Strong Like Me: The Return of Thursday 13.

Dear Diary,

I have spent most of the second quarter of 2013 hating myself. Getting bigger. Trying different diets. Nothing was working. When I get this heavy (I'm back up to 170+) running is painful. Nothing fits. Clothes hurt...so I had to buy bigger ones, which for me is a size 12. I know that isn't that big, but in my quest to be fast, it's a hindrance..

At a race I was kvetching to a woman I know, Tove, lamenting my return going to a size 12. She shrugged. "Well, girls like us, we yo-yo. That's what we do." Then she grinned, shrugged again, this 60-year-old Athena I have long admired...and then came in 7th female out of 20 in a tough duathlon, beating most of the women decades younger than she.

13. have long felt bad about my weight. I supposedly weigh 173 today, and when I look around, I see women way bigger than me who say they weigh less. I figure they are either full of air, or they are lying. In any case, with the advent of the new Olympic weighlifting classes, we bought a new toy: The Tanita some number plus. 1000, I think. Eventually, it gives you data showing your progress, so that although your weight is staying the same your bodyfat is dropping.

I like this because is says, yes, you do weigh that much, but it's not all fat, and hey, you're getting better. Just look how much!

This is quite useful because on the second week I got onto the scale and it flashed at me

176

Which, of course, resulted in this:

 

 

12. In my lifelong quest to become waif-ish, or willowy, I have accepted the fact that I'm built like a sprinter

not like a long-distance runner.

I have also discovered:

11. Left to my own devices, I probably eat well enough. I have a craptastic binge, followed closely by a couple days of eating nothing but vegetables. This doesn't really match any known diet out there. It's just Misty's Craptastic Binge/Fast/Eat Healthy Way. Generally low fat, high protein with lots of vegetables most of the time, and the occasional bag of chips. But, I must, must must exercise, or I'll blow up like a balloon. And

10. Speaking of which, if you're like me and you forget how to spell "balloon," someone once told me to remember that the two Os are balloons, and the lls are the strings. Each balloon needs a string, ergo, two lls.

9. During June, I did two marathons and a duathlon. I will write race reports about those soon.

8. In preparing for the duathlon, which was supposed to be a triathlon but the lake was too low AND DON'T THINK I WASN'T PISSED ABOUT THAT LACK OF SWIM I pulled my bike out of the garage where it has sadly hung for the past two years. Then Baboo and went for a ride. 1-2 miles into the ride I flatted out, tried to make a sharp turn, and went over onto my elbow. I hate cycling. Did I mention how much? ANyway, it turns out that there are many, many helpful cyclists out there wanting to help a damsel in distress even when that damsel is screaming, "MOTHERFUCKER I HATE CYCLING!!" I had an egg-size swelling on my arm.

 

7. Did you know, on average, that you nudge things with your elbow about sixty times per day? Me neither, until I brused the sh!t out of it. About sixty times a day I nudge something OW!! and then I swear. More than usual.

6. After years of lusting after a t-shirt that says SHARKFEST 2014 I am now signed up. Baboo and I are doing SHARKFEST, 2014. My coworkers were concerned. But as I told them, I don't have to outswim the shark. I just have to outswim several other tasty swimmers.

5. THe day after the SHARKFEST 2014 I am hoping to do a run called the Big Basin 50K. I hope, I hope.

4. I am seriously on the fence about Ironman Boulder. I have worried that since it's been 5 years since my last Ironman that my tattoo might expire. But man, did I mention I hate cycling? Still, I'm leaning closer...and closer...

3. About three weeks ago Sweet Baboo told me excitedly that he had ordered himself a practice shotput and discus. We had started talking about the senior Olympics, which I'll be able to try to enter in 2015. And, as he excitedly shared, he bought one for me, too

Uhhhhh....

wait. What?

I tried to get excited about it. I really did. But the fantasy me is a gazelle, not a large, burly thrower. I just couldn't feel it.

Then they arrived, the discus and the shotput, and he took me out to the field at the high school near our house,

And, well...

I had fun! I think I might have a penchant for the discus. The shotput, well, we'll see.

 

2. As you can see, throwers are not willowy. They are strong.

 

 

 

 

1. Like me.

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