Monday, March 29, 2010

Why does spring break always have lousy weather?

Maybe not "always" but the majority of my spring breaks seem to be overcast, chilly if not downright cold, and rainy, or at least damp. Wednesday and Saturday were the only two sunny days in the last week. And Wednesday I spent the better part of the afternoon in a big windowless room helping to set up chairs in nice neat rows for a graduation ceremony.

Of course I stayed up till midnight nearly every night but still had to get up early b/c my school-age son was not on break too. His is sometime next month (when the weather is likely to be warmer and hopefully sunnier). I guess I still haven't quite adjusted to daylight-saving time and thought I was only staying up till 11 (and getting up at 6?). Ha ha. I hardly even exercised in the last two weeks, certainly not enough to bother logging in mapmyrun. I started to plan going to the gym and going to Crossfit not once but twice, but it just didn't get there. And it's so hard for me to feel really awake when I can't get even a clue as to what time it is when I look outside. Seriously, 7am, noon, 7pm...it all looked the same! I did end up getting most of my to-do list accomplished toward the end of the week. And I did pick up the kettlebell and do a few swings &/or cleans &/or jerks occasionally as the week wore on.

Last night I found a "workout for weight loss" thing on Prevention.com, talking about how women should workout more like men (and a few other things) if they really want to lose weight: cut back on chocolate therapy, forgive yourself when you screw up, and lift heavier weights to build more fat-burning muscle. Basically you gotta get off the lower-weight, higher-reps plateau. So today I did 2 of the 4 sample workouts, 12 KB long cycles (clean and jerk) each hand and 10 snatches, again each hand. Then this evening we went on a family walk--1 mile. (That's far when you're 5 and wearing snow boots (because of the rain), even if you're on a scooter.) 1/2-way through, after telling me again to keep up, my husband passed me the stroller; like that won't slow me down at all. uh huh. Anyway, it was a nice walk once we got warmed up.

Started the 3rd quarter of my master's program today. My classes are in a nice solid block in the middle of the day. That should make it easier to plan when to workout...once I figure out when I'm going to eat lunch that is. But at least I don't have an awkward hour-long break between each class this time; that pretty much ended up as a social hour last quarter as an hour isn't quite long enough to really get into studying or homework, especially when you have to move to another classroom and get something to eat too.

My shin hasn't been hurting the last few days. My stress level has been lower too. Coincidence? I think not. I've been bad about the physical therapy. I just realized I should be starting week 4 of the "walk" to "run" program, and I never got past week 1. In fact, I can't even find the paper with the plan on it. I thought it was in my backpack (since I couldn't find it in my gym bag). Hmm. I'll go to the gym tomorrow and do something along those lines.

OK, I'm going to bed. I WILL be asleep by midnight! :~)

Friday, March 19, 2010

Break Time!

Spring break, quarter break, whatever you want to call it. I finished my last final yesterday at 5:30pm. Today I stayed in my PJs till 4:30! yes, pm. Little Monkey Boy ran out front, and I had to go catch him; I felt rather silly still being in my PJs that late in the day, so I finally got dressed--in sweats and a big t-shirt. Hey, I didn't want to sacrifice comfort.

Today's plan, as of last night, originally included going to Crossfit. Then that was downgraded to another elliptical workout at the gym, but that didn't happen either. Today I figured I'd get in some walking, but I was reading comments on some blog, and, well you know...inertia. THEN I thought, "well, I finally found my Yourself!Fitness cd the other day, I can do some yoga after the kids go to bed." Well, guess what? I had a totally, perfectly lazy day today. I slept late, folded a little bit of laundry, fed the cat, watched TV, and just "chilled" all day long. Felt good. I should be asleep by now, but, as usual, I'm not. Inertia. It's just so easy to stay here, in front of the computer or TV as opposed to climbing the stairs and clearing off my bed (more laundry).

I did go to the gym Tuesday and did another "walk" to "run" workout. This time I was able to get one of those Precor ellipticals that I like. They have more of a knee-up motion than a running motion, but I like how they don't make my toes go numb by the end of 30 minutes.

OK, well I've got a kid who's decided to camp out in the living room tonight, and he's still awake because of me (and TV, yes, we watch a lot of TV, but we also routinely kick the kids outside too; at least this way I'LL be waking HIM up in the morning instead of the other way around. :~P )  Good night, and happy Spring!

Friday, March 12, 2010

I'm up WAY too late

I'm really sleepy but just don't feel like getting up to go to bed. And somebody's gotta get up early to take Spiderboy to a Scouting for Food drive by 8am. yay. At first, my husband said he'd take him; more recently he said whoever's up first takes him. Hmm, wonder who that will be....

I made it to the gym again yesterday, woo hoo twice in 1 week! I got the 2nd to last available elliptical. Given Monday's Crossfit workout and the fact that I have been doing some elliptical/walking, I jumped right to day 3 of week 1 of my "walk" to "run" program. That was 10min warm-up, 2min "run" 1 min "walk" for 15 minutes, 5 min cool-down. I did at least 2 miles, I forgot to look before stopping. My legs were actually feeling it some what with Monday's rowing and KB swinging; even today going up the stairs at school was harder than usual. I wore my old Asics yesterday to the gym, tired of narrow shoes!

OK, goodnight.

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Crossfit & a compliment

So I FINALLY made it back to Crossfit yesterday. It was a quick but particularly demanding workout. Warm up was 2x10 push-ups, sit-ups, and squats. The workout of the day was 3 circuits: 400m run, or in my case row, 21 2-handed overhead kettlebell swings (35lb in my case), and 12 kipping pull-ups. After I finished the first set of pull-ups, the instructor asked me "Where'd you learn to kip like that? ... That's AWESOME!"

I'm really sore today and looking forward to being even more sore tomorrow! 8-| ok, not really, but it did feel pretty good to have done such a strenuous workout (after I caught my breath and ate something) after 3 weeks of walking and elliptical.

Saturday, March 6, 2010

Almost spring, almost finals.

Either I didn't work out for two weeks, or I forgot to log a workout. Yeah, just 1. I've been swamped with homework and lab reports. I'm reasonably sure I worked out at home last Saturday. I'd check my planner, but I already took out February (to minimize weight and space in my backpack, I switched to using the cover of my old weekly, spiral bound planner and a 1/2" set of rings, so I only keep 1 month at a time in there). Anyway, I'm pretty sure I did abt 25min of kettlebells: 10 2-handed swings, 10 cleans (each hand), 10 long cycle (each hand), and 10 snatches (each hand) -- x3. Then I did some lunges, squats, situps and pushups, and a couple other exercises. 3 sets of 10.


Monday I packed my gym bag for swimming, but ended up not going. There was just too much homework to get done in too short a time. I've been up till 1am a lot--usually directly related to being at school late (as late as 1130 even) doing hw. So I finally got to where I have a little time before the next thing is due and went to the gym yesterday.  I met a friend there. She went running outside while I started walking around the indoor track. I was going to try an elliptical, but the only ones available were the ones that make my foot numb after a while. At 1.5 miles, I saw my friend back in the gym, and she walked the last 1/2 mile with me. She walks fast! knocked 30 seconds off my 1st mile's time! Then we went and did some push ups and sit ups.

I BOUGHT NEW RUNNING SHOES! I ordered a new pair of Asics 1140s online. They feel narrower than my old ones, and the laces are a lot shorter! They feel comfortable enough after I've had them on for a bit, but they're another reason I didn't want to use the foot-numbing ellipticals. My neuroma is making itself felt more lately. (That's such a weird word: neuroma.) My old shoes are over a year old but only have about 200 miles on them. I'm not a high-mileage runner; especially now with these stress fractures.

Don't remember if I mentioned this year's Tri4Cure in June. Ran into A at the gym a couple of weeks ago, and she was telling me about the people she's convinced to do it this year. I said if it fell during the quarter break I could do it. And she said that since I can't run I could focus on the swimming and biking, but the other day, the physical therapist gave me a 4-day-a-week "walk" to "run" program to do on the elliptical for the next 5  weeks. I think I can substitute 1 day on a bike, but I don't know about the swimming. And that's assuming I can get to the gym 4 days a week to begin with! I haven't been to Crossfit in 3 weeks, and my waistline is noticing. (As I 'patiently' wait for the Ghirardelli brownies to cool in the kitchen, mmmm, they smell heavenly. Eh, what's that? DH is cutting them, and getting out the milk! Share!) At least
there are only 2 weeks left in this quarter, yay. (DUDE, he took THREE brownies!!)

Stress fractures suck. Thursday was a gorgeous day, above 40, sunny, and on my way home I thought "what a great day for a run! ...oh yeah. I can't run. Well maybe I can get DH to go out for a walk while I make food." He wouldn't go, and I realized I was wanting to live vicariously through him, being able to go out. At least he helped me with the food I was making (for a dinner at church, that I couldn't stay for, because I had to study for a test). I'm going to do my best to maximize the physical and minimize the mental during this next quarter break to give my brain as much rest as possible.