Week 209 Update

It was 05:00 AM and 57° when I stepped up on Mr. Scale, and he said, “184.0 pounds!”

Near the end of my journal for last week I wrote, “It has been a while since I have seen a daily number below 185.0 and I would like to get some of them posted this week.” I had to wait clear until this morning to see one, but here it is. J

This has been a week of recovery and renewal. The last few weeks I had been “performing below expectations” on my journey in the area of points, weight, water, and exercise. The DWLZ-V conference, and the Bloomsday Race, each lent their respective demands; and enjoyable as those events were, I still felt like I was overloaded. This week I tried to pull things back in line. Here’s how it went…

Saturday - I weighed in at 187.0 pounds, right at the top of my target range. Several days the previous week I had been over 187 and had come close to 190. I set my goal to fix that.

After doing my journal update, Dotti and I headed out for Multnomah Falls. She had a few items that she wanted to pick up in the gift shop for some Zonies, and I thought it would be fun walking the trail again.

Around 1 PM I set off on my first ever solo walk to the top of Multnomah Falls. Dotti’s knee was still not up to a walk up the falls again, so soon after she had hurt it on the conference hike, so she went shopping in the gift shop while I found out how fast I could walk the falls trail.

It was 65° when I started out in front of the Multnomah Falls Lodge by the drink concession stand. I clicked my stopwatch and set out on my walk. The first stretch of trail was really congested with people, and it slowed me down some. But I don’t think the holdups that I had along the way--waiting for paths around groups of people--added more than a couple of minutes to my overall time. When I hit the bridge over the lower falls it was really jammed, and there were two sets of people who were taking pictures and I had to come to a complete stop waiting for them to finish, but it was only a short stop before I could continue on my way.

There were fewer people after the bridge, but still traffic was heavy on the path, for a while. Most people were really good about moving over enough to give me passing room when I came up behind them. There were a few who were less courteous but, sooner or later I got around them all. After I reached the first bench area, maybe third of the way up the falls, there were even fewer people, but all the way to the top of the falls there were groups of people ahead of me, that I had to pass.

I hit the topmost switchback, where the path heads downwards in both directions (one direction leading to the top of the falls, and the other back to the Lodge), at just over 20 minutes. I had covered about 750 feet of increase in elevation at that point. It had seemed rather strange on the way up walking right past the points where Dotti and I have stopped so many times over the years to admire the view. I was moving along really well for the first half of the uphill climb. By the second half I had to slow a bit, and I was breathing deeply and regularly to keep the oxygen moving. I could tell that I was at the last uphill switchback, when I looked up and could see sky, instead of more mountainside up and to the left. It helped encourage me to keep my pace up as I ascended the last uphill ramp.

After clearing the top switchback, there was still more trail to cover, and several more switchbacks, before hitting the top of the falls. This stretch is all downhill, because I was still 50 feet or so above the top of the falls. This was the only place during my entire walk where I actually jogged a short distance. It helped loosen things up for me, and was easier than just stepping out at a fast pace. Soon, I had my breath back and I started walking again. I briskly walked the switchbacks down, and then the straight path to the stone steps that led down to the upper viewing platform over the falls. I walked down the steps, across the platform and touched the rail, and checked my stopwatch: 22 minutes and 44 seconds had passed.

Normally at this point in the walk, we pause for a while, catching our breath, celebrate the fact that we made it to the top, and then we take in the beautiful view of the Columbia River running so far below us, and the small falls that precede the big drop. We look down on the Multnomah Falls Lodge and very small looking cars and people at the bottom. But this time I just turned immediately around and retraced my steps.

After I cleared the stone steps leading up from the platform, I almost immediately ran into a group of what appeared to be foreign tourists. They did not move aside, or acknowledge my presence, even when we hit a couple of switchbacks leading up to the highest point on the trail. Finally the got the message that I wanted to pass, just a bit before reaching the top, and I was on my way.

That was the last real delay I had. I didn’t do any jogging on the way down, and I stepped out at a very good pace considering the steep grade. I averaged 14:45 per mile (4.07 mph) even with the slowdown added in at the start of my return trip caused by the people on the uphill portion of the walk. I kept a fairly steady pace all the way down until I ran into the crowd at the bridge, and even there I made it across without much hesitation.

I passed many people on the way down that I had also passed on the way up. One father was standing by the trail with his kids and he looked at me with a funny smile, as he asked, “Have you been to the top already?” I smiled and said, “Yes, twenty-two minutes and forty-four seconds to the top.” I heard say to the kids, “See, we can make it. Let’s get up and on our way.”

When I hit the “first bench,” I felt like I was nearly there. I passed a young lady who was saying to her walking partner, “We aren’t even halfway there yet.” I was thinking to myself, “No you aren’t.” Even in adults, this trail brings out that aspect of childhood that we all remember where we said, “Are we almost there?”

When I finally had worked my way past the last human obstacle, right at the very end blocking my direct path to the point in front of the drink concession stand, and hit the stop button on my stopwatch, I saw that it had taken me 40 minutes and 26 seconds to complete the round trip. That averages out to be 16:51 per mile, or 3.56 mph. With the 800-foot elevation change, and the fact that I did no jogging on the return trip (and very little on the outbound trip), I am very happy with that pace. As I told Dotti later, “Now I know that I can get up and down that trail in 40 and a half minutes, it will be something to shoot for next time, to see if I can beat it.”

I next headed into the gift shop where I found Dotti browsing, and she looked up and said, “You’re done already? I haven’t finished looking yet.!” I told her to take her time, and we walked around together in the gift shop as I got my breath back.

For three weeks in a row I had walked a special hike on the weekend. Multnomah Falls for the conference, the Bloomsday Race in Spokane, and now Multnomah Falls again.

Dotti and I stopped by Subway on the way home because we were both pretty hungry by that time. We headed home and got some things done that we needed to around the house. I was pretty tired but didn’t feel too bad until late in the evening I got up to turn on the lights on our Christmas Village (it stays up all year long J) and when I came back to my chair, I stepped sideways to avoid something or other, and I pulled something in my lower back area. I was hobbling the rest of the evening.

By the end of the day, I had eaten 47.5 points. That was not exactly low, but it wasn’t really high either, and with all the 50+ days I had been having recently, it was an improvement for a Saturday.

Sunday - I weighed 186.5 pounds. Better. It was Mother’s day, and I spent the day with Dotti. She had a few errands that she wanted to run, and I took the time while we were in the car to call my Mom and ended up talking with her for a couple of hours. Then I took Dotti to a Mexican restaurant where we had a very nice meal. (We had stopped by Sharis, and Sweet Tomatoes first, but both of them were really jammed up with Mother’s Day customers.) As usual I very much enjoyed the company of my lovely Dotti!

I was still feeling my back, but it was better than it had been the night before, and it was usually only when I tried to quickly change directions when I really got a stab of pain.

We headed home and had a quiet evening, and even with the relatively high points for the afternoon meal, I only had 42.5 points for the day.

Monday - I weighed 186.5 pounds. Still on the right side of 187!

Back to work, and the first day of the week of pager coverage. L

I arrived early and set off on a 3.17-mile walk. My back was nearly 100%, with only a little twinge every now and then while I was walking. The temperature was 53°, it was lightly raining, and I could just see my breath from time to time as I was making the loop.

At work I had to do a safety inspection on a machine and it required doing some odd leaning, to get into position to see some connectors and fans. I moved very slowly to make sure that I didn’t tweak my back again.

At lunch I didn’t want to push it on walking, so I just ate my lunch and read. I did cut back on my lunch this week. It had slowly been increasing in size, and was up to 9.5 points before this week. It was back down to 6.5 points this week.

Dotti made dinner that included corn on the cob, and a black bean burger, both of which were awesome!

By the end of the day I had eaten 36.5 points.

Tuesday - I did my morning walk again, and since I was feeling better on my back, I added in a loop around the western ponds, to bring my walk length up to 3.73-miles. The ponds are all filled back up and the fountains, and little waterfalls, are all flowing at top efficiency. The pipes have all been cleaned out and everything is running perfectly. Those weeks of walking around the drained ponds really helped me to appreciate how beautiful it looks when the water is at its normal level.

I had a very busy day at work. I did quite a bit of lifting, and I worked right through lunch. It wasn’t until I was on the drive home before I could delve into my lunch box and grab a couple of sandwiches and an apple. When I got home, I ate a light meal, and by the end of the day I had eaten 25.5 points.

Wednesday - I weighed 185.5 pounds. Much better. J

I arrived early for work, and I did a walk that included my 3.17-mile loop, the 0.56-mile pond loop, and a 0.50 miles out and back addition. That made my walk a total of 4.23 miles.

At lunch, I did a 2.0 mile out-and-back that included a walk along the eastern ponds and streams, and allowed me to see them all filled to the top as well.

I got tied up with a last minute problem just before leaving for home, and got out the door late, but the drive home wasn’t too bad.

I ended up eating 31.5 points for the day.

Thursday - I weighed 185.0 pounds. Finally! I arrived at work early but I got tied up talking with one of the night shift techs who updated me on how the problem had gone that I was dealing with just before leaving on Wednesday. It set me back about 10 minutes, and so I had to shorten my walk just a bit to fit it in. I did the 3.17-mile path with the 0.56-mile pond loop added in.

At lunch I did my 2.4-mile loop, which I hadn’t done for a while. The construction work on the sites where the houses once stood is coming along rapidly. They were laying all the plumbing and the utility cabling in trenches and it probably won’t be long before the foundations will be poured.

In the evening, Dotti and I worked on getting some more pictures up for the DWLZ-V conference web page.

I ended up eating 32.5 points for the day.

Friday - I weighed 186.0 pounds. I was up a pound but it was obviously normal fluctuation. I was not worried about it.

I arrived at work even earlier than usual on Friday. I was angling to get in a 5-mile walk. I had gotten into my walk by completing the 0.56-mile pond loop, and moved back onto my 3.17-mile path, planning to put in a 1-mile out-and-back, when my phone went off. My boss was hoping to catch me before I had gotten too far along towards my customer site, because he was going to send me to the other side of town. J I was far enough along on my loop to just go ahead and finish it off, to give me 3.73 miles, before hoping my car and driving over to the east side of town. (The guy who was originally scheduled to be there lost the brakes on his car. Fortunately he discovered it in his driveway, since he lives on Mt. Hood, and it would have been a bad thing to figure out he had no brakes coming down the mountain!)

In spite of everything, I was only 30 minutes late arriving at the customer site on the east side of town, and since it was a training class I was to take over, and it was the last day of training, the students had plenty to keep themselves occupied with on the machine to use up that 30-minutes constructively.

On the way up to the clean room, I was looking at those 3 long sets of stairs once more, and although I didn’t run, I did take them two at a time all the way up, and I was not winded at the top. Since I had already walked over 3 miles that morning, I was surprised that the stairs were that easy to go up that way. (I have a very strong memory of how hard those stairs used to be to climb years ago.)

At lunch I did a 3-mile walk that included a change in elevation in feet above sea level from 221 feet at the start, upwards for about a mile to a point that was 327 feet, and then dropped for half a mile down to 198 feet. When I turned around and headed back, that 129-foot hill held my attention very well as I attempted to keep my speed up. Considering the total elevation change of 235 feet, I was happy to get the 3-mile walk completed in 44:06.

At the completion of the class, and the end of the workday, I headed home. Dotti had purchased some new shoes and she wanted to try them out. So, we walked to Sweet Tomatoes for dinner. (The routes we take are 2.1 miles there, and a shorter 1.89 miles coming back, adding up to 3.99 miles total.) For the first time in months, and probably years, Dotti was able to do the entire walk and suffer no pain at all in her feet, knees and back. Those shoes are nothing short of miraculous!

I ate 8.0 points for dinner, and by the end of the day I had eaten 30.5 points. And that lead to my weigh-in of 184.0 pounds today.

How did this week go?

I am very happy with the improvement this week!

For my eating, I pulled things back into control and only averaged 35.21 points-per-day. I will not be able to remain at that low level, because my weight will drop, but it was good to pull in the reins and slow the horse down to a walk instead of a gallop.

My weight responded as it should, and dropped from the top of my limit 187.0 last week, to the 3 pounds lower 184.0 this week, one pound under my target weight. I didn’t have a single daily weigh-in over 187.0 this week, and my average weight dropped a full 2 pounds from 187.64 to 185.64. That is much closer to where it should be.

I did much better on getting my water in this week. I drank at least 6 cups every day, and I averaged 54.86 ounces (6.8 cups) per day. I am very happy with that.

My exercise started out slower than it should have, but it came around at the end of the week. I ended up walking 32.38 miles, bringing my total for the month up to 50.99, and my total for the year to 531.83. To be on track for 1300 miles I only needed 473.7 miles, so I am well ahead of that goal, and if I continued at the same pace I have done so far, I would reach 1459.5 miles at year’s end. I have averaged walking 4.00 miles-per-day for the entire year so far, when all I needed to average was 3.31 miles-per-day to reach my goal.

I would gladly take a week like this one every week. It was not perfect, but it was much better than I have been doing, and hopefully will set me up for another good week next week.

4 years, 3 days OP; a lifetime to follow.

-Al-

6 '3" 239.5/184.0/180±2/BMI:23.0/WK-209

GRAPHS:

Weight Loss Maintenance Year 1 Maintenance Year 2 Maintenance Year 3 Maintenance Year 4 2005 Walking 2005 Walking Data

2004 Walking Data