Thanksgiving Day Run

RCC talked me into doing a four-mile run this morning.  And by run, I mean we paid our registration fee, showed up and walked probably 3.25 miles.  It was a pretty route, through City Park and Old Town.

I was feeling pretty down about the results, 1:05:39 for me and 1:05:30 for RCC, much slower than our 5K pace back in September.  When we started talking about it, though, we realized that at least five minutes were wasted right at the start where there was a big bottleneck until the first turn.  Trying to fit 3,600 runners through a starting chute didn't work so well.  Some of the runners had strollers and some had dogs; those people were mostly clueless about what was going on around them and blocked the path for a lot of us.

I'm not a runner, I've never claimed to be, but I can only imagine how frustrating it had to be for the people who were stuck in the bottleneck who were runners.

I was feeling pretty good when we finished the race, certain that I was under one hour.  I wanted to be under 50 minutes, but gave up on that at the start.  Then I saw our times.  That 1:05:39 was crushing and I started getting upset at myself for not pushing harder once the crowd did break free.  Since I was so disappointed in my time, I was pretty certain that I hadn't burned very many calories either.

I plugged in my bodybugg when I got home, expecting to see somewhere around 300 calories burned.  Boy was I surprised when it showed 635!!!  I'm super excited about that and can console myself with the thought that at least five minutes was wasted at the start, so I was sort of close to the time I wanted to make.

Now, in just about an hour and a half, the feasting will begin and I won't feel too guilty about it.  RCC has made some meat pies, Digger's making his favorite pudding pie, Mom's got the turkey going and I get to eat.  Thanksgiving is by far my favorite food holiday!

I hope everyone has a blessed Thanksgiving!

Trying to Maintain Some Level of Decorum

I'm used to making a fool of myself when working out with El Poquito Diablo - I'm certain that he comes up with stuff just to embarrass me, so I'm fairly embarrassment-proof while at the gym. When being tortured, we do a lot of laughing and swearing - I'm okay with that.

However...today, I went in to do some intervals by myself on the elliptical machine.  I plugged in my earphones and started flipping through the channels.  I landed on Rob Dyrdek's show "Ridiculousness" - totally random show about some pretty impressive stupid human tricks (and epic fails).  Mindless entertainment to keep me preoccupied while I was slogging through my intervals.  The last clip he showed was this...



Y'all, I tried.  I tried my best to maintain some level of decorum.  I swear to the Sweet Baby Jesus, I tried.

Instead, I'm sure the people around me thought I as having a seizure as I was trying not to laugh my ever loving butt off.  Y'all, I snorted.  A couple of times.

I'm not sure they'll allow me to watch TV while on the elliptical machines anymore.

GunDiva: A Runner?

Not in this lifetime.  But...

RockCrawlinChef decided a while ago that he wanted to run the Bolder Boulder, a 10K race in May that my sister runs every year as her birthday present to herself.  I personally think she's a little nuts and it has apparently rubbed off on my husband.

The first step in his little plan was to start running 5Ks.  He must have forgotten that I. don't. run.  Not for fun, anyway.  I've done my share of running while playing soccer, but that doesn't count.  There's an actual point to running when you're chasing down an attacker.  I still see absolutely no point in running just for the sake of running.  Nebalee is gearing up for her second half marathon.  That's just plain insanity in my book.  However, she swears that it's the only way she can keep any weight off.

I've been plateaued at 166# since July.  I've got to do something about that (other than denying myself food, let's not get crazy here).  *Heavy sigh*  Damn, I've got to get on the running bandwagon.  I'm not happy about that, but I've still got twenty (at minimum) pounds to lose and this seems like the way to go.

So...back to RCC's plan of running 5Ks.  He roped me into running the Harvest Farm Fall Festival 5K in September (so I'm a little behind on my blogging). Well, running wasn't exactly what happened.  We "ran" in intervals - we'd pick out a spot, run to it, walk to the next spot, and so on.  It worked. 

We made it through the race without ambulance intervention.

It was ugly.  Beyond ugly.  But we made it.

And we were starving - after the race I ate more than I'd eaten in months.  Obviously, running burns a calorie or two.  I ate non-stop for two days and it was just a 5K.  Imagine what I could eat if I ran them more often!  I may never lose any weight while running, but, by God, I'm planning on a world-class pig-out on Thanksgiving Day after RCC and I run the Thanksgiving Day run - a 4-miler.

It's probably not the best reason to take up running, but last year, I gained a ton of weight during the holiday season.  This year, I plan to eat what I want and run it off.  Wrong motivation, I know, but I'll take motivation where I can get it.

My plan to survive the 4-miler is to do 1/8 of a mile intervals for two miles a couple of times this week and step it up to 1/4 mile intervals for three miles a couple of times next week and four miles the following week.  I have no intention of actually running the whole four miles - that would just be crazy talk.

But I do plan to finish it, take a nice, hot shower and enjoy BOTH Thanksgiving dinners without guilt.

Challenge check-in

I couldn't complete yesterday's challenge due to my work schedule.  The challenge was to increase my usual cardio workout by 50%, so if I normally did 30 minutes of cardio, I should up it to 45 minutes.  Since I had to work until 10 pm, it would have been midnight before I got home last night.  Just wasn't going to happen.

But I had a plan...incorporate yesterday's challenge into today's workout.  I killed two birds with one stone at the gym today.  Today's challenge was to slow down.  Take three seconds to lift the weight, hold for one second, and take three seconds to lower the weight.  It was kind of cheating, since El Poquito Diablo has me lift like that anyway, but it still counts. :)

Four(ish) days down, twenty-six to go.

I've Got To Get To The Gym!

I haven't been to the gym in a week now.  My left knee has been bothering me for a couple of weeks, and of course, my riding marathon didn't help, but I've had bad knees as long as I can remember.  I've literally shredded the meniscii in both knees and mostly I can live with it.

Nebalee thinks I'm at a point where my fitness level exceeds my body's ability.  It sort of makes sense - I'm cardiovascularly and muscularly fit enough to hit the gym five times a week, including boot camp, but my joints aren't liking it.  She ran into the same problem with her foot while training for a half-marathon.  I'm actually to the point in my workouts with El Poquito Diablo, that I'm leaving the training sessions frustrated because I can only give about 80% due to my knee.  If I don't get something figured out soon, I'm going to go nuts.

I'm tired of living on Advil and sleeping with ice packs on my knees (let me tell you how sexy that is); I'm tired of getting up from any position gingerly; I'm tired of *having* to wear tennis shoes.

I actually planned on going to the gym today, knee be damned.

But my GI tract had other plans.  My running today consisted mainly of from the bed or couch to the bathroom.  I'm not certain that counts as exercise.

*sigh*

Maybe I can make it to the gym on Thursday.

TOS Revisited

When I was pregnant with Monster, I was diagnosed with bilateral thoracic outlet syndrome (TOS).  Essentially, I had impinged both the nerves and blood flow from my neck to my arms, which ultimately resulted in bilateral carpal tunnel syndrome.  The suggested treatment was removal of both 1st ribs.  The drawback (you know, besides the fact that it involved surgery) was that after removing the 1st rib, I would have had to had my arm strapped to my side for six months!  And that meant that for over a year, I would have had one or the other arm strapped to my side.  Yeah, that would have worked well with three children under four.  Instead I did therapy.  Lots and lots of therapy.  Physical Therapy.  Occupational Therapy.  Massage Therapy.  Years of therapy.

It paid off.  Eventually.  My CTS resolved first (six weeks in custom-made wrist splints that reached my elbows - ever tried to change a diaper with absolutely no movement whatsoever?) and over time, I learned what I could and couldn't do with my TOS.  For the last thirteen years or so, I haven't really given my TOS much thought.  It's something I am aware of, and if I find numbness or tingling in my arms or hands, I head to the massage therapist and take it easy.  I'm aware of my posture and know what sets off my TOS, but otherwise it's a non-issue.

El Poquito Diablo has stepped up my workouts - I've finally reached a level of fitness that we can start doing some really cool stuff - but I always felt like my left shoulder was weak.  Not weak as in not strong, but weak as in no oompf.  Like stroke-y weak, but only in my shoulder.

While doing some independent arm work, El Poquito Diablo found that I was compensating in my left shoulder.  He asked me to extend my arm over my head; first my right, then my left.  I extended my right arm directly over my head - nod of approval. 

Arm straight up, spine in alignment, core tight.

And then he had me raise my left arm over my head, so I did it.  Well, I thought I did it.  Turns out I can't do it without conscious effort.

Off center, hips rotated, core de-stabilized.

It's easier to see when compared to the other arm; this is with me concentrating on contracting the right muscles and I'm still off a few degrees.

Easy to see when compared to right.

Sidenote: I'm going to have all of my pictures taken like this from now on - I look downright skinny(ish). 

Seems I might have more lingering effects from TOS than I thought; like maybe some nerve damage in my left arm.  I think with enough retraining of the muscles, it shouldn't be an issue.

I have noticed that when I'm drawing my pistol with my left hand, the weakness is a big issue.  I compensate with my chest muscles, which causes my elbow to rotate out and does not allow me to acquire my sight picture quickly.  I've got thirteen days to retrain/strengthen those muscles to make my draw more satisfactory.  Normally, I shoot the matches right handed, but I thought I'd shoot left just for kicks and giggles next month.

Of course, it took El Poquito Diablo, former National All-Around Gymnastics Champion (or however his title goes) to notice that my judges' salute was all screwed up :)

Sister Saturday

Yep, it's that day again (I need to have RCC make me a badge for it, I think).  The day when I run down my workout with Nebalee.  Only, because of a phone call I got yesterday, I have to be much more serious about my workouts than I had been.  Not that I haven't been serious about my workouts, but I didn't have a real reason for them other than to lose some weight and get into better shape.

That has to change.  I have to be Fit, with a capital F and do it quickly.

Today was free guest day at the gym, so I dragged Nebalee along with some vague idea of what to work on.  Gymnastics Boy had told me where to start, but I figured we'd play it by ear.  Instead, when we checked in, one of the sales people looked at me and said, "you work out with Gymnastics Boy, are you here to do the Body Bootcamp?"

Number 1) I'm a little freaked out that people at the gym are beginning to notice when I'm there or not and
Number 2) that's twice in two visits that a staff member has singled me out to ask how it's going with Gymnastics Boy.  Spooky stuff.

I told him we were just there to work out and we started doing what Gymnastics Boy had suggested.  While we were stretching, I saw him and said hi.  Big mistake.  Guess who the instructor is for Body Bootcamp?  First two guesses don't count.  Guess which sisters got personally ushered into Body Bootcamp?  Again, first two guesses don't count.

Got our asses kicked.  It was a good time.

Now, I'm off to see my girl, Robs.  I haven't seen her since Baking Day and I miss her terribly.  Then it's to the range.  Have to get some lead down range. 

I hope y'all have an amazing Saturday!

PS  If you didn't click the link about my phone call, you might want to do so :)

Sister Saturday

Note:  I never intended this to be a weight loss blog, but since I'm working so hard at losing weight it's no surprise that I have to write about it.  If you're getting sick of reading about my struggle, I'm sorry.

Nebalee is super fit, to the point that she and her husband ran a half-marathon last weekend, which I find absolutely insane.  We've been trying to figure out how to work out together, but I. don't. run.  And she doesn't lift, not that Gymnastics Boy has me lifting anyway.

Now that she's done training for the half-marathon, we decided we'd work out on Saturdays.  She's not a member of the club I am, so it's got to be something we can do at one of our houses.  I've spent the last week running through exercises that Gymnastics Boy has thrown my way, trying to come up with a circuit for us to do.

Most of the exercises I want to do centered around my favorite piece of equipment, the Bosu Ball.  I've mentioned it in the past, but when I was talking to Mom, she was having a hard time picturing it, so here's what it looks like...

It's an amazing way to work on your core.  When Gymnastics Boy started me on it, I could barely stand upright for more than a few seconds, never mind doing any sort of movement on it.  Now, we rarely work with it in the upright position.  Nope, we use it platform up...

It's a lot trickier, but I can't wait to get my own Bosu and take it to the range.  I want to stand on it, platform up, and shoot from it.

However, a Bosu is kind of out of my budget right now, so Nebalee and I chased all over town today looking for something we could use for stability.  One of the other pieces of equipment that Gymnastics Boy has me use is a foam roller.

There are a ton of things we can do with this silly roller, so I picked it up, fondled the Bosu at the store and headed home to torture my sister.  Isn't that what big sisters do?

As I've said, she's super fit and, well, I'm far from being super fit. I'm more like beginner fit.  Gymnastics Boy has been working me hard, but I'm still a long way from being in any semblance of "fit".  I chose some of my most hated exercises and away we went.

We started with a "pyramid" of sorts; 5 burpies (with a push-up), 1 squat with a dumbell, followed by 5 crunches.  The next round was 4 burpies, 2 squats, and 4 crunches and so on.  The only time I've done that pyramid, about a month and a half ago, it took me nine minutes to complete it.  I didn't check the time, but we did it in a whole lot less time this go 'round.

We followed it up with a plank, our hands on the foam roller, which ups the ante a lot.  While in the plank position, we alternated slooooowwwwlllyyy lowering our knees to the ground for 30 seconds.

Then it was up on the foam roller, standing on it, doing squats with dumbells for fifteen reps.  That's one that I really enjoy.  Not so much the squats, but the ability to balance on a foam roll and do the squats without falling off.

We finished off the circuit with my favorite push-ups.  Normally, I despise them, but since they're the same push-ups that Demi Moore did in the water in GI Jane right before she shaved her head, they make me feel super powerful.  Instead of doing them in water, Nebalee and I did them with our feet on a chair, about 18 - 20" above the ground.  Nebalee said something about "downward dog" to "up dog", but since I don't do yoga, I have no idea what the heck she's talking about.  Besides, "downward dog" doesn't sound nearly as cool as "the GI Jane" push-ups.

We completed the circuit twice, in about thirty minutes.  Not bad our first time out.  Even though the work out wasn't as long as what Gymnastics Boy would have had me do, it was still effective.  Nebalee was a little sad that she's lost so much upper body strength, but that will come back quickly.  I was thrilled that I was able to keep up with her.

Now I've just got to figure out new and inventive ways to torture Nebalee next Saturday... *evil laugh*

As a bonus, just because GI Jane makes me happy, enjoy this little clip...

Making The World A Better Place...

...Two Phlebotomists, four Medical Assistants, and one Pharmacy Technician at a time!

The best part of my job is when I know that I've done the best I can for my students.  I set the bar high for them and expect them to put in the work to make it and it's an amazing feeling when they do.  Yesterday was the day that I sent my "babies" off to slaughter - I mean to sit for their National Certification exams.

For two to three heart wrenching hours, I have to let my babies, whom I've cursed, cajoled, threatened and cried over out of my control while they take their National Certification Exams.  I pace like a daddy outside the birthing room the whole time they're in with that other person, the test proctor.

The stress is different than what I usually feel.  For the students that I directly had a hand in teaching and bringing along, I worry that there was something important that I forgot to teach them that will make or break their certification.  For the students that I didn't directly have a hand in teaching, I worry that I didn't give their instructor enough information or support and therefore have failed the students in that aspect. 

The certification tests are HARD and they're supposed to be; you wouldn't want anyone working on you or your family members who didn't have to pass a stringent exam, but it still breaks my heart when I have a student who I know works his/her ass off and just barely misses their certification.  It always makes me want to cry when one of my babies doesn't pass their first time through.

And just because, here's today's workout:

• 
  
  15 minutes interval training on the elliptical machine (levels 1 and 8)
  
  
  
• 
  
  2 sets of 20 reps standing alternating bicep curls (10#)
  
  
  
• 
  
  2 sets of 20 reps standing alternating tricep extentions (10#)
  
  
  
• 
  
  2 sets of 10 reps standing front raises (anterior deltoid) (10#)
  
  
  
• 
  
  2 sets of 20 reps vertical crunches
  
  
  

I was short on time, so I cut out some of my cardio.  Knowing that muscle burns more calories, I've decided to incorporate more weightlifting in my workouts, which I love.  Probably next week, I'll switch to fifteen minutes of cardio, thirty minutes of lifting, and finish with fifteen minutes of cardio, which ensures that I keep my heart rate up for the entire hour I'm working out. 

I also "super set" when I lift, moving from one exercise to another, so for example I'll do my bicep curls, then tricep extensions, then front raises, then crunches, and then rest for 30 seconds before starting my super set again.  My trainer turned me on to the super sets when I ran into time issues, because it allows one set of muscles to rest without while you're working another set without having to stop exercise.

Better Late Than Never

Well, I finally made it to the gym.  Was supposed to start Monday and that didn't happen.  Was supposed to go Tuesday and that didn't happen.  Yesterday? Nope.  But today...I made it!

I grumble about the gym, but it's not the gym I don't like, it's the getting off my polar bear ass and going to the gym.  Once I'm there, it's all good.  I love the smell.  I love the sweat.  And I really, really love the feeling the next day of the fatigued muscles and the sense of accomplishment.  I don't, however, like the painful soreness.  Fatigue is one thing; pain is entirely different.

I may, if I play my cards right, be able to make it tomorrow and Saturday, which will make it three days this week and squeak in my goal to make it three times a week.

Today's workout:

• 28 minutes on the elliptical machine (1.99 miles, 3250 strides)
• 2 sets of 20 crunches on the crunch machine (10#)
• 2 sets of 20 on the obliques machine (10#)

I've got to find my workout cards, 'cause I'm lost without them.  I've got a great set of cards that I made from the workouts my former trainer gave me that are broken down into arms, legs, chest and back that I can rotate through.  Grrr...I hate when I put things some place safe and can't find them again.