My blood pressure this morning was 120/71.

Update: I just took it again and it was 114/64.

Woohoo!

It doesn't look like I'm going to suddenly go blind after all! yay!

Posted by: Flibbertigibbet at 08:47 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Category: Fitness with Flibby
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A couple of weeks ago my cousin visited me here in NYC with a friend of hers. Both of them are nurses and I was telling them about my blood pressure problem. They both thought that it was very strange that I had such high blood pressure when the problem occurs so rarely in our family and usually only during pregnancy or old age.

So, I was showing them my blood pressure machine and how I take my blood pressure and it turns out that wasn't doing it right!

I wasn't really paying attention to how the cuff was lined up on my arm and the little air tube needs to be lined up with my brachial artery that passes through the inside of my elbow.

They also showed me how to rest my arm so that it isn't strained or anything.

Lo and behold when I took my blood pressure it was lots lower! This weekend, I took readings on Saturday and Sunday at sort of random times and both times my systolic was under 120 and my dystolic was around 70.

This morning, I took a reading after my work out (not immediately, but about 30 minutes after) and my blood pressure was 103/62!!! Crazy low! (Hopefully, I'm not going to have to worry about hypotension now!)

So, I am going to start trying to measure it again regularly and do it right this time and see what my real average blood pressure is.

All in all, this is pretty good news and I'm glad my worry was the result of a silly mistake on my part!

Posted by: Flibbertigibbet at 07:43 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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After breaking the 2 hour barrier on the half marathon in Atlanta in November, I stopped running. The reason being that I find it very difficult to eat enough to both run and gain weight.

Well, I've started gaining weight. I think I'm at about 185 lbs right now. Standing at 6'2" that's still a little lighter than what I'd like to be (I'm aiming for 190.) and I don't care what the stupid BMI chart says.

Anyway, I've been weight training and trying to eat good, clean protien and all that stuff and I've gained a little wieght.

Now I want to tone up a bit, so on Thursday I went for a run in Central Park.

I have no idea how far I ran on Thursday because I am of the mind that when starting to run it's best to just get out there and go before you start measuring things. If you try to start without a sense of your own limits, you'll try to set goals that are either too grand or too short. So, for me, I get started by just going out and doing it; I figure running a little ways is better than runnning no way at all.

So, I ran a lot and walked some. I was out there for about 45 minutes, which was about 15 minutes longer than I really wanted to spend. It wasn't a great run, but it was a run. After looking at a map of Central Park, I realized that I probably covered almost 5 miles worth of ground.

That seemed like a bit much to me since I hadn't run since November.

Tonight, I went for another run, but this time I planned a route for which the distance was known. From Columbus Circle around to the 72nd St. Transverse and back down to the Circle, it's a little more than 1.7 miles.

I did two laps in 29:45.

I am VERY impressed with myself.

Although my endurance is far short of what it was in November, that pace is faster than what my half marathon pace was. Back then, I ran 13.2 miles at about 9 minutes a mile. Today, I ran at an 8:45 mile pace.

I also managed to do it without stopping. (For some reason the two mile mark is a psychological barrier to me and I find that I always want to walk right then.)

So, I'm kind of tickled that I'm not as out of running shape as I thought. I have a long way to go before I could consider doing another half marathon, but I don't feel like I'm starting over from scratch.

Which reminds me: I need to get a new pair of running shoes.

Posted by: Flibbertigibbet at 03:40 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Category: Fitness with Flibby
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