The Great Taper Caper

NLBG in so-called taper mode for the week.

Food?
A veritable week-end gras: You see, it was the Festival of Chocolate at Central Market...chocolate samples galore -- from chocolate cherry cordial coffee to chocolate ice cream to Miles of Chocolate to, to...too much! Saturday found us having oatmeal peanut butter chocolate chip cookies and chocolate covered strawberries. Definite need to taper sweets!

Exercise?
More encouraging than our weekend food excesses!

Friday: We both had great sessions with Sam. How does he come up with this stuff? He gets me to do things I can't even dream of and I find hard to describe. It always makes me realize how far I've come since my si joint freakout.

Saturday: 7 miles on the mountain bike

Sunday: five mile walk; we managed to do a very slow, very easy and relaxed jog for about 2 miles. Some hip flexor and hamstring tightness, but it felt really good! Most importantly, no si joint pain yesterday or this morning.

Remainder of the week should go something like this:
Today: walk
Tomorrow: walk or bike ride
Wednesday: Tai Chi
Thursday: walk
Friday: Sam
Saturday: off
Sunday: on verra bien!!

We Walk

Up the hill, down the street, across the trail, up the hill, down the street, up the hill, up the hill, up the hill, down the street. For 13 miles. Mission accomplished. NLBG fatigued and pleased.

Fact: We can walk a half marathon.

Question: Can we walk a half marathon in time for there still to be a finish line?
Well, only time will tell, and I know that what will be will be and that, at least, we will have tried. Therefore, I feel almost at peace with this belated undertaking.

Thoughts while walking:
I love Clif Bars and Accelerade.
I love my new men's ASICS; they seem to have more cushioning than the women's.
I love getting stronger and maintaining a positive attitude, even with developing heel blisters and increasing heat.
I wonder how it would feel to walk a full marathon.
We look a bit geeky, hydration belts and all, trekking down the actual course!

Cedar, Still

But that won't stop me.

The weekend forecast is sunny and warmer, and we all know what that means! A training we shall go!

(Mal)heureusement, no wheels involved. "Why?" you inquire (even if you're not, I'm telling you anyway). This brings us to these brilliant ideas of mine, which almost always astound myself AND Ricky. Ideas like walking a half marathon, for instance. And, oh, the pressure. 13.1 miles in under 4 hours? With my hypermobile si joints and Ricky's healing lumbar discs? Are we mad? (I'll refrain from answering that one for the moment).

So, training, right? Right. Well, we both have sessions with our trainer today (yep, Ricky now sees Sam weekly as well). Tomorrow will be our day off (shockingly, the NLBG may attend the American Gladiators casting call because Sam is planning on trying out!). Sunday morning...we're looking at a 10-13 mile walk. We survived 10 last Sunday, but we need to pick up the pace a little to improve our time.

The next couple of weeks, then, will be devoted to our walking training and much less to our spinning. Once we get this out of our system, the NLBG will pedal more!