge my speed so that I can get faster with my speed work. Wish me luck!