Monday, April 11, 2011
A revision in the plan
I began the new year on a quest to work out 365 days, which I was doing fairly well at until I caught a nice winter cold. I attempted push ups for a few days just to keep the streak alive yet I wasn't truly accomplishing my goal of actually pushing myself everyday. Which ended in frustration and the death of the streak. However, my goal didn't die entirely, I continued to run and visit the gym but I was floating around without a goal. A dangerous play to be floating. Without a goal I lacked purpose, dedication and really was running so the dog would shut up and going to the gym if it meant getting to see Merry, Sunnira and Ryan for awhile. We have an excellent goal in place of running Cascade Lakes this summer, which cannot be accomplished if I'm not in good shape but I still lacked the structure I needed to commit to a running/workout schedule. The problem is now solved though! At a family gathering Diana discussed the organization she'd joined called Portland Fit and mentioned they had a Vancouver chapter also. So I went to their website read a little of the description and decided $125.00 was worth 6 months of training! A small price to pay for accountability and the best part is Maureen is on board as well! Vanessa and I ran the Corvallis Half Marathon on April 10th , I finished in 2:35, not spectacular but a good beginning point. I placed 69th in my age group... Well, well, well..... So while meeting up with people and being social is not my most favorite thing to do I think it will help me get through the next few months and I'll be in better shape as a result! I hope the Portland Marathon doesn't fill up before the 25th! I plan to conquer that course once again!
Monday, February 14, 2011
V-Day Workout
Workout #46 was a success. What better way to spend Valentine's Day morning than a Step Sculpt class with favorite crazy instructor lady May. She gave me a nice Valentine's Day gift of pain and an energy bar. Which was very sweet of her. Might be the only Valentine's Day present for me. Took my car to the shop today so I'm walking home in the pouring rain. You'd think on Valentine's Day of all days I might get offered a ride home from someone just sitting at home. Alas, perhaps I could decide not to be stubborn and ask.
I made tuna casserole healthied up last night for dinner. Comfort food sounded good after driving and how cold the weather turned. Used whole wheat pasta, reduced fat cheese, broccoli, carrots and celery for veggies, turned out pretty excellent.
I made tuna casserole healthied up last night for dinner. Comfort food sounded good after driving and how cold the weather turned. Used whole wheat pasta, reduced fat cheese, broccoli, carrots and celery for veggies, turned out pretty excellent.
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Workout #33
The plan to rise at 5am ready to face instructor May again was foiled by teenage drama. In her defense, Carissa's IPOD dock/alarm was not functioning. The problem connected somehow with a great universe threat against her belongings in that "all of her things break". I somehow managed to point out in my half slumbering state the positive, when her skull candy headphones broke she got an upgrade from the company with a 50% off coupon. After the consoling and thinking of work until 2am, the alarm at 5am was too much. I reset to 7am and made a promise to get a decent sweat on after work. Minds out of the gutter please. :-) I decided to tackle the Insanity fit test again to see if I'd improved. I still cannot do the jumping jack pushups but made it through all of the other exercises despite the residual pain from May's workout lingering.
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Jan 25 to Feb 1st
The streak still lives although my Fridays have consisted of walking and pushups for good measure.. The problem with this is we're then on to the Blind Onion for pizza and beer afterwards.. I suppose there need to be a fun life balance but this really kills my weekly progress.
Work has been so busy and home has been a little off which has zapped my energy for writing this blog but I'm going to get back at it even if I write lame things that aren't as entertaining sometimes.
The weather has provided some decent running days and Wally is always ready for an outing. We've worked up to five miles which is easy for him and he's still spry as ever when we return home. I'm feeling pretty good about my cardio fitness at a comfortable pace however, my my upper body and core is so weak. Last night I met Merry at LA Fitness for an hour long session of fun with May who teaches an excellent BodyWorks class. Sadly my body does not work as well as this May who is well over 60 and looks better than most of the 20 and 30-somethings desperately trying to keep up. In the beginning of the class she says its okay if you need to rest but there's no excuse for not doing your best. She not only leads us through a variety of poses I would never have thought to invent all the while counting, encouraging and yelling at us to get it in gear. Sometimes throwing in a threat about when we get older we should be stronger than we are today and more flexible. We need to work hard!!! She is amazing, when she told me good job after class was over I felt like a puppy getting a reward. Although I wondered if she threw me the bone just so I'd return... It worked.... 5:00am tomorrow I am getting up and dragging myself to her morning class. I hope this will be a nice way to start the day. After our session yesterday my shoulders, abs and butt are still pretty sore, hopefully hitting it hard tomorrow will do just the trick to loosen things up.
A note on flexibility or I should say lack thereof, I wonder how long one has to consistently stretch before you see improvement? I'd maybe just like to not feel my achilles are about to pop off when trying to do a stretch while seated. My legs are so tight, it feels I might just flop backwards at any moment from the resistence put forth by my hams and calves. The special highlight is when we're supposed to push our stretch a little further and I'm already at terminal stretch hold with nothing left to give just from a sitting positing. No elbows on the floor for me.
Work has been so busy and home has been a little off which has zapped my energy for writing this blog but I'm going to get back at it even if I write lame things that aren't as entertaining sometimes.
The weather has provided some decent running days and Wally is always ready for an outing. We've worked up to five miles which is easy for him and he's still spry as ever when we return home. I'm feeling pretty good about my cardio fitness at a comfortable pace however, my my upper body and core is so weak. Last night I met Merry at LA Fitness for an hour long session of fun with May who teaches an excellent BodyWorks class. Sadly my body does not work as well as this May who is well over 60 and looks better than most of the 20 and 30-somethings desperately trying to keep up. In the beginning of the class she says its okay if you need to rest but there's no excuse for not doing your best. She not only leads us through a variety of poses I would never have thought to invent all the while counting, encouraging and yelling at us to get it in gear. Sometimes throwing in a threat about when we get older we should be stronger than we are today and more flexible. We need to work hard!!! She is amazing, when she told me good job after class was over I felt like a puppy getting a reward. Although I wondered if she threw me the bone just so I'd return... It worked.... 5:00am tomorrow I am getting up and dragging myself to her morning class. I hope this will be a nice way to start the day. After our session yesterday my shoulders, abs and butt are still pretty sore, hopefully hitting it hard tomorrow will do just the trick to loosen things up.
A note on flexibility or I should say lack thereof, I wonder how long one has to consistently stretch before you see improvement? I'd maybe just like to not feel my achilles are about to pop off when trying to do a stretch while seated. My legs are so tight, it feels I might just flop backwards at any moment from the resistence put forth by my hams and calves. The special highlight is when we're supposed to push our stretch a little further and I'm already at terminal stretch hold with nothing left to give just from a sitting positing. No elbows on the floor for me.
Monday, January 24, 2011
Days 17-24
Any good plan is often flawed in implementation however, the important thing is to stick to it and roll with what unfolds. I spent the past few day fighting off a lovely cold in combination with work and home stress which resulted in feeling like the world's challenges just might be too much. After a few days and a couple of nights of good sleep I realized what a huge ninny I was being (literally and figuratively) and devised some schemes to make it through the various challenges and have some fun in the process. Through all the sniffling and sneezing I managed to stay the course and get in pushups, situps and walking with Wally. So the streak lives! Not the stellar end to January I had planned but today I redeemed myself and ran for an hour along the Vancouver waterfront with Wally prancing happily at my side.
A difficulty on the diet front: Grandma is entirely too excellent of a cook. Last weekend was National Pie Day. Which I do not think she knew until Uncle Nels told her but she still had a peanut butter pie and two types of berry pies on the counter. They are entirley too excellent to pass up and I suppose why should we? I hope a balance can be found between being 30lbs overweight and wanting to lose it yet still getting to have some pie now and again. In an effort to curb my dessert craving in the evening I purchased some Skinny Cow ice cream. Although milk from a skinny cow just can't be as tasty. Oh what a lame joke.. I must not be all the way recovered or perhaps it was just too full of a day for this old lady....
A difficulty on the diet front: Grandma is entirely too excellent of a cook. Last weekend was National Pie Day. Which I do not think she knew until Uncle Nels told her but she still had a peanut butter pie and two types of berry pies on the counter. They are entirley too excellent to pass up and I suppose why should we? I hope a balance can be found between being 30lbs overweight and wanting to lose it yet still getting to have some pie now and again. In an effort to curb my dessert craving in the evening I purchased some Skinny Cow ice cream. Although milk from a skinny cow just can't be as tasty. Oh what a lame joke.. I must not be all the way recovered or perhaps it was just too full of a day for this old lady....
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Day 16
20 minutes of Insanity cardio/abs today. Not as long as I intended but it was still challenging.
Stayed the night at the farm last night, Grandma made chili and cornbread and I took a sauna which was glorious!!!! Was sort of like a mini-vacation.... They suffered more barking but Wally did pretty well.
Stayed the night at the farm last night, Grandma made chili and cornbread and I took a sauna which was glorious!!!! Was sort of like a mini-vacation.... They suffered more barking but Wally did pretty well.
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Days 13, 14 and 15
Day 13: 40 minute run with Wally but pushed it harder than normal to get rid of the day.
Day 14: As a result of running a little too hard, my hip flexor (aka old lady injury) acted up again. So I was relegated to a brisk two mile walk around the perimeter of the dog park. Also had to ice said hip all night...
Day 15: Woke up feeling better about the world today and wasn't too sore so Wally and I did a nice easy paced 6 miles. I didn't anticipate the core workout which was a result of a rather large number of squirrels on the route. The problem is my fault... I thought it was fun one day to send Wally after squirrels we came across. I didn't account for the fact he would never forget the fun of squirrel chasing.
Over the course of the past 15 days I have dropped six pounds which didn't really start happening until I changed my diet over the past six days. The week was actually excellent with all meals planned out and we all ate a much better quantity and variety of fruits and veggies. Well by we all I mean Carissa, Wally and I... Carlos is still on the white bread sandwich plan which involves incorporating whatever meat is with the meal or leftover in the fridge into a sandwich with miracle whip on both sides of the bread.. YUCK!!!
Something I realized through talking with our VP this week which applies to more than work is we have a greater responsibility in life and work than just keeping the peace. Learning how to keep people happy and navigate their various systems is a good skill but is ultimately tiring and doesn't make a person happy. Perhaps you had to be there but thought I would try to briefly summarize my epiphany.
Day 14: As a result of running a little too hard, my hip flexor (aka old lady injury) acted up again. So I was relegated to a brisk two mile walk around the perimeter of the dog park. Also had to ice said hip all night...
Day 15: Woke up feeling better about the world today and wasn't too sore so Wally and I did a nice easy paced 6 miles. I didn't anticipate the core workout which was a result of a rather large number of squirrels on the route. The problem is my fault... I thought it was fun one day to send Wally after squirrels we came across. I didn't account for the fact he would never forget the fun of squirrel chasing.
Over the course of the past 15 days I have dropped six pounds which didn't really start happening until I changed my diet over the past six days. The week was actually excellent with all meals planned out and we all ate a much better quantity and variety of fruits and veggies. Well by we all I mean Carissa, Wally and I... Carlos is still on the white bread sandwich plan which involves incorporating whatever meat is with the meal or leftover in the fridge into a sandwich with miracle whip on both sides of the bread.. YUCK!!!
Something I realized through talking with our VP this week which applies to more than work is we have a greater responsibility in life and work than just keeping the peace. Learning how to keep people happy and navigate their various systems is a good skill but is ultimately tiring and doesn't make a person happy. Perhaps you had to be there but thought I would try to briefly summarize my epiphany.
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