Mmmmm.....caaaake

The other evening, Ted came home from work with a print-out from his corporate Intranet. A college student was begging for anything for an apartment--dishes, silverware, kitchen utensils. "Do we still have the old things we were saving for your brother?"

(Note: My brother, due to graduate college in December, is a guy's guy, and I've learned that while he only has a bowl, a plate, a spoon, a fork, a knife, a cup, and maybe a storage container or two, he feels it more than covers his need for anything more, especially the old matching place setting I felt compelled to buy for mere dollars at a Boscovs sale years ago).

"Yes...you want to give it to them?" Ted nodded, and, since we've both been there not too long ago and have no desire to go back or re-live the extreme penny pinching days, we ventured up to the attic to dig out the old dishes and silverware we had stowed.

In the digging/impromptu attic clean-out, I ran across old pictures from my freshman and sophomore year in college. I didn't come to Philly until my junior year, and that is when I met Ted. Prior to that, I refer to as my "fat years". (Another note: I was never really fat...at 5'5 or 5'6, the most I've ever weighed is 145, which is still a healthy weight...but upon moving on my own my senior year of college with no meal plan, I dropped 25 of that) I gasped at the picture...."Ted. This looks like me now, doesn't it?"

Ted looked at it closely. "Wow. Look at your boobs."

The most recent issue of Runner's World had a pull-out section referring to plyometrics, and the benefits it can have for runners. The phrases that caught my attention referred to an expert talking about how it very well may be better than speedwork. I'm not going to argue the sense of that, but it's all I needed to hear (for my loyal reader or two, you know by now I avoid speedwork much as I avoid the bird flu).

So, due to the picture-finding of last evening, the clothes that fit now but were too big years before, and Robin's wedding (which is a year out, but as the only bridesmaid traveling to Montana for the nuptuals, I must represent Eastern Pennsylvania), I hopped on the bike this morning and headed to the school track to do the plyometrics the magazine suggested.

I hopped around on each leg for awhile and headed home. Tonight is another run with Ted (the 5K is coming up soon much to his dismay) and I'm feeling good. Still wondering how the heck I tweaked 10 miles out but I feel good. Of course, the jury is still out on if the real work out was the hopping on the football field, the bike ride up hill to the track in a hard gear (no I don't like to change gears on my bike...long story, another blog-day), or the fact that my back tire desparately needed air, so I may as well have been biking through water.

Don't get me wrong--I am comfortable with my size. I am still, on average, smaller than many people in today's society (not that that means very much), and by no means would anyone look at me and determine that I am overweight, or close to it. But I would like to tone up that stomach of fluff I've acquired, fit into my "small jeans" and be comfortbale to walk out of the house in (both literally and figuratively), and still be able to be fast and eat the food I love.

Maybe I'll make that my goal--can I have my cake and eat it too? (Again, both literally and figuratively). It's an experiment, so to say...stay tuned! This is going to be an interesting summer! :-)