Category: Exercise

Sugarbomb

~ meh ~ 4 Comments

Starting tomorrow…pull out that Speedo…it’s February Fitness time!

As a Masters coach I am encouraging one and all to get out there and push your fitness levels this month.  Though I personally am taking a break from hard training due to some chronic injuries that just will not quit (bummer), I still plan on swimming.  Last year I went about 40,000 yards, which is totally beatable.  So there’s goal #1.

Along the same lines of improving overall health/fitness….I have a massive sugar problem.  And apparently sugar is horrifically terrible for you.  So goal #2: cut back on sugar intake.  Eliminating fake sweeteners, avoiding sugary foods during the day, and no candy at all.  It’s a bad habit, time to break it.

And finally, my coworker and I have committed to no bitching this month…which is completely unrelated to physical exertion, but a serious exercise in mental fitness.

And there it is. February Fitness.  Go get ’em.

Streak Report–Part II

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sausage race finish line…picture via

And now, for the second and final installment of the streak report.  Not a lot of running and minimal biking (because I was in California and did not have a bike with me.)  At least I got to do a lot of this in the sun.

Continued from Part I…

Day 13: 1hr 15 min of TRX with sprints in between each circuit

Day 14: 5.3 mile run alone with my music, shins and knee reeeeally got to me

Day 15: 26 mile bike ride (1 hr 30 min).  Also the day I decided to take the next week+ off until my leg stopped hurting.

Day 16 : First day in CA.  3200 swim OUTSIIIIDE!

Day 17 (Christmas): everything was closed.  Did a 5ish mile walk with Paul and Dad in the hot hot sun (I broke a sweat, counting it).

Day 18: 4.something mile hike in the mountains of SB with some old friends (we walked uphill, also counting it)

Day 19: 4000 swim (1hr 15 min, main set: broken mile)

Day 20: 3500 swim (1hr 15 min, long course masters practice in SB)

Day 21: 2500 swim (1 hr, long and easy, hypoxic pull)

Day 22: 3000 swim (1hr 15 min, threw some fast 100s in there)

Day 23: Nothing.  Spent the day recovering from a migraine on the flight home.  Then baked bread.

Day 24 (but actually day 25 bc I started on day 0): (NEW YEARS DAY!) 1hr 30 min ride on the trainer.  Felt like death.

The end.  How anticlimactic.  It wasn’t a complete fail, I only did nothing on 2 of the 25 days, but also not a complete success.  I’m still not running, going to try to start again this weekend.  Fingers crossed….

Streak Report–Part I

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So, I could lie and pretend like I’ve run every day of the streak.  But I won’t.

Started out on the right foot (ha), but the shins and back pain kicked in after a run I (apparently) pushed a little bit too hard followed by a weekend of increased cycling hours, and I didn’t want to aggravate it all too much.  So I haven’t been running every day.  Fail.  But I have committed myself to exercising every day!  (I missed one day out of the last 12).  And I plan to do so through the first of the year.

Report thus far:

Day 0: 5.4 miles with the morning group (this was the day before I heard about the streak, but thought it should count since I ran)

Day 1: 1 mile (ouch…had a work event, it was dark)

Day 2: 5.4 mucusy miles with the morning group (it was 26 degrees outside)

Day 3: 2 miles with Spike, the squirrels were out in force, I wanted to kill him (+90 minute ride on the bike)

Day 4: 1 mile on my own (+ 5000 yard swim + 1 hour on bike)

Day 5: 3 miles easy running with Paul and Spike (this weekend was where the back and shins started getting bad)

Day 6: ~.5 miles (1-minute sprints with Allison in between our TRX circuits)

Day 7: 5.4 miles with morning group, avg 7:40/mile (+ 1hr yoga…my back was KILLING me, wanted to stretch it out)

Day 8: 0 miles run, but 1.5 mile walk with Spike (and we put our new couch together…I wasn’t feeling super great)

Day 9: 4 miles (25 min run + 6 x 30 sec strides)

Day 10: 0 miles, shins hurt and had long run planned for next day (+ 1hr 30 min on bike + 1500 yard swim)

Day 11: 8.4 miles by my lonesome, had to throw my emergency mix on my ipod to get me out of the house (1hr 10min)

Day 12: 3.4 miles nice and slow (+TRX with a few sprints)

Total miles: 40.1.  Weak sauce.

There you have it.  The (first) 12 Days of Streaking.

…and while we’re riding the Confession Train, I might as well go ahead and announce that at some point last week I actively dove headfirst off the wagon and started eating chocolate in my office again LIKE IT IS MY JOB.

I’m ready for break.

P.S. Someone put a ceramic duck wearing a Christmas sweater right outside my cube.  Totally necessary.

Time to STREAK!

~ meh ~ 3 Comments

As I’ve mentioned in a few  other posts, I’ve been having trouble getting back into the groove this winter.  The cold and raging holidays and insane work and my growing waistline…it is not easy to resume/maintain a regular training schedule.  Enter: the Runners World Holiday Running Streak (which I read about on Skinny Runner.)

Run at least one mile every day between Thanksgiving and New Years (I know, it’s late, but whatever, starting today it’s still a 25-day streak.)

Stay moving.

Mele Kalikimaka

~ meh ~ 7 Comments

So, this past week was supposed to be “END BLOBTOBERFEST!”  I was going to get back into training and put together a training schedule and GET ON THE BALL.  But then I got the flu and it knocked me on my butt for the whole week.  I didn’t exercise once.  Not even close.  But I did experience some soreness from lying in bed so much.

So, what did I do during my week off (aside from turning into a pile of white, doughy grossness)?

Signed up for a half Ironman.  Of course.

My good friend Alix is getting married next summer and decided to do the Honu 70.3 in June before the wedding.  And I am joining her.  It is going to be my A race for next year (I’ve never been to Hawaii before…I am beyond excited.)

PARTY ON THE NORTH SHORE!

Blobtoberfest

~ meh ~ 6 Comments

The really upsetting part about the above picture is that a person I had met a few times who coincidentally works with one of my friends saw this picture on my friend’s phone at work and was like, “Oh wait, I know that girl, she works at the triathlon shop, right?”

October = sloth.  Time off from training combined with approaching holidays and travel over the past few weeks has resulted in…tighter pants and a real knack for convincing myself that I’d really be better off staying on the couch with my pumpkin beer “recovering” (from what, I don’t know) than getting up and going for a run.

Enter: Operation New Leaf.

A number of my friends (namely triathletes) are taking major steps to improve their diet and nutrition as the new season approaches.  So I decided that in the spirit of turning things around and making healthier choices next season I am going to start early and do the same…sort of.

Here is our office:

OK, that’s a blueprint of the Dunder Mifflin office, but it’s not SO far off.   We even have a Michael, Stanley, and Phyllis that work here.

Our office has these:

Everywhere.  All year long.  Not just for Halloween.  (And this is a small bowl…but I didn’t want people thinking I was a weirdo taking pictures of the office candy.)

Here is me:

I love sugar.    Here is how our office is set up:

The orange line denotes the path from the front door to my desk, the green line is the bathroom to my desk, and the pink dashed line is my alternative route.  The angry tornadoes are, obviously, baskets of processed sugar.  This is the challenge I face every day-after-sedentary-day. And pretty much every day I lose.

So my major, revolutionary, dietary life change?  I’m not going gluten free…or sugar free…or even candy free…just NO MORE CRAP AT WORK.  Today was my first day.  I made it.

Baby steps to the elevator.

Age wrinkles the body. Quitting wrinkles the soul.

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NASA Satellite image, April 2004

Just a month and a half after her first attempt, 62-year-old Diana Nyad tried again to complete a cage-less swim from Havana to Florida, only to be stopped 40 hours and 92 miles in (just 11 miles short of the 103 mile goal) by Man ‘o War and Box Jellyfish stings.   She says she’s learned to respect the ocean and won’t try again.  I have trouble believing her.

A few pics here.  Pretty gnarly.

Oh HECK yeah

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A group of friends needed anther person to complete their team for the 2011 Bourbon Chase in October, and guess who they invited to join?

That’s right!  The Bourbon Chase is a relay race across Kentucky through all of the major bourbon distilleries, starting at Jim Beam and ending in Lexington with a bourbon celebration.  Score.  It’s almost like an urban hike…but running and in rural Kentucky.  Right?

Time to fire up the running shoes again…

Update: Our team name is Jim Beam Me Up.