Drought

Today's exercise:

5.75 mile run,

followed by 2.75 mile walk

plus 40 reps of situps 6 ways*

I guess that, technically, that was yesterday's exercise since I'm talking about Sunday and it's now 1:00 a.m. Monday morning. Even worse, the last time I worked out was Tuesday, the day I left Seattle, when I took a run before getting in the car to drive to Spokane. I can't remember the last time I didn't exercise for four days in a row (aside from being sick with a bad flu a couple years ago), and it was a big relief to start up again today.

That said, it didn't go as smoothly as I'd hoped. I'm on vacation with my family at Lake Chelan in Eastern Washington. We're here with another family, and the mom has recently started running again after a long break. (She was a total star athlete during her childhood in Eastern Europe.) She, I think, has committed to running the Seattle Marathon in November ... I am still mulling it over. But I'm keeping the training schedule in mind; so far my weekly long run is ahead of the one on the schedule. I'll have a big decision to make in another month or so, when the schedule's distances start getting into the mid and high teens.

Anyway. Vacation mom and I agreed to run 7 miles into the nearest town and set out just after 9:00 this morning. We would have been smarter to start a couple hours earlier. Her pace was more brisk than mine, so I spent the first couple miles trying to adjust ... and then the heat and highway dust started to take their toll. We slogged away for a while, then came to a big hill and agreed to walk up it -- and never resumed running. We were just too hot and worn out. The sun was relentless, the terrain was hilly, the conversation was good ... and somehow we ended up walking the rest of the way into town, close to 3 miles. I didn't have my heart rate monitor on, so I don't know how much of a workout I was getting, but I can say that I felt like I was working hard even though I wasn't running for the last leg. Even so, I'm looking forward to resuming my regular workouts when I'm home next week. I'm hoping to experiment with doing more short runs while I'm here -- maybe even a short run every day, just to see how that feels. I never run on consecutive days at home. Stay tuned. In the meantime, here's the ab workout I do when I don't have access to any equipment:

*Situps 6 ways

I do these in either a single set of 40 each; or a set of 25 each followed by a set of 15 each.

1. Elevated leg crunch:

Lay flat on the floor. Raise knees directly above hips and position lower legs at a 45º angle to knees. Place hands behind head and do crunches from that position, trying to keep your lower back pressed into the floor.

2. Bicycle:

Lay flat on the floor with hands behind your head and knees up. Twist to bring your left elbow to your right knee, then back to starting position, then right elbow to left knee and back. Make sure your midsection is twisting and that you aren't just using your arms and legs to make the movement.

3. Crunches:

Lay flat on the floor and position your lower back so it's pressed into the floor (pelvic tilt). Put your hands behind your head and use your stomach to lift your shoulder blades off the floor. Watch your stomach as you go up to make sure it stays flat and doesn't bunch up in the middle.

4. Reverse crunches:

Lay flat on the floor. Bring your knees above your hips and put your hands behind your head. Roll your butt off the floor and bring your hips toward your head, making sure to lead the movement with your abs and not your legs.

5. Lower ab crunches:

Lay flat on the floor with your legs straight. Put your hands behind your head. Flex the muscles between your hipbones and raise your head -- not your shoulders! -- off the floor. This is a very small movement and you should feel it primarily between your hipbones.

6. Side hip lift:

Lay on your left side with knees slightly bent and your left arm extended in front of you. Cup your head with your right hand. Simultaneously raise your right shoulder and right knee toward each other, then back down. Repeat on the right side.