Week 156 Update

It was 06:30 in Roseburg, Oregon when I stepped up on Mr. Scale and he said, "183.0 pounds!"

Dotti and I were in Roseburg, because that is where my Mom's husband Jim was in ICU at the hospital. After our Bloomsday walk on Sunday, when we were checking on when the next bus was coming by to take us to our car, we had received a call from a relative that Jim had been having trouble keeping his blood oxygen level up, and they had called an ambulance to take him the 60 miles to the hospital. He has had many events similar to this and so we were not too worried at the time.

On Wednesday evening, my cousin gave me call. He said that he had visited Jim and that things were far worse than we suspected. We called my mom and found that Jim was not doing well, and that Jim's sister and brother-in-law, who had been there with Mom, had to leave to do other things.

Thursday, Dotti drove down to be with my mom, and since it was unclear what Jim's condition was for sure, I remained at home so I could make it in to work. Jim's condition remained unchanged, and so I completed my workday on Thursday and then again on Friday, but I drove down right after work on Friday evening.

There were 5 or more doctors who were working on Jim, and each one we talked with gave very little hope that he would recover. At this time we very much fear the worse for Jim.

Eating and weight – Saturday in Spokane, I weighed 185.5. At lunch, Dotti and I split a mushroom burger and fries at Sharis. Jim, Tammy, two of their daughters, Dotti and I went to the Bloomsday pavilion, afterwards, and we registered for the walk and walked around all the booths. We did quite a bit of walking before heading back home. In the evening I had a burger and vegetables bringing my total to 44.0 points for the day.

Sunday, the day of the walk, I weighed 184.0 pounds. I ate my normal 5.0 point breakfast, but after the walk I had a splurge. We found a booth where they were selling smoothies. While waiting in line for one of those, a lady walked by with a long stick holding 4 huge strawberries, each covered in chocolate. They had been dipped, like they do with a cone, putting a thin layer of chocolate over them.

They looked delicious, and they tasted even better. I also had my smoothie. We then stopped by Costco and I had a Very Berry Sundae. It wasn't the most nutritious food I had eaten in a while but it was enjoyable. In the evening, we went to Outback and I had burger meal, and then ordered a piece of cheesecake. It was huge, both tall and wide. By day's end, I had consumed 77.0 points.

Monday morning I weighed 186.5 pounds. Since I had gained weight, Dotti didn't feel obligated to yell at me after my high point day. On the drive home I was snacking and ate more points than usual. I ended up eating 60.0 points for the day.

Tuesday, I wasn't feeling well, and the scale jumped up to 187.5. That got my attention, and I held my points down to 45.5.

Wednesday, the scale rose again to 188.0 pounds. I made a bigger effort to hold my points down, and ended up eating 38.0 for the day.

Thursday the scale dropped to 187.5. I once again watched my points, and only consumed 39.0 of them.

Friday, the scale dropped to 187.0 pounds, back into my target range. I ate 40.5 points.

Saturday, the scale dropped to 183.0. Part of that was a real drop, and part of that was using my travel Healthometer scale, which normally reads about ½ pound over our Tanita. The Healtometer I have been using at home as "Mr. Scale" has all at once started reading 2 to 2.5 pounds higher than our Tanita. So, I have decided to put that Healthometer on the shelf and just go with the Tanita from now on when I am home. Dotti checked the Tanita against the WW scale before and it was right on with theirs. I figure if two scales are reading the same, one of which has been checked against calibrated scales, and the third is reading way high, it is time to stop using the high one.

Exercise – I fortunately wrote some of my impressions on the Bloomsday event which follow, before we drove down to Roseburg, because it would have been difficult to do so after what we have been going through with Jim.

Saturday – The day before Bloomsday. I decided to take a walk in the morning, and set out around a loop that Tammy had measured out a while back, and that I had walked before. I took my GPS out with me to take a few readings as I went. I found that that the entire loop came out to exactly 3.10 miles. I also found that there was a change in elevation from 2071 feet, down to 1979 feet, giving a change of 92 feet total. I completed the loop in 40:16, taking 12:59 per mile, and giving an average pace of 4.62 mph. With the change in elevation, I was very happy with the results, and it gave me an optimistic feeling for the walking coming up on Sunday. It also earned 10.21 aerobic points for me.

Sunday – It seemed like the entire town of Spokane turned out for Bloomsday. Along with Jim, Tammy, two of their daughters, Dotti and myself, there were over 50,000 others who showed up to do the 12K race.

Dotti has been ailing with her rheumatoid arthritis. Tammy has had some back problems, which have affected her leg in a painful way. Jim has a sore knee. So, we discussed what we would do for the race, and the three of them decided to walk together, along with one of Jim and Tammy's daughters. The other daughter was in a different walking group, and so she did not walk with them. I was debating whether I was going to see what kind of time I could cut, or if I would walk with the group. Tammy said that I should go for it, and Dotti said that she thought that would be okay and Jim thought that would be good as well, so my mind was made up.

We all piled into Jim and Tammy's van, and drove to a mall parking lot, where we parked, and then caught a bus downtown to the starting location for the race. (Parking downtown would have been a nightmare.) We arrived over an hour before starting time, and it was a bit chilly. We got into our assigned group and waited. There were beach balls being batted around by the crowd, and everyone seemed excited to get started. Finally we were ready to go. They let us go, but our group was so large that it took me 5 minutes and 50 seconds to reach the actual starting point. There was an announcer who was telling us how much time had elapsed, so we would know how much time to subtract on the other end. Dotti and the others crossed the starting line about a minute after I did. I didn't see them again until Dotti came up to me after the race with her tee-shirt in hand, and gave me a big hug and kiss.

It took quite some time for the crowd to thin enough to where I could start walking fast. Even when it did, I had to do a lot zig-zagging to keep moving along. I had planned to jog on the downhills, and walk everything else as fast as I could. The first big downhill came at about the 1.5-mile point. It was still so jammed that I really had to work to find a path to run. The left edge of the crowd usually held the most opportunity, but I did make it over to the right edge of the road at times, and everywhere in between, searching for holes in the crowd to get by through.

At the bottom of the hill we passed the 2-mile mark, as we began the climb up "Cemetary Hill." At this point I returned to my fast walking pace, and cleared the top after the 3-mile marker. It was more or less level from there to the 4.0-mile point, and I checked my stopwatch to see how much time had passed. I found that I had been walking for 50:52. I didn't calculate it at the time, but that was a 12:43 pace to that point. However, Doomsday Hill was still in front of me.

At the 4.5-mile point, there was a fairly steep downgrade of about –4.7%. I once again started jogging to try and make up some time that I could use on the upcoming hill. We came down the hill and it started to change to uphill before we even got to the bridge crossing the Spokane River, which marks the start of Doomsday Hill, a 0.72-mile, 145-foot upgrade. I hit the bottom of the hill at 1 hour and 1 minute into my walk. On the way up, I was talking to the hill, especially as I neared the top, and I was feeling like it wasn't going to be so bad after all. "You ain't so bad," I said to the hill, in order to spur myself on. But I was very happy to clear the top and get back on the regular, and level streets to do what was left of the last 2 miles.

All along the way, they had various people who were playing music or dancing etc, to help cheer the runners on. On the downtown streets there were groups of people yelling encouragement, and on the residential streets that we went down, there were people in their yards yelling and clapping to the people going by. Most appreciated were the ones who broke out their garden hoses and sprayed water onto the passing runners and walkers. Did that water feel good! As we got closer to the finish line, there was a fire engine spraying a fine mist of water into the road for us to cool off under, as they handed out cups of water to us. More than the race, I found the way that the city people got behind the participants to be the most exciting part of the whole event. It was amazing!

As I approached the finished line, I could see it off in the distance, with an arch of purple balloons marking the line. I suddenly hit me that, although I was very tired, and I had just worked my way through a side ache, the road ahead was taking a downhill turn. I had committed myself to run on the downhills. Also, I saw at the finish line, there was a huge digital clock ticking away, and it said that 1 hour and fifty some minutes had passed. I told myself that no matter how tired I was, I was not going to let that clock roll over to 2 hours before I passed the finish. So, off I ran towards that purple arch.

The photo that they took of me as I crossed the line said that the time was 1:56:30. Later I found that the clock in the photo was started 15 minutes before my group began to run. So, that meant the official clock was reading 1:41:30 for my group, when I crossed the line. Then when I subtracted the 5:50 for the time that passed before I could reach the starting line, after my group began to run, my official time came to 1:35:40. My stopwatch read 1:35:35 as I crossed the line, so that is pretty close to what the official time was.

I managed to average 12:49 for the entire 7.46-mile walk, and a pace of 4.68 mph. Normally, on a treadmill, I am very happy when I can hold a 4.7 mph pace for an extended amount of time. So, I was very happy to nearly reach that pace for my 7.46-mile walk/run. The over 200 miles of walking that I have done over the last 2 months really paid off. In the morning before we headed off for the race I was playing around with some numbers, comparing my normal walking speeds with what sort of time they would give me for the race. I looked at the elevation changes in the Bloomsday course, and the length of the course, and I figured that 12:59 per mile (4.62 mph), like I had done on my Saturday walk, would probably be the upper limit for speed for me, and that would give me a time of 1:36:51. So, I had my sights set on landing a time between 1:45:00 and 1:37:00. When I came in under 1:36:00 for my time, I was very happy with that indeed!

All during the course, I was never passed by any speed walkers, but I passed quite a few of them. I even walked passed some slow joggers. For my first organized race, I was very satisfied with the results. Okay, the guy who won the race took an hour less than I did to complete it, but he was averaging 4:41 per mile. I couldn't hold that pace running downhill, let alone along the Bloomsday course. But I am measuring my results against my own past performance, and so I am quite pleased with how it went.

On top of that, the Bloomsday race earned me 26.47 aerobic points all in one fell swoop!

Here you see Jamie, Dotti, Tammy, Jim and Misty Dawn after the race was completed, and tee shirts were collected.

In this shot Misty Dawn is next to me, then comes Tammy, Jim and Jamie.

Monday, I was a bit stiff and sore. Also, Dotti and I had to drive home from Spokane, and by the time we got home, we were ready to relax. So, we didn't do any walking on Monday.

Tuesday morning I woke up feeling ill. I ended up not going in for work, and certainly didn't do any walking.

Wednesday morning got up feeling much better. I headed off to work early, and arrived an hour and 15 minutes before I needed to start work. So, I set off on a 5 mile walk. It was warm enough to walk without a jacket but cool enough to walk at a good pace. It took me 1 hour 9 minutes and 15 seconds to complete. I averaged 13:51 for each mile, and 4.33 mph overall. That was good for 15.66 aerobic points.

At lunch it had warmed up even more, and so I walked a bit slower, and I completed 2.0 miles in 30:11. I averaged 15:06 per mile (3.98 mph) and earned 4.95 aerobic points.

In the evening Dotti and I walked our 3.1 miles, taking 54:26 to complete it. We averaged 17:34 per mile (3.42 mph) and earning 6.49 aerobic points. So, at the end of Wednesday I had totaled 20.7 miles for the week, and had earned 63.78 aerobic points.

Thursday at lunch I did 2.0 miles, once again by myself, and it took me 29:15, averaging 14:38 per mile (4.10 mph). That was good for 5.20 aerobic points.

In the evening, Dotti was already on her way down to Roseburg and I had to do my walk all alone. I decided to do it before driving home, and so I walked 3.0 miles on my normal walking paths. It took me 44:04 to complete, and I averaged 14:41 per mile (4.08 mph) for the entire walk, and earned 8.25 aerobic points.

Friday I only walked at lunch. I walked 2.0 miles in 31:31. It was warm and I didn't want to push it. I averaged 15:46 per mile (3.81 mph) and earned 4.61 aerobic points.

So, at week's end I had walked 27.7 miles, and earned 81.84 aerobic points. That surpassed my exercise goals (26.2 miles and at least 35 aerobic points) for the week.

Water – I drank plenty of water this week. I got in at least 6 cups every day, and I averaged 77.71 ounces (9.7 cups) each day which is well above my minimum goal of 6-8 cups per day.

Week's evaluation – I feel that my weight control journey was a success this week, in spite of the external bad turn of events. My weight, though on the high side of my target range, still averaged 186.21, inside the target range, despite having 3 days where my daily weigh-in was too high. I walked 27.7 miles during the week, surpassing my goal of 26.2 miles, and I earned 81.84 aerobic points, more than doubling my goal of 35. My water consumption was above my target range, and so I am very happy with how my journey went this week.

-Al-

6 '3" 239.5/183.0/185±2/BMI:22.87/WK-156
GRAPHS: Weight Loss/Year 1 Maint./Year 2 Maint./Year 3 Maint.
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