Learning to Run

2012-01-26T20:45:00.001-05:00

Last week I ran and then wrote a post on my phone, but it never published. Now I can't even access it on my phone. The post shows in the list and has a perpetual "publishing" next to it. That's all.

So I bought the C25K app so I can use it AND listen to music at the same time. It can't start the music from the app (it's supposed to but I always get the message that it can't) BUT I can open the music manually to play while the app is also running. (apparently the free app doesn't work that way)

Anyway I'm up to W4D2 and in the last 2 runs my left shin hurt a lot, right where I had the stress fractures two years ago. There has been a lot of stress in my life lately. I've started applying for jobs and got a call for an interview. The guy wanted me to fly half-way across the country (not on my dime) for the interview with only a few days notice. We ended up settling on a VTC (tomorrow) instead. The job looks great from the small amt of info on the notice, but it would require us to move...again.

Thierry Sanchez has offered a kettlebell program for free (or was) at kratos.dk (here's the info: http://kettlebellfitnessdk.wordpress.com/2012/01/16/kettlebell-training-school-progressive-kettlebell-programs/) I wasn't 100% sure I was following instructions correctly to sign up--they're in Danish, but I did and the program is in English (the email it came in is also in Danish--maybe I should learn it, sounds fun!). I haven't started it yet, but it is basic and for beginners. After 4 weeks, as I understand, I should get Part 2 & so on. I don't know how long it lasts altogether, but I'm looking forward to it. I've also created a 10K training plan for the ABQ Half, 10K, 5K, Kids' K in April. I haven't registered for it yet; I plan to early next month.

C25K W3D1, W2D1 combined

2011-12-30T15:21:00.000-05:00

I bought the full C25K app to day and jumped right in. I figured I was in good enough shape to start at least at week 3. W3D1 was a little harder than I'd expected (the 3min run part), so for the 2nd half I went back to W2. That spot on my left shin hurt most of the time again; it's been achy pretty much since my last run (about a week ago). It lessened after warming up (~1/2 hr) .

Max HR 200bpm. Workout 60min, ~3.5mi. My walking speeds, esp toward the end, dragged my overall speed down. I'm still having trouble with a 15min/mi pace here at this altitude.
Shoes: Asics Gel-Blur33. Temp ~50deg, beautiful, sunny day. I took a picture under a tree to try to capture the brilliance of the sky contrasted against the bare branches, but the sky looks darker in the photo than it looked to me.

Monday's Run

2011-11-29T00:01:00.003-05:00

Slow. I had only eaten cereal, granola bars, and a cream soda (plus water). Plus I'd had trouble sleeping last night. Lots of walk breaks; achy right knee; achy left shin. Still felt good to get out and run though.

2.43mi, 32:54min

Thanksgiving run

2011-11-24T19:47:00.001-05:00

Great run. No walking at start, went right into run. After a while my right knee started bothering me, felt tight or something at the inside back, and a little bothersome below the kneecap also to the inside. It felt, or at least sounded, like my left foot was hitting the ground harder than my right. Inside left shin a little achy too.

2.36mi, 30:48min.

P.S. I also ran last Wednesday, through my old neighborhood: 10min walking warm-up (0.6mi mostly uphill), 33:33 running with walk breaks (2.3mi fairly flat), 11:15 cool down (0.5).

Time flies

2011-11-18T23:54:00.001-05:00

I finally went running again today. I didn't realize until just now that it's been 6 days since my last run/workout. The run was 2.2mi, 30:48 min. 14 min/mi. I need to get that down to 11 min/mi & add in push-ups, sit-ups, etc.

I've recorded a yoga & a tai chi workout on tv, but I haven't fine either of them yet. I've been really tired, esp in the mornings. Plus as soon as I got back from TN, my sinuses went haywire, mostly stuffy & quite annoying.

I need to create or find a comprehensive workout plan. I also need to get a new tube for my bike; the front tire's flat now. I've been driving to & from work these last 2 weeks partly due to the cold mornings & no gear for biking in it, partly due to not getting up early enough to walk to work, but DH found all our gloves & some hats.

Soreness

2011-11-03T22:56:00.002-04:00

Tuesday I ran 2 miles on a treadmill. At about 4.5-4.8mph, 0 incline. I forget at the moment how long it took. I'll have to check mapmyrun.
Yesterday we got to work out at a customer's gym (I'm on a business trip with 2 coworkers). It was ~~poetry~~ pretty nice: they had a weight room with treadmills, etc. and a Crossfit kind of set up. I don't like weight machines & didn't feel like running on a treadmill again so soon & no trails outside, so I found a 12kg kettlebell & did some swings. The handle was painted & the paint was chipped and uneven. Plus I didn't have anything to wrap my wrists wirth. I did a little bit of LC & tried a snatch but the bell hurt my forum too much. I did a single hand swung ladder & then a 2-handed overhead swung ladder them some cleans. I finished up with some leg swings, grapevine-like steps a la RW. My back muscles all the way up into my neck are sore today from all that.
Today I walked 3 miles on the hotel treadmill while doing laundry. It took 55:57 min. I was going to work on my 15 min/mi walking pace but wasn't quite "feeling it." Can't wait for tomorrow! :P (you know, all that 2nd day after soreness)

Back on the bike

2011-10-23T19:54:00.000-04:00

DH fixed my bike's flat tire last Tuesday, so I was able to ride to work again. No matter how much I told myself I'd walk to work while my bike was out of commission, it only happened twice. Either I was running too late to walk, or I had to be sure to be home on time, so I drove most days. Also I haven't been eating as well (healthy) this past week.

Wednesday morning when I rode to work it was quite chilly. My fingers hurt from the cold, & my ears felt it too. Thursday was more humid and warmer (or at least felt warmer). Friday was like Wed again, but I was more prepared: I pulled my jacket sleeves as far down as I could before I got on my bike, which helped my fingers not freeze.

Also on Thursday I went running. I dressed a bit on the warm side, changing clothes in my chilly closet, only to discover that it was warmer outside than in my closet! After warming up I ran 1.65mi, increasing my distance by .55mi. I did a little of the run/walk until I slowed down enough to just run. On that last (3rd) lap my arches and ankles were feeling a bit strained. I was wearing my new shoes, and my feet weren't used to going that far on so little arch support. The new shoes do feel more comfortable to my feet than my old ones now though. When I put on the old ones they feel weird around the ankles, particularly on the outsides.

I've been feeling a bit out of sorts the last couple of weeks. I think it's related to the decrease in exercise, especially since I wasn't riding my bike most days. I had a class to run last week, so I didn't get my usual exercise in, plus the flat tire. My husband and I often take a walk in the evening, but it's usually just 1 0.55mi lap. And he's not been feeling well, so he's had to ask me to slow down. (!) Used to be I had trouble keeping up with him.

My dad and brother came to visit last week. They arrived later Wed after I was asleep and left Friday morning after I'd gone to work. If I'd known when I went running on Thurs that they were leaving so soon, I'd have postponed the run, or at least run less. Dad did agree to stop back by on their way home from visiting the rest of the sibs, if only for a night.

Missing Runner's World

2011-10-16T11:38:00.000-04:00

For some reason I didn't receive my Nov issue of RW. :( I went online and got my subscription extended--it would take 6-8 weeks to get a replacement copy, so I just decided to read it online. Why don't I just read them all online? because I'm a paper girl at heart. I like the feel, smell, and experience of reading off paper better. I did find some useful info on training about "ditching rules"/conventional "wisdom" like static stretching before running, etc.

Speaking of running, I ran again on Thursday (new shoes) 1.1mi, 12:46min plus a .55mi warm-up walk. Total time 21:57. I had to cut it a little short due to equipment issues, things weren't staying in place. I started out too fast with the first lap & ended up with a headache on Friday. There was a little bit of shin muscle soreness the next day, the kind that feels good. I also did 100 KB cleans (50L, 50R); my forearms were a little sore too on Friday.

Man, my sinuses! How long is the grass going to be polinating??? Trees around my neighborhood just started turning yellow. There are sticker plants in my backyard that still need uprooting, or rather the grass needs them to be uprooted. I'd like to have just one solid patch of grass that the kids can walk in barefooted.

This week I'm in charge of a class at work. I don't know when I'll run. I can do KB while watching kids. Plus my dad and brother are coming out at the end of the week for a couple of days.

Polar plan Day 1

2011-10-10T13:34:00.000-04:00

I set up a new, 4-week training plan at PolarPersonalTrainer.com
Plan: 10min WU, 15min run, 5min CD

	Execution: It went pretty well. 1 lap (0.55mi) warm-up ~8min; Run portion: 2 laps in 13:04. Had to walk a couple of times. Cool down walk another lap, 10:01 Cool, sunny day. Gorgeous blue sky.

Testing

2011-10-09T10:51:00.001-04:00

Trying to update blog-phone connection.

And on the 8th day...

2011-10-04T22:55:00.000-04:00

(since my last run) I finally ran again. I did a half mile walk to warm up and was feeling pretty tired. (Stayed up past midnight last night reading a book.) As I was approaching the end of the lap I was tying to figure out how far I would be able to run at any given time the 2nd time around. I got it nearly figured out but ended up running the whole lap. Actually I did do a little running last week: I got outside of work & realized I'd forgotten my bicycle helmet. I ran nearly all the way to my desk and back (I had to beat the kids home from school), and my left calf felt really tight.

My back tire has been low, and I finally tried to pump it up on Saturday. I think I broke the valve. It won't stay inflated now. Walking to work tomorrow (I drove yesterday and today, in the interest of time).

You're not missing anything

2011-10-02T10:28:00.000-04:00

I haven't done anything since Tusday but a few presses and a mile walk. Next week I think I'll work on that kettlebell workout I copied from Thierry Sanchez' blog a few months ago...if I can find where I saved it.

UPDATED: Fitness Test

2011-09-26T11:38:00.001-04:00

Push-ups: goal was 26-30, actual: 28
Sit-ups/crunches (they're actually somewhere in-between, like when you cross a mule with a horse and get a donkey, hmm): goal 40-45, actual: 42
1.5mi run: goal when I got up this morning was 16:30 (yes I'm slow), then I saw that there was a 3.7pt difference from 16:22min to 16:23min, so my new goal was 16:20 (just to be on the safe side :p ).
Actual time 16:12 which is in the same point spread as 16:22.

I haven't done the math yet, but the score will be around the same as my last fitness test.
Oh, and I actually wasn't the last runner to finish! I passed a girl on the first lap. When I finished my run I went back and ran her in. She'd picked up the pace by then and finished strong--if I hadn't walked back to meet her I don't know if I could've run that fast. ;)

I took a swing of xtra strength 5 hr Energy this morning, on an empty stomach. I had some toast & milk as soon as I could after, but man! was I anxious this morning. I haven't had any 5 hr energy since early spring. OK, gotta shower and get to work.

UPDATE:
My last fitness test: sit-ups--42, push-ups--21, run 16:11
And I decided to wear my old shoes; I realized Friday I'm still used to that stride, so there was less stressing about that as I was running.

C25K improvise

2011-09-23T10:38:00.001-04:00

I walked 1.5 laps (~.8mi, ~14min) for a warm-up. I was going to run 2 laps, walk some, then run some more, but once I finished the first lap I decided to go for 3 laps (1.65mi) continuously running & JUST made it! Yay! I was getting a heckuva stitch in my side at the end there. 11:05min/mi pace which makes for a ~16:37min 1.5mi which will let me pass the run portion of the fitness test. I'd still like to do it in under 16:30. At least I've finally run 1.5 since moving here. Oh, & I wore my old shoes today. I'd been wearing only my new shoes since I'd bought them, but I was noticing a new tender spot on my left shin lately, so I figured I'd try my old shoes again.

(1 lap = 0.55mi)

Last night I did 5 min long cycle with the kettlebell, 1 switch, somewhere between 25 & 30ish per hand, so 50-60 reps total. Then I did push-ups (2x10) and sit-ups (30). Still have work to do for Monday.

C25K W5D2 repeat

2011-09-20T20:27:00.000-04:00

Much better than yesterday. It also helped that someone stopped me in the middle of the walk between 3/4mi repeats to talk to me about something; that definitely helped me get through the second repeat. No cheese b4 running today, just a Jolly Rancher, mostly to delay the dry mouth. I like running with gum to keep the spit level up. 2 days off/cross-training now, plus su & pu. Then Friday one more run before my test on Monday.

C25K W5D2

2011-09-19T19:34:00.000-04:00

	1/2mi warm-up walk. Jog 3/4mi, walk 1/4mi, jog 3/4 mi. HARD!!! The 3/4mi repeats took more than 10min each! Felt almost like puking at the end. NO cheese before running. (Usu it\'s ok given a little more time to digest it and lower effort.) I was surprised this run was so hard, Friday's went pretty well. I've been getting about 5:30min on the 1/2 miles. Biggest difference--today I ran first thing in the morning (hence the cheese) instead of in the afternoon. My fitness test will be in the morning, plus it's been harder running in the evenings b/c of cross-country and football practices. I had a headache by the end of today's run, but it didn't get worse over the course of the day. I kept hydrated and ate decently. I plan on getting to be much earlier tonight!

1/2mi warm-up walk. Jog 3/4mi, walk 1/4mi, jog 3/4 mi. HARD!!! The 3/4mi repeats took more than 10min each! Felt almost like puking at the end. NO cheese before running. (Usu it\'s ok given a little more time to digest it and lower effort.) I was surprised this run was so hard, Friday's went pretty well. I've been getting about 5:30min on the 1/2 miles. Biggest difference--today I ran first thing in the morning (hence the cheese) instead of in the afternoon. My fitness test will be in the morning, plus it's been harder running in the evenings b/c of cross-country and football practices. I had a headache by the end of today's run, but it didn't get worse over the course of the day. I kept hydrated and ate decently. I plan on getting to be much earlier tonight!

C25K W5D1 repeat

2011-09-19T00:15:00.001-04:00

Last Friday I did a repeat of the couch-to-5K week 5 day 1 workout. It was still rough. I've had a hard time getting a good night's sleep lately. Thursday I jsut kept waking up, then about an hour b4 I needed to get up my nose started running, so I couldn't sleep for that. Friday night and last night I was sandwiched between my two younger kids. I think I may finally have found the motivation for keeping my nearly 7yo daughter in her own bed all night: pierced ears. She's been begging to get her ears pierced. Apparently she's the only 1st grader in school w/o pierced ears. I had been telling her that she had to wait till she was 10, then just that she had to show enough responsibility by brushing her hair and teeth every day. (It's amazing how hard it is to get kids to brush their teeth once they're older than 5.) This evening it hit me: she has to stay in her own bed all night for at least a month to get her ears pierced AND keep staying in her bed or she loses the earrings (& likely the holes they go in). We need to put up a calendar, and I'm leaning toward making her start over after each night she comes to our bed. We've done this before, and once she got what she wanted after 30 non-consecutive nights of sleeping in her own bed all night, she reverted back to coming into our bed. The 3yo, being smaller, is easier to deal with, but he'll sleep on his own better than the 6yo will.

I've been working on push-ups and sit-ups too. I just wish I could progress faster with the running. I just can't seem to reach the endurance--half a mile? Tomorrow I'll do W5D2 which has 3/4 mi stints. I'd better get to bed for that. Oh and I got new running shoes a couple of weeks ago: Asics Blur33s. They have a lower heel so I'm able to get more of a midfoot strike than I could with the 1140s. And my 10yo's doing much better in football practice, plus the weather got a lot cooler for a week. He has a scrimmage this Saturday then the games start. I stayed for a little over an hour of yesterday's practice, & they had 2 water breaks in that time. It still kills me to see the 5yos crying as they run though. It's very physically demanding.

C25K W5D1

2011-09-18T23:32:00.000-04:00

I tried to post this the other day from my phone, but it wouldn't publish.

Last Wed:
Walk 1/2 mi then WOD: run .5 mi, walk .25 mi, run .5 mi, walk .25 mi, run .5 mi. Total time 36:46. Nearly had a stitch in my side by the end. Didn't do any push-ups or sit-ups today. After workout ate a banana & had a glass of Ovaltine. Later around 10:30-11 had Greek yogurt w/raspberries & honey. By noon it occurred to me that I hadn't had anything to drink since the chocolate milk; I was getting a headache. It got worse during the afternoon, esp when ever I stood up. Motrin, Tylenol, food & drink mostly took care of it by bedtime, which is now, or rather a hour ago.

Running and football

2011-09-05T21:41:00.000-04:00

Saturday I took my son to football practice. He really didn't want to go. He'd had practice the night before and stayed up till between 10 and 11 and was just really tired. Sat practice was at 9am. I made him go, had to drag him there. About 50min into practice he came over begging to go home. I gave him some water then noticed the coach yelling at him. Since he'd gone to get water w/o his team, they *all* had to run a lap. I pulled DS along and ran with him. 5 or 10 minutes later they got a water break (finally).

I took the opportunity to do laps myself. I ran outside the field on two sides where there was a sidewalk, then along the edge or just off it the other two sides: 1 lap = .22mi. I did something akin to my latest C25K workout, but I forgot to stop my watch right after the 8th lap. I caught it after a couple more minutes.

In the second half of practice, the kids were broken out into groups according to their positions, and my son's group was down at the other end of the field. My son was still having a hard time at practice, complaining about a headache too. His coaches checked his helmet, but it was fitting the way it should. In an effort to show solidarity with him, I did another couple of laps. On the second one, as I moved from the sidewalk to the field, he came over to me, crying, so I walked back over to the group, apologizing. His coach and the neighbor pulled him back into practice. I finished my lap but felt like crying too. I already felt they weren't giving enough water breaks.

I continued to watched how practice was going, but without going down near the end of the field again. I saw my son and other boy get pulled aside for some high knees/drop action. My son was actually doing the drill faster than the other boy. (!) Back in the group, they were paired off to do some defensive stuff. I saw my son get pushed way back by another kid. I didn't know, though, if that's how he was supposed to respond or if he should have been pushing back harder. The smallest kids had another water break (2nd) after ~40 min, then the next smallest boys. At the 2 hour mark the other two groups got a break too. My son came over and got a drink; happily, he was feeling much better and finally enjoying himself. Then this "short" practice continued for another 45 min, but the last part was relay races, and my son one at least one of them, so he was back to his old "I'm so good aren't I" self. :P

I talked to my husband later about my concerns about the kids' hydration, esp since they're in their pads and helmets the whole time except for water breaks. (The sweat can't evaporate and cool them.) He talked to the neighbor who was surprised to find out that the breaks were that far apart. My husband said when he played football as a kid, the had short breaks every 15-20 minutes. I hope our neighbor remembers to be more aware of the time between breaks next time. He's not one of the coaches, but he helps out.

Thursday 1 Sep

2011-09-03T11:16:00.002-04:00

Walked 44.5 min. Haven't mapped it yet

UPDATE: the walk was 1.73mi for a 25:43min/mi pace! Wow! I knew I was slow but didn't think I was that slow. I'd been up till at least 11 nearly every night last week and was pretty tired.

C25K W4D2

2011-08-30T00:08:00.000-04:00

Distance: 2.2 mi. Pace: 13:20 min/mi Duration: 00:29:20 Speed: 4.5 mi/h
Harder than Saturday and slower. I did feel strong on the run even though I was barely keeping my breathing rhythm.

Why Kenyans Run

2011-08-28T19:04:00.002-04:00

http://runimal800.wordpress.com/2011/08/24/its-not-to-be-a-kenyan-runner/

An eye-opening and inspirational post.

C25K W3D1 Making progress

2011-08-28T01:28:00.000-04:00

I was afraid I wouldn't be able to do the 1/2 mile runs b/c I hadn't run more than 4 min at a time yet, but I did it! The first one wasn't bad either, though the second one was hard. I pretended Hardin Field was a 1/2 mile square loop and ran for distance this time instead of running for time. I ran a mile! --in two halves, but still. Running for time instead of distance I couldn't keep track of how far my running parts were.

I walked 1 lap (.55mi) for warm-up and again afterward, but I'm logging those separately from this on mapmyrun b/c I wanted to see my min/mile on the workout: 12.73 min/mile! Better than I expected. I still need to get faster. I also want to start running in the mornings instead of evenings. I'm just afraid that I'll end up getting caught up with the kids as they get ready for school and that I'll over-sleep even more than I already do. But I'm going to be fit testing in the morning, and it's cooler (it was still 88deg by 9pm tonight!) then too, so it would be nice to get used to running early(er).

It's all in my head?

2011-08-23T23:53:00.000-04:00

"The brain f%cks with you. You aren’t sure if the pain and fear is in your head or if it is real. You aren't sure if you need to toughen up or pull back. You question if you’ll ever, truly be back in the game with full self-assurance and gusto. You wonder if you are destined for a life of slow running, very low weekly mileages and too much cross training to bear. " --ShutUpAndRun

Thank you SUAR. That's just how I feel. I usually err on the side of caution (& wimpiness). I'm paranoid of redeveloping stress fractures or developing new ones. So I end up not training hard enough.

need more running

2011-08-22T23:30:00.000-04:00

Friday C25K W3D3, 2.2mi, 34:09. I have heart rate data for this one.

This evening: walk 10min/1/2 mile; run 90, walk 90; x2; run 3:00 walk 3:00 x2, run 60, walk 60, run 30, walk. 32:21 total; HRmax ~190, 2.2mi total

The two shorter runs at the end were at faster pace, the pace I hope to be able to end up running. I really need to up my endurance so I can do my fitness test next month. I still haven't run more than 3 min continually. The logged workouts include warm-up and sometimes cool-down--whatever's left to complete the last lap.

I've been forgetting to do push-ups and sit-ups, gotta do those too.

2011-08-18T00:20:00.000-04:00

Yesterday 3mi bike ride (took the "long" way home), 18min.
Today run/walk 29:04min. I haven't mapped it yet, so I don't know the distance. Also KB: 2x10 snatch and clean.

Busy busy

2011-08-14T13:45:00.001-04:00

Last week was another busy week. I ran C25K W3D1 on Mon or Tues (I logged it as Tues; I seem to recall being extremely tired Mon). On Wed I flew out to CA for a quick business trip. I took a short detour to check out Solvang and the Santa Ines Mission; it was maybe 80deg. I had some delicious pomegranite/raspberry yogurt. That evening I met with an old friend from college, and she took me to dinner. We had a great time catching up.

Thursday after my meeting (which went quite well, thank you), I had time to go for a run before heading back toward the airport. The weather was misty, cloudy and less than 70deg. I ran a lush 1.5mi trail. (C25K W2D3, 90sec run, 90sec walk). I saw lots of vegetation I'd never seen before. On the way back to the airport I stopped at a lookout point to check out the ocean. I was somewhat disappointed that it was still cloudy. It didn't clear up at all till between 3 and 4:30, kind of a bummer, but otherwise the weather was nice. I got back home around 10pm

Cross-training, sort of

2011-08-07T01:00:00.001-04:00

Today I rode my bike to the store & back, pulling my preschooler on the bike trailer. We went to buy some school supplies for the older kids. I haven't mapped the distance; I think it was about a mile. Later I weeded the part of the back yard inside the patio fence. I pulled up a whole paper grocery bag of goathead sticker plants. They were huge! I had thought the grass was growing well; turns out at least half the green was from those stupid weeds. And we don't have a hoe & couldn't find the shovel, so I was using a hatchet to soften the ground to be able to pull out the roots. I think that actually worked out better than the shovel would have b/c I could aim better & avoid pulling up what grass there was.

Next step running

2011-08-04T22:12:00.000-04:00

It's been quite nice in the evenings lately, and yesterday evening it stormed for an hour. The rained lightened up quite a bit after a while, but there was still thunder and lightening. So much so that DSS's flight couldn't land and had to be re-routed to El Paso to refuel before coming back. I also didn't get to run yesterday, so I did a 15min KB workout before bed. I did swings: 1min each hand then right into 45sec each. I had to take a break to fix some Ovaltine for a kid. Then I finished the swings with 30sec and 15sec sets back to back. After another (shorter) break (the 1st one took 6 min as I had to wash out a sippy cup) I did 20 ea LC--that's all I could jerk! Maybe I could have done a few more, but not many. After another break I did 10 snatches ea hand.

This morning I had the chance to run, so I did W2D2 of the C25K program. (W2D1 was Monday). After that and the "cool down" I did some sprints. Total workout >41min, and I was beat! I slogged home, grabbed some bread & honey and some yogurt, showered and headed to work (on my bike--glad it's a short ride). At least the morning traffic was done by then. I didn't have time to finish my yogurt; in fact, it's still in the kitchen. I had a sausage biscuit after getting to work (Jimmy Dean, mini) and an orange soda--I just really wanted some sugar by then. Lunch was Kashi Mayan Harvest Bake; love me some platano!

I didn't eat quite enough today though apparently. That plus the business of work today, and I was shaky by the time I got home. Now I could fall asleep no problem, very sleepy. It's a lovely evening. The clouds are high enough for the more distant parts of the sky to still look blue. The clouds above are turning pink from the setting sun, and a bit ago I saw some of the moon too.

Walking & Running

2011-07-31T11:47:00.000-04:00

Last week I went on a business trip with 2 of my coworkers. After dinner on Mon and Tues we went walking. It was hot! >100deg and we walked something over a mile each time, but we weren't trying to go fast, just to keep moving.

I got back Thusday around noon and crashed for a couple of hours--or tried to. Everytime I dozed off the kids would yell, scream at each other, or make some other loud noise. Finally I got ready to take them to the pool, but then it started thundering. Lightening too close, no swimming. Later I went running, did more C25K W1. At least the weather was nice and cool!

Friday I went in to work a little over half a day. Repeat Thursday's experience with trying to go to the pool. Later I went walking with my sons as the older one walked the neighbors' dogs. I can't remember if I ran on Friday. :(

Yesterday I finally took the kids to the pool for an hour or so, till we heard thunder again. I went grocery shopping, suitcase shopping, and DH & I went and saw Captain America. It wasn't as action-packed as I'd expected; I didn't feel that constant adrenaline like in, say, X-Men, but we really liked the movie a lot anyway.

Running again--maybe

2011-07-24T08:49:00.000-04:00

I finally ran last week--once. Went back to W1D1 (or D3 as the case may be) of C25K. I was feeling rather winded by the end of each of the last few running minutes. That was Thursday. I was supposed to run again yesterday, but I slept later than I'd hoped, too. And of couse it took me an hour or more to get ready to get ready for the day. Ran some errands, including grocery shopping, took the kids to the pool, finally did laundry. DS#1 and DD had sleepovers last night: DD at "their" house and their son at our house. The boys watched Battlefield: Los Angeles from 8:30 to after 10, and so I watched most of it too, not packing until afterward. Didn't get to be till after midnight. Waking up this morning before 5 was not fun (or easy). Couldn't even eat a sausage biscuit for breakfast (didn't even try), just a cup of cereal. Just now starting to get hungry. Got some fruit and snacks with me.

Behind on running

2011-07-11T19:35:00.000-04:00

Saturday I was hoping to run, but we were busy moving instead, just a mile away, but, you know, you gotta get all the big heavy items moved over in as short a time as possible so you can return the U-Haul trailer and maybe not get charged for the 2nd day. :~) So I did exercise even if I didn't run.

I need to find a new bike route to work. I'm a lot closer, but I'm now UP the busy road instead of across it. Yuck; I hate riding in traffic. I need to start Couch-to-5K week 2 and do a kettlebell workout. (I shouldn't really say "kettlebells" since I still only have 1. I can't decide whether to get another like the one I have or save up and get a better one.)

My shin has been hurting more lately, so I used the ultrasound on it yesterday. I should probably use it daily again. Also, it has finally started raining! YAY! In fact, today I got rained (sprinkled) on both this morning and this afternoon.

2011-07-07T17:11:00.000-04:00

Saturday I did W1D3. This week I started week 1 over again. I've been tired, sleeping well into the mornings.
This morning I took my watch off before looking at it so I could take my time waking up without feeling pressured b/c of the time. When I finally did look at my watch (after brushing my teeth) it was an hour later than I expected! I slept from ~11:30 last night till 9 this morning! The poor dog next door hadn't been out since 8:30 last night! Apparently he was fine though as he didn't meet me at the door by the time I got over there.

Monday I did W1D1 again and Wed was W1D2. I also took the dog for a walk yesterday and today. 1 problem with sleeping so late is that it's hot by the time I get out. I also need to improve my nutrition, but I feel rather at loose ends in that regard--trying to figure out what to eat, meal planning, etc.

Tomorrow we start moving to a new house. The only thing packed is the kids' clothes and that barely. I thought we still had at least 1 box full of packing paper, but apparently it got dumped, so we'll have to wait until we unpack some of the boxes currently still packed and in the garage. Also my shin has been hurting again.

Couch to 5K W1 D2

2011-07-01T13:05:00.000-04:00

Did this last night & took the neighbors' dog with me. He hasn't been getting out much. I did slower running this time, easier and then faster on the last run. 1.88mi again (finished up the distance in the cool down). That dog sure was glad to get home! He went straight for his front door!. :~)

It was cooler than average yesterday evening; it was mostly cloudy and had rained some in town (scattered showers). Then I stayed up till midnight. yay. Slept till ~8:30/9 this morning. (Yay! rested in the morning!)

This morning I took the dog out for a walk. It's hot again already, and all the clouds are gone. We walked ~1mi taking ~20min. (There were a couple of sniffing stops.) It felt like we were walking faster, but I also forgot to stop my watch once we got back to the house.) Later today I plan to do that "10 min" kettlebell workout. I haven't done it all week, maybe just Monday. Oh and the Active Warm-up from Runner's World.

Couch to 5K: Week 1, Day 1

2011-06-29T00:34:00.001-04:00

5 min brisk walking warm-up. 60 sec run/jog, 90 sec walk for 20 min (8 rounds), 5 min cool down & stretch. 1.88 mi.

"Ice" bath

2011-06-24T17:14:00.000-04:00

After my long, hot "run" yesterday I did the closest I've ever come to an ice bath--I filled up & sat in the kids' wading pool. That's as close to an ice bath as I ever plan to get. I borrowed my husband's hat b/c I was tired of the sun in my face.

(Untitled)

2011-06-24T00:33:00.001-04:00

Yesterday I went running, or at least tried to. I did a long warm-up (13min) from work to a trail, then started alternating running and walking. I think the first minute running was the longest I ran. I think each running period after that was around 30sec each. I wasn't looking at my watch, just went with how I felt. I went 15 min out then turned around. It was hot and sunny and took longer getting back than going out. It was a little over 3mi total and took me just over an hour. Almost as soon as I started running it felt harder to breathe. At one point my HR was ~200bpm. I was tired before going out as the kids have been staying up late. In fact, the night before I was the first one to go to bed! By the time I got back to the car I had a headache at the base of my skull. I'd forgotten to pack my visor, good thing I had sunglasses at least.

Today was a complete and total rest day. I drove to work instead of biking and took a nap around dinner time. I still had the headache all day till after the nap. No pain med worked to relieve it even though part of it was tightness high in my neck just below my skull. Well, feeling better now, and it's past bedtime again. ;)

Finally a big workout day

2011-06-20T22:16:00.000-04:00

Today I did a long ride in addition to my bike commute. (Remember, "long" is a relative term.) My commute is 3.58 mi, and I did an additional 4.23 mi for a total of 7.81 miles. After I got home I finally did the full kettlebell workout from kettlebell-dk's blog plus 15 snatches each side, plus some push-ups, and sit-ups. Feels good!

Racking up the miles

2011-06-04T20:09:00.000-04:00

Well, relative to what I usually do. I've been riding my bike to and from work and throwing in a long ride once a week so far. I walked ~2mi Thursday, and we've been taking occasional family walks. Theirry Sanchez posted this quick kettlebell workout and I've done 1 round twice. My back got sore from it! Talk about out of shape.

Thurday was work's Sports/Family Day, & I played volleyball for the first time in I don't know how long. It was fun. At some point during the day I got sunburned on the backs of my calves. DH and 3/4 of the kids didn't hang out much past lunch. A bunch of kids took over the dunk tank afte lunch while the adults were still eating. Spiderboy was nearly running it. Princss tried it a couple of times, but she was only as tall as the water was deep, & she can't swim. She'd bounce up quickly and doggie paddle fast the 1 ft to the side and latch on really fast to the chain link above the tub, then 'walk' herself to the step. She didn't know when to hold her breath though, that's why she only did it twice.

Monkey boy and I stayed after everyone left. I pushed him on the swing so long that my shoulders were sore Friday! (Probably ~20 min). We got a soda, he jumped in a bouncy house, we had the run of the baseball toss. Eventually we saw our neighbors and hung out with them till they left. Then we started walking home. Thankfully the big brothers met us across the street with the bike trailer. That way Monkey Boy didn't have to walk a 1/2 mile in the heat & I could ride my bike. Later I took the two big boys to the pool. Spider Boy enjoye it; Teenager didn't. The temp had gone down, and the wind had kicked up, so it wasn't hot enough for me to get int he water. I sat on the side and dangled my feet in. That's when I realized the backs of my legs were sunburned. Good day though.

2011-05-22T01:46:00.000-04:00

I've started bike-commuting to work at least 3 days a week. It's ~3.5mi round trip & takes about 12 minutes each way. My butt is sore from riding! My legs have been tired too. (I'm using the netbook to post this & it's dark in the room. I wish this keyboard were backlit so I could see the keys. Anyway...) I've logged 11mi this week and 18+ so far this month. It's been chilly in the mornings; my hands were freezing till I found some gloves, and my ears hurt from the cold Thursday and Friday.

I work about 7:30 to 4. You'd think I'd be able to get some TV time in the evenings. Nope. I do get in kid and husband time, then it's dinner, baths, kids' bedtime, get my stuff ready for the next day, then it's my bedtime. I'm trying to go to bed by 10pm so I can get up easily before 6:30am. The earliest I've made it so far is 10:30.

I still haven't been able to run more than a minute at a time. In fact, the last run/walk I did was run 1min, walk 1.5min, and I had a headache later. I need to do some high-volume KB swings to build up my cardio more. I was doing some blog reading catching up and saw Diana had posted a HVS workout. I'll have to adapt it. I also need to get back to doing those exercised from Runner's World I was doing before we moved. They made my tight hip feel better (both have been hurting lately). And Thierry Sanchez has posted a 9wk KB snatch program I may do...if I can get more chalk soon(!)

It's been pretty nice being back in Abq. The lack of humidity is appreciated even though it's been chillier than expected. We went up to Sandia Crest recently and did some geocaching on the way down, or tried to. It turned out to be too hard to find with the little kids in tow...too far off the beaten path. Actually, we did find 1, but not the 2nd one.

Last Tuesday I Ran

2011-05-07T13:23:00.000-04:00

Finally, since moving here I ran more than a block. I tried to do 1min run/1min walk for 20 minutes. I managed it for 10 & then reversed it for 8 more. (In other words I took a 2 min walk break at the 9 min mark and quit running at all at 18 min). My legs were tired the next day but not particularly sore. I finally got a new issue of Runner's World yesterday--yay! It was motivational.

Moving in

2011-04-16T01:26:00.000-04:00

So I finished my thesis, graduated, went to a conference, and moved. We just got our stuff at the house today. BUT we're not staying in this house very long...just until the house we really want opens up, which it should in a couple of months or so. I haven't been running, only walked to the grocery store a couple of days ago. We're supposed to be doing daily family walks in the evenings. Yesterday was too cold for me; DH took a couple of the kids but they never made it past the neighbors' house. The wife saw them out and invited them in to visit. I still have to write a paper for a journal; I can't remember if it's due at the beginning of May or at the end--better figure that out fast. Got the kids enrolled in school yesterday; they start Monday.

I FINISHED MY THESIS!!!

2011-03-11T23:14:00.000-05:00

YAY!! Now I can focus on final exams, fitness testing (less than a week away), making a poster for a conference, catching up on laundry, oh, and planning a move! I'm already too far behind on that last one, and it doesn't help that my husband has been trying to rush things. (Again. Like last time.) Gotta get some running in; I probably don't need to say that I've hardly run at all lately. I jogged a fair way around th block with the dog the other day. Yesterday I restarted push-ups, on the stairs. It also doesn't help that I got sick a few days ago (a cold). Seems to be abating. I'm going to run tomorrow.

Ow, dang neuroma!

2011-02-04T23:46:00.000-05:00

I went running at the gym yesterday, but since I wanted to maintain a steady pace I used the treadmill. I can't remember the last time I ran on a treadmill. The run went well. 8min walking warm-up, ran a while, walked a bit, ran some more, cooled down...I ran at between a n 11:30 and 12:45 min/mi pace. It felt slow, but I (think) I ran longer, not that that's saying much these days. This morning the ball of my left foot hurt. At first I didn't realize what the deal was. It's never hurt this way before, hurt to step on. After my shower I noticed that the ball of my foot was swollen. I took some ibuprofen, but I couldn't tell that it helped. This evening I tried an Aleve. When I touch the ball of my foot, it hurts at the top just before the toes start. I guess my foot didn't like the treadmill. Those narrow blue Asics don't help either. I think I'm going to have to replace them sooner rather than later.

I've been doing about half of the active warm-up most every day, doing the leg swings and scissors. Day before yesterday I pulled up all of them & did them w/Princess. When we got to donkey kicks, she said "I know what those are!" and jumped right in. We also did some exercises she does in P.E. It was fun. Later I did a KB ladder. I couldn't find the printout, so I made it up. Accidentally did a set of snatches one minute! Just snatched that bell right up there.

Last night DH and I tried melatonin for the first time. & for the first time in weeks I woke up without feeling weak and shaky. I actually felt rested, sleepy still, but otherwise rested. I was expecting to be in bed by now, but Monkey Boy and Princess took late naps on the couch. Princess just went up to bed finally, but Monkey Boy shows no signs of returning to sleep. :( It's so late now that I don't know if I should take melatonin again tonight. (I took it at 11:45pm last night & got to sleep sometime after 12:30am (Monkey Boy again).) I got up before 8 this morning w/o much difficulty. Sleepy now though.

I've been up for almost 2 hours

2011-01-17T11:33:00.000-05:00

School holiday today, so I got to sleep in. I wanted to be up by 8, but even by 9 I was still extremely sleepy, couldn't keep my eyes open. Part of the problem was that I was up till midnight last night. I was going to make a training plan last night. I was going to go to bed by 10:30. Instead I continued fighting the "watch more Doctor Who" urge and Googled this guy (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0855039/) my latest actor crush. (so I was "looking at" as opposed to "watching" :P )

I have been so tired this past week. I was chalking it up to not sleeping last Sunday night due to working on my thesis. Every morning last week, except Friday, I went back to bed for an hour or two after getting the kids off to school. Friday I fell asleep in class; I sit close to the front. Yep, got caught. Even 5 Hour Energy hasn't helped; I've fallen asleep after taking that too. I've been trying Sudaphed (the good Sudaphed, pseudoephedrine) and Tylenol for congestion and sinus pressure. It helps some.

I did work out Saturday (yay), I didn't feel like braving the 25deg weather and so did a cardio workout in the comfort of my own living room. Thanks Jade and Brooklyn on ExerciseTV. I threw in some situps and side crunches b/c I hadn't felt like I'd had much of an ab workout either of the last two times. The rib cage muscles were sore yesterday.

So my plan for today...is KB swing ladder #1 from kettlebellfitness.dk, and active warmup from RW's Fully Fit series, and...running outside ... cringe. According to Accuweather it's 22 and feels like 13. But it's SUNNY, or at least partly, and I could so use some sunshine. (Watch it be cloudy by the time I get out there.) Maybe I'll take the dog. I ran in 19deg once last winter. OK. Here I go.

I worked out yesterday!

2011-01-14T15:27:00.000-05:00

I'm finally getting back into a workout schedule. Yesterday I pulled out my latest Runner's World and did the Fully Fit sets in there. It took between 15 and 20 minutes. My legs are really sore today! (I didn't do the "Carioka" exercise as I only had ~3yds rather than 20 to move in.) Today I also found a 9 week kettlebell workout plan. It's prep for a 5min clean and jerk session, which I think I already can do, but hey, it's structure which I don't have on my own.

I don't anticiapte a workout today. I've been so tired in the mornings that I've gone back to bed after getting the kids to school. I didn't this morning & fell asleep in class.The prof had to ask the girl next to me to wake me up. o_o I created a running program at Polar, which was supposed to start today. I think I'll give the Fully Fit and KB workouts a week or so and then re-set up the running. Next fit test by March 12 as far as I know. Aside from the fit test I'm looking for an event to do so as to have a target to work toward, some extra motivation. I looked into a local indoor tri, but it's turned into an indoor duathlon: run-bike-run or bike-run-bike, for time: 25min bike, 30min run. I'm much less interested in it now.

We're moving in the spring, so I was trying to find an event there to do this summer. Didn't find much, especially since I limit them to Saturdays. Well, time to read for class and work on my thesis.

Crazy morning

2011-01-07T08:55:00.002-05:00

It got really dramatic here this morning getting the kids off to school. Princess took her sweet time getting dressed. Of course, since the clothes she brought down weren't enough to keep her warm even in the house, I had to find her some other clothes (LS shirt, pants, socks...). Spiderboy took his time getting up; he was supposed to have left by 7:20 to eat breakfast and do Safety Patrol. Instead he got up ~7:20. Then he suddenly remembered his reading log for the week was due today. He typed one up, but I questioned its veracity & marked off what he'd put for yesterday. So then he got upset (because the log would be incomplete & he'd miss recess) and reprinted it. I went ahead and initialled it. THEN he realized he was supposed to do Study Links HW but forgot to bring home his book. We were able to find a school site online that had the assignment, but he was all worked up & had trouble doing it. ("Long" division. They're only just now learning it? How have they been doing the other big division problems they've had?) Finally at 8 I got them into the car and drove them 4 blocks to school. I was just telling Princess yesterday that I felt like such a wimp for driving her to school when other kids are still walking despite the cold. I got back home and cried in the car and got some of the stress out. It would have been significantly less stressful if the clean clothes that have been washed over the last few days were put away, if the kids would put they're shoes reletively neatly when they take them off, if they wouldn't leave 3 big Nerf guns on the floor at the bottom of the stairs by the front door. Reading a few blog posts has helped me relax.

Now I get to put away laundry. I have to. The kids aren't the only ones with clean clothes filling up a laundry basket (at least they're mostly still in baskets). And DH doesn't fold laundry either, so it's not a simple matter of putting clothes in the right rooms. It's not like I have data to analyze and a thesis to write. I wish DH would sort out his delayed sleep phase disorder, or at least put it to good use. Yeah he's pretty noisy at dishes, but what about the living room? kitchen floor? downstairs bathroom? budget? It doesn't help that, now that the kids are back in school, I'm only getting about 6 hours of sleep a night. I stay up late working on my thesis or unwinding from the day but have to get up and get the kids up. Yesterday I had some 5 hour energy and still fell back asleep.

Running? What's that?

Actually went running today!

2010-12-31T02:08:00.000-05:00

I ran ~ 1/3mi in the middle of a bunch of fast walking. It felt good to get outside again. I've been doing minimal workouts lately, like 10-15min KBell stuff: cleans, swings.

I saw a video recently on SUAR's blog (in her comments) that talked about running efficiency, longer strides actually rather than shorter ones BUT with low bounce and still keeping the landing foot under you, basically midfoot striking, though it didn't specifically say that. It talked a lot about angles: stride angle as you step out, knee angle as you land, etc. So I was trying to step out farther but still not land on my heels. It reminds me of jazz running.

Merry Christmas

2010-12-25T23:35:00.000-05:00

Well, first to catch up. I went running twice last week in Albuquerque. It was really nice the first evening; the weather Sunday through Wednesday was highs in the 50s. Thursday though a cold front came through. It rained ALL day; that's not common in Abq. Friday there was snow. I went running the second time on Friday evening. It was rather chilly. Actually, I didn't know when I started out if I'd actually run. I was walking fast (to get warm!) for about 1/2 an hour. My right knee had suddenly started hurting the day before, under/below the kneecap. After the 1/2 hour warm-up I jogged for about 20 more minutes. I felt really good and wanted to go longer, but my ears were hurting from the cold.

This week I didn't do much. Monday I did KB cleans for 10 minutes: 80 each side for a total of 160, then some lunges, crunches, etc.

My right ankle, or foot below the ankle, on the outside has been hurting more and more. I noticed it first in the shower when I scrubbed it. It hurt more the day after I got back from my trip. I thought it was just from my boot pressing on that spot, but now it hurts to have any pressure on it at all. Tonight I was feeling it, & I seem to have found a spot that is more tender than the rest. I should probably go to the dr about it. My right knee is feeling better, but my left one still bothers me--feels "full" inside the back of the knee.

The kids all enjoyed their Christmas presents: Nerf guns, Lincoln Logs, a keyboard...
I thought about going for a run today, but I got a late start baking cookies. I had a huge can of pumpkin pulp which amounted to a triple batch of pumpkin cookies. Then we went to some friends' and watched Despicable Me. The guy was mean, but I expected him to be meaner. Now I just need to see MegaMind.

Well, hope you had a good Christmas.

Went running Monday, walking today

2010-12-09T23:19:00.000-05:00

Monday I ran at the gym. I walked almost 1/2mi, ran a mile, then walked the rest of that 1st mile. The running mile was in 13:12min. Pleased with that. :~) The overall pace was less than 15min/mi. By the end of the mile run, my head was feeling tight & I could feel a slight headache coming on. So I didn't do any push-ups or sit-ups. My quads were sore the next two days!

Today I had to go over to another building a couple of times for work. It takes all of 1 minute to drive there, so unless the weather's really bad, I walk. There was a pretty chilly breeze on my face, but the rest of me was warm. There's a big hill to walk up to get to the other building, so I got a bit of a workout in. Traveling next week, plan to run daily.

My shin has not been hurting but my right knee was hurting toward the end of the run. My left knee has been hurting the last couple of weeks when I sit on my left foot or rotate my leg outward with my knee bent (like sitting on the floor cross-legged). It hurts in the back.

I have been working out

2010-11-24T12:56:00.000-05:00

On Saturday I posted Friday's workout, but I didn't post Saturday's. I went for a run/walk: 3.4mi in 53min. It was good.

Monday I went out again.I was going to go to the gym, but the weather's been so nice lately that I decided I had to take advantage of being able to be outside. There was a strong wind out of the south. I've been getting so little sleep lately that I didn't even feel like running till after I'd been walking for over 40 min! What running I did, however, was mostly uphill. Totals: time 1:06:13, distance 3.89 mi. I have a new long run distance! I used the iMapMyRun app for my phone. It plotted out 5+miles but it was very ... zigzaggy, and I knew it was giving me a longer distance than I'd actually run. Once I straightened out my route, though, I was a little disappointed to lose more than a whole mile. But it was a good workout.

I need to do core work.

Diet-wise I've been muching and snacking again. And the holidays are nearly here. More cookies!
I almost signed J & me up for the local CrossFit "on ramp" course but then realized I couldn't say for certain that I'd be here for all the days. They only take 10 people at a time for that course, so if I don't make it (it *we* don't make it) that's 1 (2) other people who could have gone instead.

Day 2 this week

2010-11-20T17:33:00.001-05:00

Last night I did
KB
swings: 2 handed, right, left 10 swings x 4
LC: 3x10
snatch: 2x10 1x20

Lunges: forward, side, back 10 ea

10 more swings (2-handed)

New goals

2010-11-16T15:17:00.000-05:00

3x workout/week (so what's new there really) & Reindeer Run 5K Dec 18th (with the boys ideally).

Did manage 3 workouts last week. 1 so far this week: KB swings--20 2-handed, 10 ea LR; crunches--20 forward, 10 each side; plank--3x10sec; bridge--2x15sec; 20 forward lunges.

I've been having cramps in my left calf lately, right by my shin.

Finally ran again

2010-11-11T22:32:00.001-05:00

Hope you had some time this Veteran's Day to stop and contemplate and appreciate military members and veterans. My kids' school put on a Veteran's Day program and parade with a little help from the local AFROTC color guard and the HS marching band.

After taking my daughter to school this morning I passed out on the couch for a couple of hours until time to get ready to go the Veteran's Day program. Afterward, my daughter and I checked out the school book fair for a while in order to let DH get a nap too. (He'd lain down around the same time the parade ended.)

Finally, as the boys were cleaning up the kitchen & DH was cooking dinner, I went for a run. First run since my fitness test since my shin has been hurting again. I did a long (slow) walking warm-up, ~~almost 15~~ [12] minutes for only 1/2 a mile. Then I started running and took lots of walk breaks. I actually wore my HRM for this workout; my target zone was 150-170, so once my HR hit 170 (or higher if I didn't notice right away, no alarm on), I walked until it got back down to around 150. Total distance was 2.87mi per mapmyrun. ~~I don't know the time really, >40min I think.~~ [45min total, 33min run/walk.] I've already saved the workout in my watch. I kept accidently hitting the start button. In the house I did some sit-ups and then some twists holding my KB--kind of like passing a medicine ball around only it was just me. Used the ultrasound/bone stimulator since my shin hurt some during the run. Actually, I've been trying to use it after every run lately since I don't use it daily anymore.

I was going to run/walk longer but 1) my left knee's been hurting too the last few days, a hard to localize achiness under the kneecap and in back; and 2) my right knee started hurting along the outside at the end of the run there, something felt tight or something.

...and I just found all the WYSIWYG editor icons. For whatever reason, posting had defaulted to "Edit HTML" instead of "Compose" but I was reading the tabs/colors backwards. OK. good enough. Good night.

Not dead, just slackin'

2010-11-10T09:35:00.000-05:00

I have done a few workouts since my fitness test. I just haven't been wearing my HRM, so I haven't had anything to upload, so I haven't been over here much either.

Yesterday I did swing sets 15sec on, 15 sec rest: R,L,R,L,both,R,L,both and maybe another RLboth. about 9 swings per set. Then I did 23(R) & 25(L) snatches. On the R side, I had to stop once mid-swing to let a 2yo go past and stop again at the top for even longer. Last night when I got home, my SS was out running and had left the pull-up bar in the garage doorway, so I did some (assisted) pull-ups too.

This morning I just did 10 presses/jerks each side with the KB followed by 20 twists holding it. So see, I'm not totally slacking. Plus I walk my daughter to school every morning. (Nice to see you again Mr. Sunshine.)

Just stopping by

2010-11-02T22:32:00.000-04:00

I barely get logged in when I have to log off again. I haven't done much since my fitness test. My left shin has been hurting again. I took the dog for a walk a couple of times and rose a stationary bike at the gym last Friday.

How's that for gratitude?

2010-10-22T23:39:00.000-04:00

I had my fitness test today and did better than I expected! Then I saw how close I was to an even better score and got a little disappointed that I didn't get it. Then I slapped myself and said, "Hey! You did a lot better than you expected! Getting those extra couple of points on that part is hardly anything compared to running almost a whole minute faster that you thought you could--at best."

Run time: 1.5 miles, 15:33min!!!
Much thanks to a couple of friends who joined me on the last lap. :~)

Oh hello,

2010-10-21T09:22:00.000-04:00

Tomorow's my fitness test. I had tried to schedule it for last week, but something went awry & it didn't happen. So I had an extra week to try to prepare. It's going to be close I think. I haven't been working on the running. I feel like I could help someone else buil up in running, but for some reason I can't do it for myself. Too much self-doubt & fear of reinjury I guess. I could also have some passive-aggressiveness going on: the Dr said to go slow and take it easy, so I will--very slow and very easy. Also, once the new quarter started again, if not sooner, my stress level went up and my shin started hurting again. I went back to using the bone stimulator ultrasound. But I also hate push-ups, & it's hard to get good sit-ups in when your kids think that your being on the floor is an invitation for them to sit and climb on you. I should just go to the gym.

I had to pick up some more protein powder for the 15yo, & while I was there I decided to see if they had something I'd like. The guy recommended Be-buff for women. OK. It definitely tasted better than the stuff DH & SS have been using. It's almost too sweet--I'm drinking some right now in a yogurt/milk/berry smoothie. Not too bad.

I went back to the Polar site and created a running plan (I think I mentioned that already). This is week 3. Hmm. Need to update it.

Yesterday was almost a complete waste of time--at least school-wise. I got nothing done. Even at home I only did 1 load of laundry and fixed dinner (which took me around 2 hours). I set up a schedule for myself on Monday and have yet to meet any of the targets.

I have been running more and even got in 2 hill sprint workouts. The 2nd one was Tuesday & I'd only gotten ~5hrs of sleep the night before. 9yo has been having trouble at school lately & that was on my mind. Before running the sprints I did a mile on the track and tracked it on my phone (using My Tracks), so now I actually have the map for it. I still need to update my fitness tracker(s) from my watch (& phone).

Where are all my WYSIWYG options?

2010-10-05T09:02:00.000-04:00

What you see is what you get
The only options showing are bold, italics, strikethrough, link, and quote. How do I insert a picture? I finally got some from the tri.

I should be sleeping. (& a bit of Polar vs Timex)

2010-10-04T00:14:00.001-04:00

Correction to my last post: my fitness test was 3 weeks from that date, now it's only 2, and my speed still sucks. DH was out of the house most of yesterday & had our built-in babysitter with him for 1/2 of it. I should've taken advantage of time in the morning to go run again. The best I did was a "bunch" of sit-ups and push-ups (a bunch for me).

I really need to 1) get to bed at a reasonable hour (12:05am is not a reasonable hour), 2) eat "better"; mostly missing the fruits and veggies, of course, 3) workout more often and harder. Despite the fitness test being imminent and stressing about failing it, I'm having trouble being motivated to get my butt out and running like I should. I feel tired &/or sleepy a lot lately (Sudaphed helps, the good stuff). When I wake up in the mornings, in addition to the lovely sinus pressure sleepiness, I feel weak and even shaky. My husband keeps shoving 5 Hour Energy in my face every morning, but I need food with it. And I have to brush my teeth before eating or drinking anything--morning breath, yuck!

OK, so I went back to Polarpersonaltrainer.com and got a running plan. It's free. Unlike @ the Timex trainingpeaks site. And I can enter workouts ahead of time on my own, unlike the Timex site which requires a paid subscription for that little privilege. A year's subscription is ~$100, about what we saved by buying Timex instead of Polar. Oh and my watch still loses contact with the strap; tried a different strap, no change. The Indiglo isn't working now either; tried a new battery, no dice. Guess a call to Timex is in order. I do hear their customer service is better than Polar's...

Good night.

Sick on my days off

2010-09-23T22:31:00.002-04:00

Day before yesterday I came down with a cold. I did an hour of WiiFit b/c all that moving around kept my nosed from getting all stuffed up. Now my calves are stiff and sore but only the top parts; I really feel it when I do a straight leg calf stretch.

Yesterday I got back from taking my daughter to school only to see my DH putting his and the neighbor's bikes on the bike rack of the Jeep. (We were going to ride yesterday, but I wasn't the only one hit with that cold.) So I complained ;) and he added my bike and the trailer (for the tot). The guys were planning on doing some geocaching along the way.

We got the the rail trail and unloaded the car, hooked up the trailer to DH's bike, and headed out--oh yeah, 1st cache right there at the trail station. The first cache we got to turned out to be a puzzle cache and would've taken too long. DH was beat pulling the trailer, so I switched it to my bike. This was somewhere between miles 3 and 5. 2nd cache also a puzzle, skip it.

As we reached our turn-around point, there was a 3rd cache. DH was going to stop at the bottom of a hill and then go to it, but I didn't want to start the way home by having to pull 50lbs of kid and trailer UP HILL. So I waited at the top and let Monkey Boy out to walk around while the guys went and found their cache. Also around this time my Sudaphed started wearing off, and my nose started running. nice.

Not long after we started heading back, DH noticed an odd sound coming from his bike, kind of a pfft, fft sound. He had to change his inner tube out. Riding again, DH started getting dizzy (again), and he was out of water. :( Our neighbor went back to ride with him (did he share a snack? I don't know); DH walked a while. I rode on (I did have the car keys after all. If worse came to worst, I could meet the guys at an intersection).

We came to the spot of the first cache and refilled our water bottles/hydration packs. DH was still having trouble though. I went ahead to a new station and got a sport drink (and blew my really runny nose). I was about to head back toward the guys when they got there. We rested and DH drank the sport drink and ate some gummys. We talked about whether to leave him there and pick him up in the car or if he could ride the last 2 miles back. There was a nice downhill "on ramp" to the trail from the station, but then he STOPPED up ahead! WT? Something about a white squirrel. OK, so he had to walk some more. I rode ahead to try to get the car ready by the time he got there.

The neighbor and I got the car opened up, sleeping Monkey Boy into his carseat (which of course woke him up), found some pistachios, got the trailer broken down & on top of the car. DH arrived to make sure the bikes were racked properly, and I drove us home.

The guys clocked 12.8 miles including their last cache detour, so I claim 12. I pullled the trailer for more than 1/2 of that. Thank goodness for Sudaphed (so that my nose was runny for only half of the ride). I was shaky by the time we got back. If I'd had any idea before jumping in the car that we'd go so long, I'd've something to eat along the way. At least Monkey Boy had a baggie of cereal.

Shortly after we got home I had to walk over and pick up my daughter from school. Walking was fine at least. (another 0.8mi).

DH is very stiff and sore. He can't take ibuprofen (tears up his stomach) and doesn't have anything equivalent. :( My calves are sore, my quads are too, though mostly from yesterday's lunges and squats. My nose is stuffed up. My fitness test is in 4 weeks. I need to be able to do a mile and a half in <= 16min. Lately, that's how long it's been taking me to do 1 mile. :(

WiiFit

2010-09-22T16:11:00.000-04:00

A couple of weeks ago my husband bought a Wii. A few days later he bought WiiFit. A few days ago I set up my profile & today I actually tried out some exercises besides just 2 or 3 yoga poses. Not bad!

When I set up my profile, I chose a target calorie burn of a piece of toast (still not quite sure what I was doing there), and today I burned (according to WiiFit's calorie counter) 169 calories, a couple dozen or so shy of my goal. But I plan to do some kettlebell stuff later today.

My sinues have been bothering me more lately, and I seem to have developed a full-blown cold. Either that or there's *really* something in the air.

I'd hoped to do more running on my trip last week. My fitness test is in about 3 weeks, and I am SO not ready. :( I'm actually getting scared about it now.

New Mexico run

2010-09-19T00:09:00.001-04:00

After 4 1/2 days in NM, I finally got to go for a run. Another one of those run-walk combos (as usual). Sadly it was dark by the time I got out, and I'd heard coyotes, so I was hoping not to run into any. We lived in that part of NM a few years ago & I had the oppportunity to run in my old neighborhood. There are these path sidewalks that are well-lit, but the main along-the-road sidewalks aren't as well lit. Seeing as it was around 9pm on a school night, the streets were deserted. It was an interesting run, a little creepy in the darker spots; would've been nice to have had someone to run with. I haven't mapped it out yet, so I'm not sure how far I went. But it took me around 1/2 an hour. At my latest paces, that's about 2 miles.

Well, I was going to add a photo, but I'm not seeing that option right now.

Yay, the quarter's over!

2010-09-11T23:53:00.000-04:00

I finished and submitted my last report Friday at 9pm. Done.
Next quarter is strictly thesis work, then 1 more quarter with defense and 2 classes.

Wednesday I worked out. Yes, finally, a real workout. First I went running. It was a W2R sort of thing with 2+ min of running at a time with 1+ min of walking in between. That was around 25 min. Then I did push-ups, sit-ups, and pulled out my kettlebell for swings and jerks. My legs were quite sore 2 days later! Felt like I'd been horseback riding.

Today, while I was waiting for a turn on the Wii (my husband bought one yesterday), I fell asleep and slept for about 3 hours.

Next week I'll be running in NM.

2010-09-09T19:51:00.001-04:00

It has come to my attention recently that, every day, I consume about a large meal's worth of calories more than I burn. That explains it.

Found a fitness tracking app for my phone

2010-09-08T08:42:00.000-04:00

I was looking through apps for a gym boss-type timer for my phone and ran across the myfitnesspal app. I hadn't yet found anything easy for tracking food/calories, so I decided to try it out. So far so good; nice and easy.

This morning I logged on to the website to see what else they have and learned...

Will beat 101,167 times, pump 1,484 gallons of blood, and push that blood nearly 9,173 miles throughout my body!
Created by MyFitnessPal.com

Pretty cool, huh?

2010-09-05T23:12:00.002-04:00

Apparently I have to keep my phone posts short.

What I was trying to say below was that I've been so tired lately, that when I have run, it felt like I was back at square 1 in the walk-to-run program.

Still alive

2010-09-05T23:01:00.003-04:00

I haven't posted lately because there's not been much to post, & I've been really busy with school. When I did run lately, I was so tired

Beautiful cool morning run

2010-08-17T09:09:00.002-04:00

I was up early enough this morning to catch the really cool weather (supposed to have had a low of 55deg last night!) and couldn't resist going for a run...again...finally. I don't know what the temp was when I started (between 7:30 and 7:45), not cold at all, but the atmospheric conditions were such that I could see my breath, and my glasses got fogged up a bit! I did a warm-up lap, ~1.3mi, and a cool-down lap. I had ~ 1/4c yogurt and a piece of toast a little before going out. I was starting to worry about it's effect on my stomach, but it resolved by the time I finished my warm-up lap, which wasn't really quite enough of a warm-up. It took the first lap of my mile to finish warming up. I was running just a couple minutes at a time for a bit there. Managed to stretch it out, but still walked part of each running lap (4).

Afterwards, stretch, pet the dog (she gets so lonely), chocolate milk and a turkey cheese sandwich. Before getting in the shower I eeked out 15 sit-ups (nothing holding my feet) and used my KB to do shoulder presses: 7 each side (20lb).

(pink Asics, noted for tracking purposes)

Testing blogging via phone

2010-08-11T23:32:00.007-04:00

? Test
My new Timex HRM is cool and all, but I miss mapmyrun: the colors, the set-up, being able to plan work outs ahead of time. Not that I did, but that I could.

Apparently the photo upload from the phone part doesn't work. I keep getting replies that my "device" is not registered. Ah well, the texting in mostly worked. I can at least get a draft in and then finish it later.

Race pic

2010-07-21T00:40:00.017-04:00

Currently I only have 1. The rest are on someone else's camera. This is as I crossed the finish line; the girls there asked for my race #, so I was pulling up my sleeve so she could see it (I couldn't remember by then).

I finished in 1:11:07 (143rd). R finished in 59:26 (135th). M finished in 57:50 (61st). S finished in 57:29 (125th), and A finished in a blazing 53:36 (37th, & she has a 2 month old baby!!).

Girls Tri Too at Caesar Creek

2010-07-11T13:38:00.000-04:00

Last night at 9:30 my husband and two older kids got home from the movie (Despicable Me, they loved it). My husband took one look at the clock and said "Why are you still up?? Go to bed! I went upstairs with the baby to put him to bed, but he turned on the shower. He did need a shower, so I let him get in. Shortly after that, the other two got sent upstairs to "go to bed" but it's never that simple. Needless to say it was well after 10 before I got to go to bed. Then I lay there awake with my mind wandering and listening to my husband talk to his oldest, who's in another state, via computer. I think I finally fell asleep between 12:30 and 1am. Not long after that, my 5yo woke me up climbing into my bed. She gets this weird idea sometimes that she's incapable of sleeping through the night in her own bed even though she's done it plenty of times.

At 4:45am my alarm went off. I hit snooze. Twice before waking up enough to remember why I was getting up so early. Oh yeah, triathlon, and M's supposed to pick me up between 5:30 and 5:45. Oh yeah. So I got ready; M tested that she was running late; she got here around 6, and we drove down to Caesar Creek State Park.

We met up with S, R, and A, checked in and all that stuff. Set up in transition, checked out the lake--the water was fairly warm. Finally around 8 the race started. We went into the water in 1s and 2s, so there was no crowding or getting kicked in the face. The water was only about 4' deep the whole swim (250y). I was so tired after such little sleep the night before that I had to keep changing strokes. At one point I was passed by a woman walking. Yep, walking the swim part. For some reason, for me, swimming farther than 25m feels never ending. Then when I finally finish the distance and check the time I find out that it wasn't long at all. I walked out of the water in under 8 1/2 minutes! (This time I was keeping my eye on the corner bouys and making sure to stay on course.) It still took me another couple of minutes to get up the hill to transition--wet sandy feet, rough concrete, :-( Threw on some shorts and slip on shoes and headed out. Race results aren't posted yet, but I hit the lap button on my watch as I left transition: lap 1 11:58.

The bike portion started with an uphill. Ugh! right after the swimming. After that hill though it was pretty decent: slightly rollolling hills, out and back. I got passed by an older woman on an old beater of a bike. It only had 1 set of gears. Wow. It seemed like so much downhill on the out portion, that I though coming back would be hard, but it wasn't. The hills weren't that steep. And then of course, at the end was the reverse of that uphill on the way out. M said her little speed/distance gadget clocked her at 23mph! I maxed out my gears and still ended up just coasting down that hill--I was flying! I had to slow down more than I wanted as I approached transition again b/c there was a fairly sharp right turn.

There were lots of bikes already back in trasition by the time I got there. Changed into my running shoes and threw on a shirt and visor and headed out for the run by 34:27. Again with an uphill! But it didn't feel too bad. My heart rate was in the upper 170s and I was quite out of breath so I walked the rest of the 1st mile...or however far it was. My clock read ~12:30min at the turn around and I did NOT feel like I was walking that fast. By this time I was wishing I'd found my Propel powder to put in my water bottle; I was getting tired of plain water. I had a really nice stretch by myself on the way back, narrow dirt/mud trail, lots of shade, quiet. I was doing some running and some walking. There was this one girl (volunteer) out on the trail with a radio and a cowbell. Man, that cowbell was annoying. Got back down to the park area; there was a girl with a plastic clapper thingy (also annoying) but she did point out how much farther there was to go, so I figured I could manage to run all of it. As I started going around the pavilion I saw M, S, A, and R...and their husbands and kids who'd come out to cheer them on...cheering me on, S's husband with the camera, and he went behind the pavilion as I went around it and got more picture(s) as I finished. (That last loop of a race always seems deceptive--oh, just around the pavilion--but not actually close to it, more like twice the distance of around it. Of course, I've only done 3 races.) 24:51 for the 2-mile run. Was it really 2 whole miles??? Total time, give or take a few seconds, 1:11:15. I believe I placed 144th overall (per the score sheet they posted there--still waiting for official results).

It's TOMORROW!! 8-O

2010-07-09T09:09:00.000-04:00

The triathlon that is. Ever since having to change to a different race, it hasn't quite felt real. I still stay up till after 11 and sleep in till 8am. Tomorrow I have to leave home at like 0530. sigh.

I'm such a slacker,

2010-07-07T23:05:00.000-04:00

about blogging that is. I have to cram in so much into my home computer time, but I usually end up on some tangent reading instead.

DH and I got new HRMs--Timex ones, so I've been using the Timex TrainingPeaks site to log workouts instead of mapmyrun. I wish I could upload to mapmyrun because I like it better, although the Timex one has food tracking too which isn't too tedious.

Monday we tried day 1 on P90X, DH couldn't get very far. His shoulder was hurting, plus he's just not ready for that intensity. I did the whole workout and the next day the fronts of my shoulders hurt from the push-ups and pull-ups. If I do unassisted pull-ups I can only do like 0.2; assisted (foot on step stool) I did 8.

Yesterday, M, S, A, & A(?) and I did a tri rehearsal. We swam 100m, biked 4.5 mi, and ran 1 mi. Well, I walked most of the mile. The ride kicked my butt! I couldn't get my hr down to even 170 during the "run"! When I finally got back to start, M and S told me they'd decided no more workouts for me this week. :~) I also have been feeling pretty tired. Talking to a classmate today & he said to make sure I get enough complex carbs and a good multi-vit. I really should be sleeping already, esp since I'm not doing homework. So much for that tonight--I came home for dinner and DH passed out on the couch when I took the kids upstairs for baths. DD fell aslepp by 8:30! She's going to be up early tomorrow! Hope DH gets more sleep tonight. 8-|

Listening to Ray Lynch and Enya. Need to buy some music. ;~)

Catching up again

2010-06-27T16:52:00.000-04:00

Well I thought of several things to write about over the last week, but now I don't remember any of them. I kept doing the 1-lb Slimdown well until Saturday; I took 3 days off instead of 2--unless I do yoga tonight., I might, I might not.

I have to get my stuff ready to go back to school tomorrow. Oops, I was going to go up there yesterday and switch a class that I'm auditing. Guess I'll have to remember to do it first thing tomorrow. I don't want to go up there on a Sunday. yuck.

So...Monday I did yoga, Tuesday I did the "total body blast"; Wed I ran (good run--it was at 10pm, still pretty warm and muggy, but my legs felt strong. I ran almost 2 minutes before my first walk break. I decided not to look at my watch much and just go by how I felt. My aerobic capability is not equal to my leg strength now.) Thursday--off; Friday upper and lower body workouts. This was the first time I actually did the SD lower body workout, and it kicked my butt! I had to stop several times. I figured it would be hard to take the stairs on Saturday, but I haven't been sore. Yay for small miracles.

The next 16 days of the plan only have 1 day off/week instead of 2. My, well I can't really use the word "goal" yet, idea is to workout before going to school. That's what DH wants to do too. He's planning on starting P90X on July 1st. He also bought us both new HR monitors, Timex this time. They cost a lot less than Polar and do everything I want still.

I did lose 1 lb. ! :~) I probably gained it back again this weekend though: brownies, cookies, frosting, brownies. Still not eating enough fruits and veggies.

So how's that workin' for ya?

2010-06-19T23:30:00.000-04:00

11:18 pm and I'm starting a new post. Well, there's still a fair chance I'll get to bed by midnight. I'm almost not sore anymore. Mostly it's been in my neck today b/c I had to use a different pillow than usual last night. My 2yo sprayed mine down with Shout yesterday, and I haven't gotten it washed yet. So I'm not sure what I'll use tonight. Heck, I'm not sure where I'll sleep tonight. My 9yo fell asleep in my bed again, and he always sweats. yuck.

I worked out everyday this week till today. Yesterday I went swimming with M & S. It was tough because my arms had that deep ache. I rode my bike to the pool, and my quads had trouble getting me home b/c they were so tired and sore too. So 2 days off this week (per the schedule) and back to it on Monday. The only thing about this 10lb Slimdown program is that there's only 1 workout for each target area: 1 core workout, 1 lower body workout, etc. I think I'll hook up the PS2 and see if I can get Yourself!Fitness working too. Then I can have more variety.

I've been forgetting to use my ultrasound bone stimulator this last week or so. Ironic, since I'm home all day right now. I've had some shin achiness, but, last time at least, it was higher up, and it only sporadically correlates with running--haven't been doing much of that lately either. In fact, I've been pretty physically tired. I really need to go to bed earlier. So....good night.

Man I'm sore!

2010-06-15T20:37:00.000-04:00

My workouts have been rather spotty the last couple of weeks; I've had finals and end-of-quarter assignments to deal with. But it paid off grade-wise: B, B+, B+!! Yay!!! I was afraid the B was going to be a B-. I've been slowly and painfully working to bring my gpa up after a bad 1st quarter (C, B-, B-). I almost have a 3.0 now (2.92)--so close! This next quarter I have 2 graded classes plus research hours, and a class I'm auditing since I'm weak in math/stats these days.

So then why am I sore? Yesterday I pulled up ExerciseTV On Demand and did about an hour of workouts. The one that killed my legs had squat-thrust/burpies (jumps at the end) and lots of rope jumping (but without the rope). My calves are very tight now. The other workout (besides the 10 min arms workout) was nearly 30 minutes of yoga. I haven't done that in a looonnnggg time, and I think that's why my quads are a little sore.

At the beginning of the yoga workout was an ad for a 10 Pound Slimdown. Since I have 10 pounds to lose, I went online and downloaded the workout schedule. I'll get the workouts from On Demand (rather than pay to download them) and do them in addition to my tri training workouts. Now I just need to work on my diet. Today I did a SD (slimdown) upper body workout and then went for a short run. Yesterday I wore my old Asics, and my feet kind of hurt. Today I wore my new ones (with thin socks) and they felt fine.

Speaking of tri-ing, the Tri for the Cure, along with all of Fat Rabbit Racing's events this season, was canceled. So I used the refund to register for a Girls Tri Too event in the area. It's on July 10th, so I have a little more time to prepare. It's also a little shorter. It's the tri I mentioned last month that only had 9 people registered. Now it has 40+. I was the 3rd in my age group to register in the age group category (vs athena or mtn bike. My bike is a mtn bike, but I have street tires on it, so I can't compete in that division).

OK, so tomorrow I have lower body and core for 10lb SD + swimming or something with M & S. My first week of break is almost over, and I still am not accomplishing anywhere near the things I wanted to. I really need to go to bed before 1am! Bad habit I got into over the last couple of weeks.

W2R, same ol' same ol' only it felt harder

2010-05-31T13:53:00.000-04:00

Wow, my lower legs were really burning today! Calves, shins, especially the right side. Result of single calf raises? I don’t know. I was more fueled today, so that helped, and better rested. W10, R1-W1 x6, W11. 2.2mi. Note: last time I wore my new Asics; today I wore my old ones.
I went ahead and walked a 6th lap, going over 30min instead of under. By the end my legs finally felt better, but I could tell, if I ran again, I’d feel “the burn” again. I definitely need to improve my nutrition, good thing all the brownies are gone! ;~)

My maternity clothes, the ones that I kept, are getting tight. Nope, not pregnant. I just REALLY need to start going to Crossfit again. And eat less fatty stuff. I also need to do more tri-related workouts. I didn't swim at all last week, and I have yet to get my bike out of the garage or even use a stationary bike at the gym. That hill is going to kill. I've been rethinking that July tri; I've been so tired, stressed out, and busy that I'm not sure I want that on my plate right now. Maybe I'll feel differently after a break.

W2R Repeat (again) on 05/29/2010

2010-05-29T10:29:00.001-04:00

MapMyRun.com - Brisk Walk: W2R Repeat (again) on 05/29/2010

Been doing morning workouts this week, they're harder. I'm not fueld up and I haven't been sleeping as much this week.

W10, R1-W1 6 times; W a few more, R 1 more, walk. A little under 30 minutes. 1.8mi

At least it was cooler this morning when I started than the other day! By 9:30 it's getting hot.

I have been doing a little more than I've posted. On random mornings I've done a little KB stuff, weights or stability exercises.

W2R again on 05/27/2010

2010-05-28T23:21:00.000-04:00

W2R again on 05/27/2010

Slower today, 3rd day of < 7hrs sleep at night. Only the 1st night was a valid reason for staying up. I just realized I need to plan my mornings more specifically (as opposed to "better"), for example, what time will I get up in the morning? Then it will be easier to be motivated to go to bed when I should.

Walking...running...

2010-05-28T23:20:00.000-04:00

W2R W1 D 1/2 on 05/24/2010

10 min walk
1 min run, 1.5 min walk
(missed looking at my watch in time after the first 1 min walk; decided to keep that ratio the whole 5 cycles. Been pretty tired lately, and very physically tired yesterday.)
9 min walk.

Saw a butterfly and, it reminded me of a Newbie Chronicles story in Runner's World when whatshisname did the 5 mile run on his own. Couldn't find a link to it.

Wednesday Swimming

2010-05-20T09:33:00.001-04:00

Aack--mapmy run is messed up. I couldn't log this workout.

M and I swam yesterday for ~1/2 hour. S couldn't make it b/c she didn't have anyone to watch her baby at that time. M's shoulder is hurting, so we didn't do the same workout; we just shared a lane.

Warm-up was 2x 50 crawls, 1x50 kicks.
Workout was (if I can remember correctly) 4x100 crawl, another 50 in kicks, a fair amount of talking at the end of the lane ;~)
M brought fins to play with--wow! those DO make you go fast! another lap of kicks and 1 more lap of crawls--with fins. That was different; you can't kick as fast, so you have to find a different rhythm.

My left leg is still achy, so I haven't tried running again yet.

2010-05-15T11:51:00.000-04:00

6 tgu's 5lb dumbells
5x clean, lc, clean & press, snatch
2x10 clean, lc
1x15 snatch
1 set 8 forward lunges w/weight
1 set 10 bird-dog
1 set 10 "step-ups" (RW 1 leg at a time form practice)
2x20 ct bridge
10 supermans w/baby on back
A long 30 min made longer by pausing to get a kid a drink.
Stretch
My hands hurt. DH says he'll file down that ridge on my KB handle today.
Inside of left shin achy after Thursday's run. : (

Walk-to-Run...for real this time

2010-05-13T09:34:00.001-04:00

YAY! I got to run!

10min walk, for 10min alternate run 1min & walk 1m, walk 11min (somehow got an extra minute in the middle), but I ran a total of 5 minutes (lol). The weather was chilly and foggy; I finally wore those arm warmers I got for Christmas for running! :P I've worn them to work when I didn't have a long-sleeve T-shirt available, but this was their first exercise wear. ha ha. I wore my new Asics; they felt a little weird at first b/c they're not as wide, soft and comfortable as my old ones, but after I got going they felt fine.

I really have to watch what I think about when I run. If I start remembering the times that caused all this mess, then my stress level goes up and my shin starts to ache again. So I have to switch gears and "think happy thoughts." Today I was looking ahead to the triathlon. Speaking of which, there's another one in the general vicinity a couple of weeks later. It's really small, have I told you this already? 9 people signed up so far, only 2 in my age group....

LOL, I accidently just posted this on my husband's blog. I was using Firefox, and he stays logged in. I didn't realize it till I "view[ed] blog." :P

Swimming

2010-05-12T19:18:00.002-04:00

MapMyRun.com - Laps / Swimming Pool: Swimming on 05/12/2010
WU: 1x50 back stroke, 2x50 crawl;
WO: 3x100 crawl (2 earlier, 1 after the sidestroke lap), 1x50 back, 1x50 side, 2?x50 kicks.
I actually passed the guy sharing a lane with me, but he had a lot more endurance, plodding along.
I was working on my form, trying to glide, not taking the next stroke until my hand was in front with the other.
I have trouble with my breathing; it just doesn't feel quite right. And I can't swim "slow" because of it.

I've gotta get my endurance up for that open water swim--no pool sides to push off of every 25-50m.
M was supposed to meet me there. At first I thought she was already in the pool because I was running late, but it turns out she got caught up at work. We came up with some ideas of how to get her out of the office in time to swim.

Notice I didn't put any units for the length of the laps. That's 'cause I'm not sure if it's yards or meters. I think the indoor pool (today) might be 25m long (but I"m counting it as yards), the small outdoor pool 25y long (for the lap lanes, I seem to recall that it felt shorter last year than the indoor pool), and the big outdoor pool 50m long.

Also, I found out about a little bitty Tri in the area in July. Currently there are only 9 participants, 2 in my age group. If that holds, I'd actually place! :P

Short, quick workout

2010-05-10T23:34:00.001-04:00

DH and I were going to go to the gym this morning--new routine--but since I still had homework due today we postponed it so I could get to school and work on it. Ha ha. I got there in time to remember about the blood drive. I got the paperwork started but then had to go to class. I went back and finished the donation after class. THEN I finally got those last 3 HW problems done--or close enough. Prof gives us credit for at least "attacking" all of them, then picks random ones to grade. A classmate and I had a question about the last problem, so we went to see him. Even looking at his solutions, HE couldn't remember how he did the problem, so he said he'd give us credit for what we got and not pick that problem to grade. ! :~)

Oh but anyway, the workout. I pulled up the Prevention Workout for Weight Loss again (the one linked to the "work out like a guy" article) and did the arms/shoulders/chest/triceps workout. Took, I don't know, 10, 15 minutes? Maybe?

For Mother's Day, but not necessarily on Mother's Day, I got a gift certificate for a massage (still have to schedule it) from DH, pretty pink flowers from my Princess (she painted the pot), and ... well Spiderboy said he was making something at school, but I don't remember getting it. Princess also brought me lunch in bed yesterday after church. I was eating pizza in the kitchen, and she told me to go to my bed for my surprise. I said, "OK, just let me finish eating." She said, "OK." 10 minutes later she was brining me more pizza! LOL. Too sweet and cute! The baby gives me lots of kisses...anytime I want.

OK, gotta go to bed now. DH has a dental appt in the morning, getting a crown put on. I'm most likely going to have to ask the neighbor to watch the kids toward the end of his appt, so I can get to class. I meant to do it today and forgot. Bummer. (It's just the sort of thing I hate doing--bugging someone.)

Walking on 05/05/2010

2010-05-07T09:11:00.000-04:00

Wednesday I took a wake-up break from studying to go walking. I spent 48 min doing 2.9 miles, two big uphills and two big downhills and windy. Now the muscles on top of my shins are sore. Also my left foot's been hurting about 2/3 of the way up on the outside. Yesterday it stopped mostly, apparantly suddenly. I'm not sure when, b/c I didn't notice at first. The neuroma has been bothering me more lately too, stress? It doesn't help that my new running shoes are narrow, although the side of my foot didn't hurt when I was walking.

I was about to go to the gym when...

2010-05-03T22:13:00.001-04:00

...I was reminded about company coming over for dinner. So I went home with the intention of only staying for dinner, then going to the gym and then studying for tomorrow's test. Company came and went well over two hours ago, and I 'm still at home. I put the net up on the trampoline so the kids could jump. I found an ice-cream recipe for our newly repaired ice-cream maker. It kept getting later and later. I went for a walk and took the trash to the curb.

Finally I came upstairs to study but felt so sleeeeeepy. So I exercised. And I just realized I forgot to refill the cat's litterbox. BRB. OK. So exercise: I adapted a couple of Diana's workout again, doing snatches (just the first ladder) and swings (4 sets this time, one weight). (I've really got to file down the inside of my kettlebell handle; it's got a lip that is tearing up my hands.) I followed that up with 2 sets of Crossfit sit-ups and 4 sets of 4-way standing leg lifts. The KB part took 16:13min; I didn't time the rest.

Now that I'm awake, I should study. :~|

Sore today!

2010-04-30T00:42:00.001-04:00

...which I honestly did not expect. I need to do swings more often, or more specifically, lots of swings more often. My quads, lower back, even my neck! were all sore today. Or perhaps I should say yesterday as it's after midnight.

I just finished 3 sets of 20 long cycles (clean and jerk) each hand, going straight from 1st hand to 2nd, then resting (kinda long). ~4min per set. I need to get chalk. Now I can't even find my little resin bag. I carelessly tosses it aside at the beginning of my last set, and now I can't find it. I was going to do snatches, but as soon as I started, I realized my hands would get too torn up.

P.S. Anyone out there know how to use Davinci for semiconductor modeling? I was at school till 11 tonight trying to figure it out.

not doing homework...

2010-04-28T22:58:00.001-04:00

Monday I went to the gym again to use the elliptical. It was almost 9pm by the time I started. The gym was nearly empty, which I really liked. I had my pick of ellipticals. I went back to the LifeFitness ones; they seem to have a more running-like stride, at least for me. I did about 2.3 miles, 30 min: W5, R12, W3, R5, W5. Then I did some arm/shoulder weights etc.

Today I came home from school "early" b/c I was hungry (those McD Southwest chicken salads are good but don't last very long), so I didn't get to the gym. I was hoping to go walking but all of a sudden it was time to get the kids bathed and to bed. When you get home at 6:30, and bedtime's 8, well...
I did do some KBs this morning. I borrrowed from Diana's post yesterday and did swings for about 20 minutes till my computer did an auto restart and diskcheck on me. By then it was time to get ready for school anyway. I really need to get some chalk. I asked DH to look for some when I was out and about 1 day, but all he could find was resin and picked up a little resin bag. But now I know what to get. I'll have to add it to DH's wishlist on Amazon so he can buy it next time he orders something. :~) ...or maybe I'll do it myself...one of these days. I did do some walking this evening, very slow walking, with the 2yo and 5yo past the mailbox and back.

Workout:
3x10 swings: 2 handed; 1 handed (ea); transfers; 1 handed. Started feeling pain at the top inside of my forearms, technique? or just muscle use?
Walk-to-Run-elliptical version--6 'sessions' left and 2 weeks more before I can start running again. allmmoossttt tthheerrreeeee.

Friday's W2R

2010-04-25T19:24:00.000-04:00

I tried out a different elliptical: the Star Trac with the floating pedals. It felt quite different with shorter strides. It seemed like more of my weight went straight down, like running on toes more. It was also slower for me, though it felt as fast--probably because of the shorter stride. I went barely 1.5 miles in 30 min. I did like that it gave more of a workout summary than the LifeFitness or whatever they are. I usually just get time, distance, and calories burned. The Star Trac also gave my avg HR, even though I wasn't wearing a HRM or holding the sensors the whole time. I would like to get a new HRM (lost mine at the gym last year). DH says he'll get me one for my birthday. I need to take a little notebook or something to write down the stats as I usually forget the details by the time I go to log my workouts. HRavg ~153, max ~172. speeds ~3-5mph Oh and my right foot didn't get that numb spot like it always does on the other elliptical, though my left foot started to get a numb spot. Not nearly as bad as the other, though.

M's back from her cruise, so Tri training will soon kick in to gear. Yay, I could use some variety and company!

Recommited

2010-04-19T23:23:00.000-04:00

I had a follow-up appt with the phys therapist last week and had to confess to not following the W2R program he gave me, not following as in not doing. He gave me another copy of it and pleaded with me to finish it this time. I said I would. When I looked at it again, I realized I was farther ahead than I'd thought, because I'd skipped the first couple of workouts (walk 1 min, run 1 min). My husband started Family Fit Time where we all go for a walk in the evening, so for a couple of the workouts I slow/fast walked instead of "walking" and "running" on the elliptical.

Today I had a follow-up with the orthopaedist and more x-rays. Yay, the bone's mending as it should, but I still have another month of not running. And still using the bone stimulator. Around the time I wrap up the W2R elliptical program I can start over on it only actually walking and running. Slow, slow, slow. So today I went to the gym and did 8:1 min fast (~6mph) to slow (~3.5mph) for 27 minutes, abt 2.7 miles according to the machine.

Friday I had a fitness test. For the cardio part I did a 3-mi walk and did it in 43:27min! WooHoo! Twice, at the same part of the track, the wind blew grit into my eye; not cool!

OK, so now I need to work on going to sleep at a more reasonable hour than 11:30. I need my 8 hrs!

Log

2010-04-12T22:27:00.000-04:00

Last Tuesday went swimming. Was supposed to meet C at the pool but she forgot and overslept. But I didn't know that until much later, so I swam by myself: 100s each crawl, backstroke, sidestroke, kicks (actually 2x50 that).

Friday: Had a physical therapy follow-up. Had to admit to not getting past week 1 of the "walk" to "run" program, AND had to get another copy of it b/c I lost my 1st one. So I recommitted to doing the program and went straight from the therapist's office to the gym and did 5:2 min x 4 on the elliptical. I was still a bit sore from Crossfit (& swimming?) and tired.

Today: After friends over for dinner (hamburgers) I went to the gym and did a repeat of Friday's elliptical workout. I went better, and I "ran" faster. My "running" averaged 5.2mph, and the "walking" ranged between 3.2 and 3.7mph. This morning before school I also did some kettlebell: 15 2-handed overhead swings, 15 jerks ea, 10 snatches ea, 15 long cycles ea. I didn't check the time to see how long it took.

Got My Butt Kicked Today

2010-04-05T23:31:00.000-04:00

Yep, went to Crossfit today. The warm-up alone was tougher than usual: 400m jog (or in my case, row), and 2 sets of 10 push-ups, 10 sit-ups, 10 squats, 5 pull-ups.

The workout was (including my scaling):
5 burpies
7 step-ups (each foot)
10 pull-ups (with band, kipping)
for 20 minutes.

Yeah, it doesn't look like much. I got in 6 sets and had to use both hands to lift my water bottle to my lips before I was done. My hands were shaky for 2 hours! Afterward I went to Burger King and got a Whopper and a Sprite.

Tomorrow: swimming.

Next race

2010-04-02T21:27:00.001-04:00

I signed up to do the Tri for the Cure again this year. I may be doing a 2-mile walk after swimming and biking, but I'm doing it. M also has signed up again and has gotten several other ladies to commit too. I've told a couple of classmates about it, and one of them is interested. She just doesn't know yet what she'll have going on that weekend, so she's holding off on signing up. But she's totally cool with working out towards it at least until she figures out her plans. Tuesday we're going swimming. Monday...I'm going to Crossfit again. 8-| ;~)

Oops! Forgot the title!

2010-04-01T22:27:00.001-04:00

Well, I didn't get to sleep before midnight the other night, but I did make it to bed before midnight. Next night I actually went to bed before 11 (!) but then the baby woke me up way too early. (My husband says I shouldn't call him (the baby) a "baby" anymore since he's 2 now, but he's still a baby to me. :~P ) So last night I figured I may as well stay up late, since I don't get any more sleep by going to bed early. Today I'm really tired.

So anyway...I made it to the gym Tuesday. Boy was it hot upstairs! That's where the track and ellipticals and treadmills are. The ellipticalls were full, so I found a treadmill and did a 3min "run" (walk @ 4mph--felt faster than I expected) and a 1min walk (@ 3.4mph) x 5 plus 7min warm-up and 3min cool-down. Then I did some sit-ups and push-ups, etc.

Wed: rest day

Today was really nice outside: ~75degress (20 deg above average!) I probably should've done elliptical today, but I knew it would be swealtering in the gym, so I went walking outside. I did a 4:1 minute "run"-walk ratio. I did two miles, and it took 36min (no particular wu or cd). I know I wasn't walking 4mph on the "running" part, but there was a good headwind 1/2-way through each lap around the loop. This morning before class I did some weight exercises--arms/shoulders.

I have a fitness test coming up. I can't do the run, but I can walk, so my choices are (if it is my choice) to do a 3mi timed walk or a cycle ergometry test (stationary bike w/heart rate monitor). My heart rate runs high, and I've had trouble passing the "bike test" before, so I'm leaning toward 3mi walk, but I haven't done a fast 3mi walk yet either. And I don't yet know how fast I'd need to do it. If I could get by with just doing push-ups and sit-ups, I'd get a great score! :~D

Well, I can't seem to get rid of this headache right between my eyes, so I should probably get to bed. Good Night! Happy April!

Why does spring break always have lousy weather?

2010-03-29T22:29:00.001-04:00

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! :~)

Break Time!

2010-03-20T00:33:00.000-04:00

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!

I'm up WAY too late

2010-03-13T00:44:00.000-05:00

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.

Crossfit & a compliment

2010-03-09T22:29:00.001-05:00

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.