It just wasn't working...

I tried, I really did. I thought maybe we were just in a "chill cycle". But the less and less we did the farther it went and was going no where.

So I did what works, what always works and when I thought about it, I really missed.
I rejoined the Y.

The home gym just wasn't cutting it. It's nice. It really is. But it doesn't get me working out like the Y does. Or at least the Y's 90 minutes of free child care, does.

Yeah I called up this morning, paid the bill, and took me and the baby in. It didn't take much to kick my weak-haven't seriously lifted in 3 months- ass.

Pretty happy about my decision. Even if it does cost $100, I don't have, a month.

Fair weather runner

Yeah I totally wimp out when it comes to cold weather. So the runs have been sporadic and uneventful. Pretty much I've settled into knitting, drinking coffee, eating too much and staying warm.

I live in the Pacific Northwest. We are happy to have 50 degree weather most days, including summer. But dipping into the 30's is where we draw the line.

I've been doing some treadmill action and am just starting to get back into the swing of weight lifting. I'm lifting in my garage so it's a little harder to get motivated than when I was in the warm, clean gym.

It's winter. I'm fine with that.

Good run!

You know the whole run to school battle has a lot of pros and cons.

It's almost all downhill the first 2.5 miles. Definitely a pro.
But it's 1.5 miles almost all uphill the way back. Major con. I'm cool with a little uphill with the stroller, but 1.5 straight miles of it is not so cool.

Getting it together before 8:30 am is another definite con. And I don't mean get my shit together, I mean get myself and 2 small children fed, "hygiened up", dressed and out the door for a run by 8:30 am. Kids really do complicate things.

Today I tried another approach. Drive kid to school and run my favorite, mostly flat 4.8 mile run with only one kid. Worked like a champ. Think I'm gonna try doing that next week!

Off and on the bandwagon.

I seem to have about a 6 month cycle of being on the exercise bandwagon. When I fall off I tend to slack more, obviously, exercise less and with less intensity. These lulls seem to last anywhere from a few weeks to a few months.

I believe I am starting one now. The change of seasons to chilly and often rainy weather doesn't help. But I try to scale back the workouts while still keeping a base level of fitness. Then I just have to hold on until I get the hardcore feeling back again.

So for now it's a little less push. I'm ok with that.

Ran 4.86 miles on Monday- no kids!
Walked 3.25 miles on Tuesday
Ran 3.75 miles today.

I would really like to get back on the weights. That's the one thing I'm having a hard time getting back on. Mostly because I'm not going to a gym, and that seems to be the easiest way for me to do weights. hrrrm.

I needed that!

Photos by Danny Ngan! Love that man!


So bout day has come and gone. And my love for derby has been rekindled. You see we had been going strong for about 18 months. From February 2010 to August 2011 it was non-stop training to skate, to ref, to call penalties, form a group. All the work required to get a fairly functioning ref group was pretty vigorous and after a year and half most of us were pretty burnt.

So from August to October I've been on a break/leave/burnout phase. I hemmed and hawed about leaving the league. Tried to figure out how to scale back, and trying to decide if I wanted to do this at all.

Saturday night brought it all together and answered all those questions. There is nothing like a good bout to bring back the fire!

I've had to make changes to my derby routine. Now, along with my new work schedule, I only attend once a week. I get together with my lady refs for food and then go to practice. It makes the whole process of going to practice a lot more enticing.

The bout had some trying moments. One of the refs slotted to skate didn't show. We're pretty sure she didn't realize she was on the roster while she was on leave. So that put us down one skating ref. I stepped in for one game, and one of the newer refs stepped in for the other.

Yeah so I haven't been on skates since August. Not a step! And I hadn't called penalties since Rollercon, again in August. I was feeling nervous.

The problem was I went to Rollercon and ended up demoralized. I skate reffed twice while there and it was not a good thing. Rollercon is flat track. I ref banked track. The rules are not super different, but between the differences, the new environment and the entire flat track skater culture I was super off my game. It sucked.

So I came back feeling like I sucked as a ref.

Enter Saturday's game. Upon realizing I would be skating I geared up and went to do a little warmup. Could I still do this? Umm yeah, not a problem. Actually I couldn't tell I had missed a day of skating! Thankfully after skating for close to 2 years my legs had not forgotten a thing.

So now the issue was the penalty calling, oh yeah and pack definition. This was a major problem for me at Rollercon. I think in retrospect I was just spooked. Also flat track skaters skate backwards which really freaking screws me up.

During the game the penalties were sooo easy for me to see! And pack definition was so prominent! It was like taking that break allowed my brain to process all the stuff I'd learned over the past 2 years. I felt awesome!

And it was a freakin amazing game! The teams were really evenly matched. I saw so many incredible, and clean, hits. What an awesome game to start back up with!

Anyways. It went great and now I am so very for-sure, back in derby!

Bout day!

Well I'm finally back in the swing of roller derby things. Technically I'm on the accelerated path back to reffing. One practice in and there's a bout!

Not much running to speak of the past few days. I think I get worried that I'll either blow up like a balloon or irreversibly sink into sloth-dom if I don't run daily. But I think I'll be all right.

Ran Mon through Wed and decided to walk Thurs and just plain chill on Friday. So only 16 miles this week. Back to grind on Monday!

License to slack

I'm not sure why there is this constant urge to increase and improve on physical performance. I have been running about 4-5 days a week, usually around 5 miles a day. Some bits walking, some days a smidgen less. But all in all a respectable number of miles and at a respectable pace.

So why do I feel like a slacker? I haven't done any weights the past month and a half. Which is lame. The transition into school mom mode has been tough, but I'm hitting my stride.

I keep feeling like I should run or walk the second half of the day as well. And maybe do some biking or swimming. Cause I should be doing more.

The notion of getting pregnant actually feels like the only reasonable excuse to do less. Do I need a license to slack or something?

Not always about running!

Planned to run today and knew it wouldn't happen as soon as I put the Bailey's knockoff in my morning coffee! Hey it's the weekend man. A little tipple before noon never hurt anyone.

Finally made it back to practice! I've been on leave since our last bout in August? Sept? I'm not actually sure when it happened.. hrrmm.

Well anyways, my brain retains the most random of details so it was no stretch to step back in. I did penalty tracking for a closed junior league scrimmage. It was nice to be back with everyone and all seemed to have a good time. While I've enjoyed my time off, I've really missed my derby people.

And because fall and winter are our best times for home projects, we have gotten quite a bit done! I organized the spare bedroom into a craft and sewing room. Yeah!

Also we finally built shelves in our totally non-functional bedroom closet. Tons of space and no way to use it. Now there is room for everything, we were able to remove an extra dresser and trunk from the bedroom and it's clean!

And finally I painted a bare wall with chalkboard paint to make a calendar and drawing area. Holy smokes I've needed to do this. We used green and purple and it looks awesome. We have to wait a few days before we draw on it, but it's going to be awesome!

Doing good! Even without a day of running.

Bad Ass!

Yeah I'm sure when someone says bad ass you have to PR or add hella crazy miles or something remarkable. But in my world showing up is still an accomplishment.

So yes, once again, I ran to school (in cold ass weather I may add) and ran home. Yeah that's a whole 2.5 miles with 2 children mostly downhill, and 1.65 miles home with one child, MOSTLY UPHILL!!!

Oh yeah, that is soooo BAD ASS!!!!

Much better

I was starting to sink into runner super slackerdom. You know when you get into a running routine, it's not very hard so you don't really push.

Yeah the running with the kids thing has gotten pretty easy. I had further slacked by only running to school in the morning and picking up Koz in the afternoon in the car. For good reason, hanging around in sweaty running tights on chilly days is not so nice.

Running 2.5 miles to school, walking home with the baby girl and then hitting another 2.5 on the treadmill should be fine right? 5 miles is a nice round number. But I wasn't really pushing and after a week or two there is no improvement.

Though today, my friends, it was a new day. Yes today I actually ran home. So with one child in the stroller and taking on all the hills I made the full 4 mile loop. It's actually like 4.18 miles but Mez wanted to "balance" on the curb for a couple blocks. And I walked the super short but steep half block hill.

Did the last mile on the treadmill.

Nice day.

Oh how annoying...

I got to run to school with just one child today! That means I can run the full 5 miles in one go. OMG running back up those moderate hills with a empty stroller are a dream!

And then on my way back my foot tweaks. Left ball of my foot decides it's going to hurt and no you cannot run on me. Totally annoying.

Though you can run surprising well on the side of your foot.

3.5 miles total. Lame.

Having kids

No run today. Totally felt like being lazy! There is no school and I work tonight. (Did I mention that this is the last of 2 night shifts!)

So we have been laying around, making cookies and watching movies. I've been working on a dino stuffy for Koz.

Days like this is why I like having kids.

We're morning people

I get up just after 6 am. Koz pretty much is laying there waiting for me to get up, so he can get up. We make food, listen to music, play, go running, go walking, you name it, we do it.

So today like the rest started early, did 5 miles of running (2.5 on the road with the kids and another 2.5 on the treadmill) with a 1.5 mile walk break in the middle. My 3 year old has walked the entire 1.5 miles home every day this week!

Having our afternoons and evening free has been such a treat. We've been doing projects and cooking. Having dinner by 4:30-5pm is really nice and keeps me from snacking all day.

Yesterday I made a sweater stuffy, and today I'm hoping to start work on a Halloween banner. Yeah!

It's working out!

So the job had a little scheduling snaffoo... and they asked me if I can work Sunday morning (my soon to be and most desired shift) early and skip Saturday night shift!!! Hell yeah!! I will still be rocking the Friday night, but that's fine. Only two night shifts left til it's all day all the time!

That may not seem that big a deal to the rest of the world, but I honestly prefer to be asleep by 8:30-9pm. Just not a night partier. When I was in my early twenties I actually used to meet up with my partying friends at a bar downtown where they opened at 5am for the all nighters.

Yeah.

In other news, I'm liking the treadmill option. It's crappy weather these days, which I love. But getting soaking wet during a nice run, then waiting 2 hours to do it again is not as much fun. It's fine in the summer, but fall not so much.

4.29 miles outside, 2.75 miles inside. 5 of those run.

A little this and a little that

Some days I want to wear real clothes. And I mean the kind of clothes that include matching socks, zipper and button waistbands, and a non-moisture wicking coat. But the schedule doesn't always allow.

Today we ran to school, walked back and the 3 year old once again pretty much walked the whole way. But instead of sitting around on the old interwebs, we went to the studio and I did another 2.5 on the treadmill. The plan was to walk to school for pickup in real clothes! But I may have lost track of time and left too late to walk.

Still got to wear real clothes though.

Ran 5 miles, walked 1.26

Happy Monday!

Only two more weeks of night shift!!!! Oh there is sooo a countdown.

Anyways today David is home so I ran to school. Was going to run home, but little Meza, 3 yrs old btw, wanted to walk. The whole 1.68 miles home! Yeah!

Ran 2.5 miles, walked another 1.68 home.

They love me

Well I guess they love me at my job. I'm one of the more senior and experienced staff for my group. I figured I was doing great, but really I mostly work by myself, which I prefer, so feed back only happens sporadically.

I called work to talk with our scheduling manager to see if I was being laid off, just in case. She said "hell no!" and wished I could work more shifts! So they love me.

But my schedule will be changing, which I am over the moon about, to a long shift on Sunday. 6am to 8pm. I'll get my entire part time work week done in one day. And it's the busy shift. I've been working nights which is ok, but there is a lot of slow time. This means the only real work I have to do is cleaning. Sad. Sunday I'll get to rock it!

So stress gone. Job good. Two more weeks of night shifts yeah!

I'm gonna walk

Today is an optional walk day and I'm taking it. So we'll take the shorter route and only do a 4.5 miles round trip.

I'm feeling a little stressed with work tonight. One of my co-workers was laid off under questionable circumstances. I think I'll be fine, but my position is definitely a potential issue.

I only work part time and have had to recently cut back my hours further due to the ridiculous schedule my kids have with school. If I were to be laid off it would be ok, but I prefer to get a regular paycheck even if it's a small one. And I really couldn't complain if the company needs my shift to accommodate someone full time.

So tonight may be a lay off night. Who knows. It may be fine, but it still worries me. I hate not knowing. Even if I am laid off, I'll still stay on for relief. That's always given me plenty of shifts, just less dependable.

4 days straight!

So last week and the week before I only ran the kids to school 3 out of 5 days. And technically on Monday I only ran half the loop. But I'm on day 4 and doing well. Though I will say I didn't seem to have any power in my legs this morning.

And I've decided to make Friday a day off option day. But honestly it's nicer to run, makes it go faster!

Even with the weakling legs I still managed a respectable 10 min pace. Pretty much if I'm not pushing hard I make 10 each time. Which I am completely ok with that. The fact that I keep going each morning is still impressing the hell out of myself!

But another beautiful day and another 8.29 miles, 5.5 run and the rest walked.

Cold and beautiful

One of my favorite parts of living in the PNW is our falls. We get our bouts of rain, which I like too, but there is a lot of cold, crisp and beautiful sunny days.

Today was just that and perfect for running. Legs are improving every week. It's weird because now I often feel like I haven't worked out at all. I think I may need to start upping the miles and intensity.

The run to school was 2.5 miles with both kids in the stroller at a 9.2 pace. That's definitely the fastest I've run with both of them. My goal is to start adding more running on the way home. So far I did another .5 miles back uphill towards my house. I'll hopefully do this on both trips. Then slowly add another .25 mile here and there until I'm running the whole thing. How cool would that be?

One of my methods for adding on mileage is to slow down. I figure I can run just about any distance if I go slow enough, and I'm really not tracking time anyways.

Well I did the second leg of my kids to/from school run. I ran the 2.5 with one kid in the stroller in 21.30. Yeah, that's a 8.20 pace. F*ck yeah! And being a little tired from that, I elected to walk the rest home.

Loving it

5.5 miles run
2.79 walked
8.29 total

Rain rain rain

Classic fall in the Pacific Northwest. Rain, steady, for real, not drizzle, straight up rain.
Perfect for running!

I really enjoy running in the rain, even though it feels like my raincoat is soaking through.

Oh and you know what is super awesome? I got a new raincoat for running. One of those super light, water wicking, la la la kind. It has a pocket you can stuff the whole thing in and zip up. Makes the whole thing about the size of my hand.

Yeah well I showed how cool it was to my husband, set it down somewhere and now I can't find it. Yeah awesome. How cool is it that it compacts so small now?

Did the school loop. Run 2.5 miles with two kids in the stroller to school. Walked with one kid back home another 1.64 miles. Was going to repeat this 2 hours later for a total of 5 miles run and 3.29 miles walked but we decided to drive and go for lunch. It's awesome. I love it!

Back in action

Well I'm back to fairy normal after a weekend of flu/stomach flu fun. My appetite is crap so I'm running slower than usual and it's harder. But it's tolerable and I've never been one to be slim on appetite for long.

With the new school schedule I am finding it increasing difficult to make the crossfit classes. We are looking at cutting back my hours at work as well. So I may be dropping Crossfit to save time and money, but happily working a shorter schedule. I am sooo totally ok with this. I had no idea when school started how difficult and taxing 5 days a week school would be. Freakin crazy! And I'm not even the one in school!

Sunday: Slept for like 17 hours and then slept some more.

Monday: Ran 5 miles and walked 3.29 for a 8.29 total

Tuesday: Stayed home with the sick kid! He started puking and crapping at 3am and did not stop til after 7am. Call this one a rest day.

Wednesday: Ran 5 miles and walked .5. Still home with the sick kid, but fortunately we have a treadmill!

Thursday: Ran 5.5 miles and walked 2.79 for a 8.29 total. Are the kids better? Of course not, Koz puked like a gallon all over the couch. And Meza has joined in with the every 30 minute diarrhea. Awesome!

Friday: Nothing today. Not only was it another sick day, the kids still puking and crapping, I strained something in my neck and the spent the morning in paralyzing pain. How freakin lame! Off to work tonight. But it looks like my schedule will change in October and I'll be able to work one day shift from now on. No more nights! And it's only one shift a week. What a freakin relief that will be!

Saturday: So this whole neck thing is bullshit! It's loads better from yesterday, but I still have a lot of pain and can't move normally. I want to run and do my usual day! Sucko. Man I hope tomorrow is better!

Two things

My favorite two things right now:

Using running as a form of commuting. I take the kids in the stroller to run to the store or school or park. Sometimes I get to run places by myself too!

David saying he wants to start running with me! Sadly he has to have foot surgery and will likely be not able to run for another 6 months after, but he's interested and that's a world of change from his previous interests.

So cool.

School's starting!

This is the week I've been training for! School!

The plan for each day is to run 2.5 miles to school, walk or run home, hang out and then run another 2.5 back to school, and definitely walk home. (two kids in the stroller on the way home!)

I'm hitting a crossfit class today, one this week during the evening and again on Saturday. And there may be another longer run or two sometime during the week. I'm very excited to get my run on!

Sun: Duplicate from yesterday but mapmyrun does Sun-Sat and counts better than me. So yesterday had a 5.58 mile run .58 mile walk

Mon: Crossfit. and that's it.

Tues: 8.29 miles! 6 total run, and 2.29 walked. Broken up into 2.5 miles to school twice and 1.65 miles home twice! Run there and run part of the way back. My pace on the 2.5 too school was first 10.0 with both kids then 8.8 with one kid. Hells yeah!

Wed: 9.29 miles! 6.5 total run, and 2.69 walked. Same deal two loops of 4.63 miles.

Thurs: 8.29 miles. Ran 5 total and walked 3.39. A little sore today!

Fri: Well I can't say I'm surprised. I'm sick. First week of school stress was bound to do that. I spent the night with horrible painful body aches, and the GI tract has decided everything needs to jump ship. I don't actually feel tired though. But I am going to take it easy today as I'm working tonight. So driving to school. Happy Friday?

Sat: Still sick

Sun: Still sick.....

Well the end of the week did not go as planned. I called in sick on Saturday night and it was a really good thing. I've the past 17 hours and feel much better. Hoping to be back in the running swing tomorrow.

Total miles for this week are still good though!
Run: 23.08
Walk: 8.48
Total: 31.56

By the numbers

Mon: Great run! 8.32 miles 10.32 pace.
Knees a smidge sore but the cardio part has finally kicked back in. If you asked any part of my body above my knees it would have said keep running! The knees were not on board.
Good run anyways. Was really hoping for a sub 10 but as this is the longest run I've done in a couple of months, I'll take it!

Tues: Ran 3.8 miles and man was it hard! Walked another 3ish miles. I this is a recovery day from yesterday's long run. Oh how quickly 8 miles became a long run! Crossfit. Knees are sore!

Wed: Ran 3 or 4 miles of a 12.35 walk with the kids. Not sure how much I actually ran, but man I am beat!

Thurs: Crossfit and I'm feeling like I'm done for the day.

Fri: Today was a bust. Got a flat on the stroller and worked the night shift so no run for me. Lame.

Sat: Got the wheel fixed! Did a short and sweet 3.5 mile run plus 2.11 mile walk home.

Sun: Ran 5ish miles walked another .5


Total:38.65 miles
Run: 24.65 miles
Walk: 14 miles

Weekly numbers

Monday: Ran 6.8 miles, broken up into 1.8 before crossfit class, 1.8 after crossfit class, and another 3 to the park to play with the kids!

Tuesday: Rest day with a 5.6 mile walk with the kids in the stroller.

Wed: Run 3.6 miles with both kids in the stroller, walked another .6. Then got another 5.3 run in later without kids!

Thurs: Ran 4.8 miles with the kids, did another 5-ish miles walking.

Fri: Ran 4.01 miles no walks and with 2 kids in the stroller!

Sat: Crossfit class and ran 6 miles.

Sun: No class today, I'm sore and beat! So today was a rest day. Ran a short 2 miles and walked another 4 miles

Weekly Totals

Run: 32.2 miles
Walk: 15.2 miles

Total: 47.4 miles

Pretty good!

Rolling babies

So me and my man have been so very charmed by our two children that we have decided to have another one!

Now I've been enjoying the benefits of injectable birth control. That means it could be up to a year before any baby creation could actually happen. So in the mean time I will be doing my best to keep pushing to a higher level of fitness.

My plan is to keep exercising, and more importantly running, through this next pregnancy. And it would be really cool to gain like 20-25 pounds instead of 65-85 pounds! I want to skate until it no longer makes sense, keep lifting weights and keep eating great. Not too much to ask right?

This week

Monday: Back at it and sore as hell! Saturday's crossfit seriously trashed my legs and butt. Today I ran 4.5 miles, weights for 1 hr, and another crossfit class! This time my class lasted longer than 15 min!

Tuesday: Ran 5 miles, skipped the gym cause I'm freakin tired! Ran another 2.2 miles walked another 2 miles.

Wednesday: Ran miles the 4 hardest miles of my life! I cannot believe how tired and sore I am! Crossfit class tonight is going to interesting and yes I am totally skipping the gym today.

Thursday: Ran miles 5 miles, felt soooo much better! walked another 1.5 miles.

Friday: Rest day, and off to work!

Saturday: Crossfit class and more work.

Sunday: Ran 3 miles with Mez in the stroller. Walked another 2.5 home after breakfast. Perfect! Did another 4 miles this afternoon. And they were freakin fast! I think I may need to take the next day or two off though. My knees, shins and feet are super sore.

Weekly Totals:

Run: 27.7 miles
Walk: 5.5 miles

Total miles: 33.2

New routine

I'm getting ready for my son to start kindergarten and that means a new training schedule!
I'll be running him to school in the morning and getting used to the whole jogging stroller is pretty tough. So a lot more running is planned for the next month!

Sunday: Run with stroller, made it 3.25 miles and walked the rest. Yeah and there was only one kid in it! I'll be pushing two!

Monday: Ran the same 4 mile loop sans kids, walked just for a few minutes of it but did fine in 40 minutes. Weights, fairly light, 1 hour. Crossfit class 1 hour though it was mostly just orientation so like 15 min of actual workout.

Tuesday: Run 4 miles (still had to walk a little of it), weights 75 minutes

Wednesday: Run 4 miles (yeah some walking, less this time) with 2 kids and stroller, weight 75 minutes, Crossfit class 1 hr, still only 14 minutes of actual workout. Though I am learning some really great technique details I previously had been muscling through.

Thursday: Run 5.5 miles and walked another 2.65 with two kids in the stroller. We ran 2.8 miles to the bakery, then had lunch, then ran another 3ish miles, then walked to the playground and then walked home. Taking the break in between runs was kind of nice, but it would have been nice to just do it all at once. The whole kid thing makes for lots of interruptions though.

Friday: Run 5 miles, go home and deliberate going to the gym. Decided to say fuck it and went for another run instead. 4 miles, and yes I walked probably .25 miles of it. I'm just loving how my legs feel!

Saturday: Stayed in bed with the hubs so no run in the morning. Did crossfit class 1 hr total workout only 12 minutes though... What's up with that? I'm sure once I get to the actual classes it will be longer and I'll be missing the shorter workouts.

Sunday: Rest! Had a bout last night, it went great! And now I am freakin wiped out!

Week is done!

Well today would normally be a run day, but the man is working and I got both kids. I'll do my final run for the week tomorrow.

I'm ramping up the weight training by doing 3 days in a row, Mon, Tues, Wed, run on Thurs, weights Fri and run on Sat. (or Sunday as the case may be).
Mondays I run after the weight workout.

This has upped the weights to four days a week and I think it's paying off. Running has been much stronger. Still an effort cardio wise, but the legs feel awesome!

I've upped a lot of the weights.
Deadlifts are at 110lb
Squats are at 185lb
Still sucking at benching and the arms weights. I have weenie arms.

Ran 5.75 miles at a 9.32 pace yesterday and totally thought I was running at an 11 pace. How weird is that?!

Anyways. Good week!

Sum it up

I was posting almost daily, but man did it get repetitive. Run, weights, skate, run, weights, skate.
So I'm going weekly to bi weekly format.

Last week:
Rollercon!
Not much exercise and some skating.
Fun, but not so good for the waistline.

This week:
Weights 2 days. Legs are stronger! Arms are not.
Ran 2 times. Yesterday with a stroller and my younger child. 3 miles Holy smokes that is hard!
Today by myself, much faster and easier! 5 miles

Hoping to get back into the swing of things as the out of town time screwed the schedule.

Work all weekend. Yeah.

Humid run

It was a deluge today, then it stopped for about an hour so I could run, then it rained again.
I actually really like running in the humidity.

Good:
5 miles

Weights and the hubby

Did a short weights workout with my man in the home gym! Boy is he out of shape.

Good:
Weights 45 min

5 miles

Yes I an finally back up to 5 miles. Only took 6 weeks of getting past the crazy weightlifting soreness.

Still not timing myself, but I felt pretty fast.

Good:
ran 5 miles.

Weights weights weights

weights, run, skate, weights, run, skate

story of my life.

Good:
80 min weights

4 again

It is amazing how quickly my body gets used to running less. I'm doing 4 miles now and it's still a challenge on the last mile. Granted the last mile is all up hill. But whatever.

I'm working on a loop that goes by my son's school. So we'll be able to run to school in the mornings! Yeah!

Over the next month I'm going to start bringing the running stroller. That part will be very challenging.

Good:
4 miles

Easy gym

I go through phases where I don't want to workout. Shocking, I know. But I use this time to do light workouts and feel good I'm still moving.

Gym today. Weights. I've decided to pretty much do the whole thing in the weights area. Not much of floor work impresses me these days.

Did way heavier on the lower back lifts and tried out the back up thingy with a weight. You know the thing that is like a sit up bench but for your back? Totally killed it. And I did a really great abs routine on the ab bench.

Good:
Weights 80 min.

Easy run

Went for a short 4 mile run. One of my goals, which I am still working on, is to stop timing my runs and stop weighing myself. Ermm. Yeah. Those are strangely difficult to do.

But so far today I've managed to do both.

Good:
Ran 4 miles. and it was nice!

I need sore...

I've been pushing hard at the gym... but maybe not hard enough. I haven't been sore in weeks!

Good:
1hr 15 min weights

Low carb running is hard

So I've been really good on my low carb pursuits, but man does it make the whole running thing hard.

I'm trying to be realistic and reevaluate my goals. My minimum run is 3 miles. I try to walk several more miles on top of that. And I'm finding while it's really hard to do post weights workout, I'm kinda liking it.

I've been running almost everyday for the past week. So my total mileage per week has been about the same, just more spread out.

Good:
Ran 3 miles, walked 2 miles.

Derby names and slackin!

First of all, I'm thinking of changing my derby name. I love the whole Geek thing. And I will always be happy to be called a geek. But Geek 3000 is really very reminiscent of a more awkward and well.. doughier time.

My husband has never embraced the name, partly because he associated it with me staying up late watching weird movies that put him to sleep. And because he never felt it was a positive name. I like being geeky and probably always will. But this is definitely a new chapter in my life.

Yesterday I was supposed to run. Speed workout. Strangely I was looking forward to it. But it never happened. The teen I take care of left early yesterday and wasn't here long enough for me to do the workout with the little kids being watched.

Anyways I've been regretting it ever since. Lame.

But today's weight workout was great as usual!

Good:
Weights 90 min

Best workout ever!

Went to the gym with no kids! Did a full 90 minutes of heavy weights! Pushed super hard and did super great!!!

Got home and went for my post weights shorty run. Did great! Made a full 3.3 miles this time and did great on time! Walked another .75 mile home.

Hoping to make the loop by next week!

Tomorrow is a speed workout. More miles and much faster!

Good:
4.04 miles
90 min weights

Some bout photos!

Geek 3000 yo!

Lot's of spills!

Sophisticated hand signals

Very important discussions

Lot's of thumbs

And lots of action!


Photos courtesy of Danny Ngan and Jason Garland!

Bouts and runs!

Ran a bit yesterday, then off to the bout!

It went so incredibly well. It was absolutely my best skating, best penalty calling, best everything! The learning curve has been steep and a hard climb but we are really getting it!

It was sooo cool too when they introduced the refs and they said my name.... a whole bunch of people cheered!! Yep pretty much that was the best part of my night! Fans and friends are the best part of derby for sure!

I pack reffed one bout, which by the way was my first pack reffing in a bout. Actually I've only pack reffed 2 scrimmages prior so it was a challenge! I've decided I really really like it though! Then I jam reffed the second.

Oh by the way my new wheels, Poisons, were freaking awesome. They have a little drag so I had to work just a smidge harder, but boy are they worth it! I stuck like glue and felt soo much faster for it. Feeling in control is a really good feeling.

Thank you to everyone who came out! And next bout is the championships so come see us! I won't be working afterwards so I'll get to say hi to everyone afterwards!

Good:
Ran 3 miles yesterday
Skated 3 hours last night
Ran 3 miles today!

So nice

Ran yesterday for a little over 5 miles. Such a nice run! Today was the gym and lots of cool new exercises. Then I decided to run the dog for a couple of miles. Well tried to run, halfway walked!

Good:
1hr 20min weights
45 min run-ish

Oops?

So I had my nice rest day on Saturday. Ran on Sunday... Ermmm Monday and Tuesday? May have been spent getting rather drunk and then hungover respectively.

New day!
Gym weights workout! Yeah! Love using the squat rack. Finally went over to the bench press, and yes I benched the bar. No weights, just bar. I think I could have put more weight on, but I'm kind of getting used to it.

Did more pullups today too! I'm really working on pullups and pushups. Those are both exercises that I can just barely do and not correctly. No dead hang with the pull up unless I have assistance and the pushups still don't touch the ground, but whatever.

We got an ab tower off of craigslist. Totally worth the $60 and 30 min drive. It has a pull up bar with various positions and a dip bar. We hooked up the exercise bands to it so I can do a dead hang pull up. I have a goal, now I can get working!

Good:
1hr 15min weights

bike sort a

My plan is to start incorporating an hour of biking post weights workouts. Well today I eeked out 30 min post weights. Half way there!

And we're buying an ab tower from craigslist. $60 for pull ups, chin ups, dips, and ab thingys. Yeah!

Good:
1hr 10 min total body weights
30 min bike

New training plan

Well the derby season is coming to a close.

We have a bout next weekend, then a final championships August 20th. After the bout will likely be a hiatus for the rest of August and a bit of September. Our next season won't start again until January, so I'll be able to focus on more training!

My plan will be as follows:

Mon: weights, 1 hour bike
Tues: 1 hour run, 1-2 hour skate
Wed: weights, 1 hour bike, 1-2 hour skate
Thurs: 1 hour run, 1-2 hour skate
Fri: weights, 1 hour bike
Sat: 2 hour easy run
Sun: Sleep!

Breakfast; coffee, carbs and some protein
Lunch: protein and veg
Dinner: protein and veg, and optional low carb drinks!
Snacks: more coffee

Legs legs legs!

Skated last night, ran speed stuff today, more skating tonight!

Good:
Ran 5.8 miles 8.48 pace, (average)
walked another 1.8

Pull ups! Sort of..

Finally did pull ups. Not dead hangs of course. That would be remarkable. But if I jump up and don't fully extend my arms I can do about 10.

But now I have a goal. Oh yes, they will be mine.

Good:
total body weights 1hr 15 min

Happy sore..

Yeah! My butt is sore! And a lot of other body parts. Anyways, still have a bit of the chest cold, which made today's run really really hard. But I plugged away and still made ok time.

Yesterday's weight were highly effective and my back is tired today. Very nice to see all the work is paying off!

Good:
Ran 5 miles, 10:20 pace.

Monday's are great!

I love starting the week with a good weight workout!

I didn't get sore much last week, so either I'm in good enough shape that my body is handling the workouts, or I'm not pushing enough. Kind of feeling like the latter.

Today's I spent a lot of time trying to make my body feel like a noodle, and I think I did a good job. My shoulders were aching pretty much the whole time.

Good:
Total body weights 70 minutes.
Tomorrow run!

Short and shorter

Nice short run, even shorter weights. Now for work!

Good:
3.7 miles 10:30pace
30 min total body weights

The gym was closed!

Lame! Whatever, we headed home for the old studio workout. I actually did some new exercises that really hurt and fairly well killed the legs. Practice tonight should be challenging.

And of course cause I'm at home, well, the workout was a little shorter than usual.

Good:
1 hour weights.

The trashed legs live!

Yeah yeah yeah!!! Killed the hills run today! Maybe I just needed to go run outside and not on the treadmill.

Anyways.. Did a hill workout. Ran a mile there, did 1 mile hill loops times 3. Walked most of the way back. Total 6..8 miles! Yeah!

Good:
Ran 6.38
kind a slow, but who cares!

Kinda glad...

I'm kinda glad now that I've finally made the decision. Not to run the half, that is. I was going to have to cut back on weight training so my legs would be fresh on Saturday. But now I can wreck em as hard as I want.

Today was successful. I actually feel like I didn't work my legs hard enough. But I can always make up for it tomorrow.

My arms, on the other hand. Fairly well noodled.

So I have a milestone. A proverbial mountain to climb. The pull up bars at the gym. I don't think I can actually do a pull up without assistance. And even if I could it'd only be 1 or 2 pull ups. But I want to start doing those, and knee pull ups.

The hitch being, I hate to try something at the gym that is totally beyond my skill level. Even though I know no one is paying attention.

I almost did it today. But there were people using that area when I was ready. Maybe tomorrow.

Good:
70 minutes total body

Facing the facts

When I signed up for the half marathon it was over 3 months prior. So I really can't complain. In the future I really need to sign up for smaller events that are still open closer to the date. But whatever.

Things that are thwarting me:

-Past 5 weeks have not cooperated with my running plan. Which really is ok.
-Back injury 3 weeks ago. Feels much better now.
-Head and chest cold this weekend. Almost gone.
-Pickup for packets is the industrial district and I have at least 2 small children and up to 5 kids with me at all times.
-Working til 2:30am the night before the half marathon.
-Working at 4pm til 2:30am the day of the half marathon.
-Need to watch the kids so husband can demo concrete and lay new concrete under the kids room the day of the marathon.

I think there is a point where you need to just let go of doing a race. Sadly I already paid for it. This is a lesson learned when it comes to planning a big race. My life right now does not work with big races. And really, the smaller races are more fun anyways.

"B" Fit

So I follow this blog http://bonitafit.blogspot.com/ about this awesome lady who does all sorts of fitness and crossfit stuff. Anyways she is great and looked like a good resource to ask questions about my own training.

I'm super duper getting into the weight lifting and specifically the crossfit style of lift that incorporates a series of moves in an exercise that hits lots of muscles instead of the super specific weight machines. It's rocking my world and kicking my ass.

Anyways my legs are pretty much constantly trashed and it's hard to run on super sore legs. I inquired to the B fit superhero what she thought about it and I'm glad I did. Her suggestion was to back off the running for a month and get my body stronger. Specifically doing hip flexor leg exercises. Then reintroduce to running.

With stronger legs my running should see some significant improvement. On the few weeks where I haven't lifted as much I've noticed how much faster I am when I run, so I'm hoping to really see improvement in the next month or so.

It's amazing that running and swimming are such great exercise but still don't do squat when it comes to lifting weights.

Yeah for crossfit and lifting weights! And stronger running!

Oh why couldn't the rock and roll be at the end of July or August so I could rock it properly! oh well.

Further derailement

Apparently I will be lowering my expectations for next weekends half marathon. Today is my rest day... Yeah. Oh and I'm sick.

Moderate head cold. That's fine. It's the lungs that are not ok. When I cough I feel like they will bleed. Awful!!!

I'll probably be fine by Saturday, except that I will likely not be doing a long run tomorrow like I planned. This whole month is seriously cutting into my running and it's bull.

Whatever. I can walk it with a cold. And I'll still get the shirt. That's the whole reason we sign up for them right?

And..... sick

Yep. He did me in. Lame.
Got the sick.

Oh and it's the totally stupid kind. Sore throat, cheesy cough, headache, sleepy, foggy. Bad enough to make you miserable but not bad enough to call in sick when you only work part time and just came back from vacation....

One more night shift though! Part time really is the best schedule ever.

Good:
Rest day, thought about cleaning. Read a bunch of weight training blogs.

Just as hard as I remembered...

OMG running after weights is still just as hard. Eeked through a little over 5 miles.... And I'm a little worried about a head cold. David is sick and may have shared the wealth!

Good:
sort of ran 5.2 miles

Back in the swing

So nice to back to normalcy! Went to the gym to torture my arms and shoulders with weights!
Did a great routine, burnt out quickly and lifted heavier! Yeah!!!

Good:
Weights 1hr 10 min

I'm back!!!

Yeah! Back home!

Went to a banked track derby tournament in Phoenix and had 4 days of great derby with a lot work and even more great people.

Sadly I did not get a lot of exercise in. Last weekend I hurt my back moving track pieces. And the 2 weeks before that were so heavy on the weight lifting that my running really suffered.

Yeah this is not a huge deal, except.... that I have the Rock n' Roll half marathon in two weeks!
Arrrggghh!!

But I have a plan. Today I ran a really slow, like 4.0, 4.5, 5.0, 5.5, 4 miles on the treadmill and walked another 1.75 miles.

Friday I'll aim for 6 to 7 miles. Maybe a little faster. Then Sunday or Monday do 9-10 easy miles. I'll fit one more 6-7 mile run before the race and should do fine. It won't be fast and I won't be making the time goal I originally had.... But who cares? If I run the whole thing I'll be happy!

Better back..

Well the past couple of days spent resting were annoying and enjoyable at the same time. It really is nice to lay around do nothing. I remember when I used to do that every day!

Anyways my back was feeling a little better this morning and I needed to get some exercise in before tomorrow's trip!

I did a little walking on the treadmill, then some weights, and then a 30 min run. Felt good.

I'm not bringing my skates to Arizona. I think the potential to screw my back worse on skates is pretty significant. And really there won't be that many opportunities anyways. So I'll do some running and see what kind of equipment they have in the hotel gym.

Hmmm. Maybe I'll bring my lap suit and do some water workouts.

Tomorrow I leave very early for the airport and off to Arizona! Banked track roller derby tournament!

Good:
45 min treadmill
45 weights

still out of commission

Lame back. Guess it's all arms for me today!

Oops rest day

Yeah so no big surprise after lifting some 30 pieces of track yesterday, I've strained my back. Guess today will be a rest day!

Post bout

I woke up at 1:30pm. That's like 10 hours of sleep!
Ran super short couple of miles, hoping to do more tomorrow.
Headed to the warehouse to unload the track. Holy shit that stuff is heavy!
Got a really good workout lifting!

Good:
Ran 2.5 miles 9:11 pace
Lifted about 35 several hundred pound pieces of track for 1 hour. Yeah, probably will be sore tomorrow!

God damn!

So bout day! Today's bout was brought to you by rough and crazy!

First half of 4 halves. I know that sounds weird but that how it ran. 2 games staggered.

So first half I was head ref. Each bout I ref has been a sharp learning curve. Since the track was finished we have had 4 bouts, 2 of which (including tonight) that I have head reffed. Needless to say I am lacking in experience. And weird shit happens. Sometimes I am quick thinking and handle things. Other times not so quick. It's part of learning and I'll get better. But at this point, well most everything is new territory.

Anyways I learned a lot tonight. I made some good decisions and there we somethings that I would do differently next time. All in all, it went well.

But oh yeah there was the crazy shit!

So sometime during the second half of the 4 halves one of our refs broke her leg. Yeah in case there was any question, roller derby is a tough sport. Shit happens and people get hurt. So they wheeled her off with a leg that had two breaks and a dislocated ankle. So now we do not have enough refs. We dropped the head ref position and between myself, Able C-Man and the infield team we work it out.

Things start getting confusing. The head ref deals with any weirdness. There is a lot of weirdness in derby. Making sure everything gets done and on time. We handled it. But boy did it make the game harder. So I jam reffed the next three halves. With no head ref, me sort of doing it, Able sort of doing it. And the girls were crazy.

There were flying skaters left and right. They barely seemed to be able to stay on the track! The hits were hard and ruthless and we had to dodge the casualties. I normally "go down" like 3-4 times in a game. And by go down I mean go down on one knee to avoid collision. Tonight's game I went down over 30 times. And the lead changes were freakin constant.

What I'm getting at is that it was a crazy, confusing and often hairball game. But on the bright side all my strength training has been paying off. I skated like I have never skated before.

Day 1

The next 48 hours goes like so...

Get up and out with two children, one infant to school by 9am.
Go to the gym with one child, one infant by 9:30
Get home and take shower by 11:20
Go back to get first child from school. 12:30
Get home, feed all three children, clean house, make food for tonight.
Leave to pick up teenager at 3:20
Drop off teenager, children and infant at house by 3:40
Get to work by 4:00
Work until 2am
Get up late! Thankfully the husband is not working today, so I can sleep in!
Get ready for Sat nights game and be at Everett by 3pm
Head ref the first bout, Jam ref the second! (For those who are non-derby, jam reffing is skate really really fast!)
Finish the bout hopefully before 10pm
Go home and super fast change into work clothes.
Get to work as close to 10pm as possible!
Work until 2am.
Go home, pass out and pretend it was all a dream.
Geez freakin Louise.


Good:
Super light workout today, a little weights a little walking and super little running. Need the legs to work for tomorrows bout. Still currently walking like I'm riding a barrel. Those sumo squats killed!!!

Damn!

Man these weights sessions are kicking my ass! Or more to the point, my legs! Running the day after weights is soooo freakin hard!

Barely made it through this one.

Good:
1hr 10 min running 5.8 miles yeah, slow!
finished off the legs with 6 miles of the super painful biking!

I can no longer sit down or touch my toes. Yeah legs!
Oh and I'm thinking of going skating tonight!

We love diets

It's like they are trendy. Low carb, gluten free, high protein, low fat, high fat, fruit fast, la la la

I will admit I am a victim of the feminine need to constantly f with my diet. I'd like to say it's because I want my body to feel strong and clean and whatever, but the reality is I'm just trying to lose more off my backside.

Low carb is not working for me. It makes running really really hard. I don't need running to be any harder than it already is.

So I'm doing my favorite hippie diet. Ah the college days. Brown rice, brewers yeast, veggie stir frys, and lots of raw stuff too. Why do I like this one? The food is yummy, but not so yummy that I want to over eat it.

Yeah, whatever it takes right?

Sick

I thought it might just be a hangover. Still achy and tired today. Thinking I gots the sick.
Strangely I feel better when I work out.

Good:
1hr 20 min total body weights
upped from 10 pound weights to 15.

Yeah Jam Ref!

So last Thurs was my first night jam reffing since the last bout. So about 6 weeks ago. And it was a train wreck! Heavy weights on Wed and 6 miles on Thurs morning do not make for a good come back!

Tonight however was delightful! I pretty much did nothing physical all weekend so the legs were just dandy. The drinking all day yesterday probably did not help, but it was still ok. A lot of sweat!

Anyways I love jam reffing. I still have a ways to go to be a good jam ref, but currently, I can hold me own.

Oh yeah, did I mention our next bout is on Saturday? Yeah, probably a good idea to get some skating in!

Slow start

Well the weekend was pretty sleepy. I worked both Sat and Sun night. The shifts were fine, but I'm very tired lately.

I didn't get a single workout in over the weekend. And Monday was spent hanging out with friends eating bbq, drinking and watching movies. Generally a very nice way to spend Memorial Day.

Today I had planned for a long run. And once again I'm feeling very tired. I have just a touch of sick lingering, throat, achy, ect. Makes it easy to not workout.

I geared up for a run and the rain, which has been alternating with sunny and warm about ever hour, decided to come down hard for a while.

I tried out the treadmill for half a mile and just wasn't feeling it. I decided on an episode of Glee while biking. It was like the hardest 9 mile trainer ride ever! My legs are like lead and I sweat more than I usually do when running!

The drinking all day yesterday probably is not helping, and I had the once every three months "lady visitor" which really dragged too. Now my legs are soo freakin stiff and I feel like I'm pumped with fluids and turning into a sausage. Yay.

Tomorrow will be a better day.

Good:
Eeeked out 9.58 miles on the trainer.

Keeping on...

Was gonna go light today and seriously considered taking the day off.... but those Gorilla Girls keep me inspired!

Good:
Weights 1hr 20min

Jam Reffing on trashed legs

Yeah, so yesterday's weights killed. Then today's run re-killed. And tonight's jam reffing was to say the least a bit dicey. Skating on noodles is really not very easy.

Errrph

Ok lots of new sore today! So yesterday was a new day in the world of weight lifting. I'm trying to replace the machines with more full body exercises and I believe it has worked!

I started with this little number:

Burpee-esque move with 15 pound weights.
Start with 15 pound weight in each hand, on the ground in a pushup position. Do a full push up. Bring your feet to your hands in a squat position. Lift the weights to your hips and straighten up. Make sure you are using your butt and legs and not your back. Take one step to the side so that your feet are shoulder width apart and finish with raising the weights to your shoulders then press straight up over your head, kind of like a clean and press type move. Engage your core like mad!
Repeat 20 times. 3 reps. I find I start to die towards the end of these and finish with like 5 instead of 20.

Push up rows plank thing. Get back in the push up position with the 15 pound weights. Engage your core and lift one weight to your chest. Return to the ground and repeat with the other side. When you get fancy you can raise the lifted weight straight up and rotate to your side so you are in a side plank. Or raise the lifted weight out in front of you. This is very hard too!
Repeat 20, 3 reps

Kettlebell swings with no kettlebell. Stand with feet shoulder width apart and swing a 25 pound between your legs and up over your head. If you do it slow if uses different muscles than if you straight up swing.
Repeat 20, 3 reps

Anyways today my upper back and chest are sore as all get out and I can't really sit or squat down. Good sign I think!

Today's run was painful and difficult.

Good:
Ran 6 miles, 2 warm ups, 2 speed sets of .25 @7mph and .75 @ 6mph recovery, and 2 cool down miles. Oh how they were hard and painful!

Crossfit inspirations

I've been reading a bunch of crossfit type blogs. I was first turned on to the Team Gorilla page by Rose @Eat drink and be Meri.

So inspiring seeing these incredibly strong women. And I like that it's heavy weight, low rep oriented. My kind of workout.

Today I skipped almost all the machines and did exercises that worked the same muscles as the machines but included multiple muscle groups. I like the whole "not isolated" workout. Kill 6 or 7 birds with one stone. So to speak.

Wonder what will hurt tomorrow.

Good:
Total body weights 1hr 20min

Lazy

My foot started hurting halfway into a lazy run. Oh well.

Good:
Ran 5 miles
20 min weights, hoping to up that later!

Weights, weights and more weights

Want to do weights 5 days a week. Started today!

Good:
1hr 25min total body weights

Longer run

Saturday was a sit and screw with the stupid computer and not get out for a run day. Yeah. So today I did my long run. It was nice.

Good:
Ran 10 miles
9:55 pace

Yeah!!!

Weights, weights and more weights

Friday once again spent at the gym lifting weights. I'm kind of getting into this weights thing. I think I like being sore.

Good:
Full body weights 1hr 25 min

Holy F

Yes well if you were impressed by yesterday's numbers, so were my muscles. Once again I am so sore that I cannot easily sit down to pee.

So today's tempo run.... well let's just say I was struggling to keep up with a 5mph pace. Yeah 5mph! Do you know how long it takes to run 5 miles when you are going that slow?! Well an hour, not a trick question.

Anyways, my tempo pace was a whopping 5.5 1mile and 5.6 half mile. Oh yeah I'm bad ass like that.

Good-ish
Ran 4.5 miles and walked 1 mile in 63 minutes
Oh and I can sit down even less easily now.

By the numbers

I want to lay out the old weights routine, so here you go!

Machine weights, 3 reps of 10 each

Butterfly press 100lbs
Reverse butterfly 40lbs
Upright bench press 100lbs
Lat press 100lbs
bicep curl 60lbs
shoulder pull down 80lbs
forearm press down 40lbs
shoulder press (up) 70lbs
back row 110lbs
calf press 70lbs

I take about 30 minutes to do all those guys. I've been reading a lot about body building and those guys say to do the hardest weight you can for the minimal reps. If you can do 15 reps, then you need to up the weights.

Then I go to core land. I can't tell you how incredible my back and core feel from these workouts. I used to do regular sit ups and back ups but i had to do hundreds to get them worked. So now I use weights and do waaaay less.

I get two 10lb dumbbells and one 20 pound dumbbell on a mat.

Weighted sit ups: Laying on my back I hold the 20 lb weight resting on the floor behind my head, knees bent. Then I do 20-30 of lifting the dumbbell up above me and pushing up to the ceiling while raising my torso up into a full sit up. These are hard and I can only do like 30.

Twisty side sit up: 20-30 each: First I do crossover sit ups with a 10lb weight in each hand, reaching for your opposite knee.
Then weighted twists. I do two kinds. The first I hold the 20 pound weight and move it from side to side while doing a sit up. So like three movements from side to side to make a full sit up.
Then a full twist, where I sit up with knees bent and touch the 20 pound weight to the ground on either side.

Lower ab weighted: 10 sec or more each. these are hard. Lay down with a ten pound weight in between your feet and the 20 lb on the ground above your head. Hold onto the 20 with your hands and lift the 10lb weight with your feet and count to 10 or longer. I do one set, then shift up the weight to my shins, then knees, then thighs. Totally hard to hold the weight and lift your legs.

Roll over! 30 sec at least! Do the same thing but on your stomach. Hold the 10lb weight between your feet and lift as high as you can while holding the other 10lb in your hands off the ground. You want as much of your body off the ground as possible and hold for 30 or so sec. I alternate this with no weight on my feet, feet spread wide and lifted up, holding the 20 pound weight on my shoulders off the ground. This really uses your hips. Hold for 30 or more. Repeat as many as I can!

Weighted knee dips and lunges. 10 reps, 2-3 sets. Holding the 10 lb in each hand at your sides do 10 lunges forward using the rear leg as the majority of the power as you lower curl the weights and engage your core. both sides. Knee dips: These are really useful in derby, when you start to fall being able to touch your knee and step right back up really helps. Hold the weights at your sides and dip down on one leg. You other leg should only be touching for balance and using the forward leg for all the power, curl the weights as you lower. I have to take breaks in between each set, these are hard.

Weighted squats: Feet wide and toes and knees in alignment, squat down with 10 lb weights in each hand. Hold for 30 or more sec. I do burn outs on these, starting with a 1-2 minute hold, then going for as long as I can until I collapse!

Finally I end the shebang with burn out crunches. With all the weighted stuff I do I don't even bother counting crunches. I just do continuous crunches for 5 minutes or 2 full songs on the ipod. I can barely even feel them!

Good:
1hr 20 min weights
20 minute walk on noodle legs.

I hate diets

Yes it's true. Generally when i'm trying to lose I do it hard and fast and painfully. But it's quick.

Well my first of two roller derby trips for the summer are coming up and I plan on spending ever minute of it not in stripes, in a bathing suit. Which means it's time to lose the gut.

So no more ice cream, pizza, cookies, and junk food in general. I may be crabby and you may want to avoid me for the next 22 days.

Today is day 1, I have until June 9th. I least I can still have coffee.

Plan deviation

Well I wasn't really on a plan. I just happened to read a plan and loosely based my running life on it. The whole run 3 times a week, tempo, speed or hills and then a long run.

I didn't actually follow the plan beyond that. But I'm not really racing. So here's my new plan.

Today and the past few weeks, I've been faster. And I like that. I would like to stay faster. So instead of running a long distance and hoping to get faster on it, I will be staying on the faster speed and slowing increasing the miles.

Yes this may seem like the same thing, but it's not.

I have been following the increase your distance and the speed will follow plan. I think. But I like how fast I felt today. So I'll add a little onto that and see where I'm at in 5 weeks.

Yeah 5 weeks til the Rock and Roll half.

Totally not worried at all.

Yeah again!

Today was a long run day, but I really haven't felt the urge to push the distances much. I've been kind of just enjoying improving in the semi longish runs. I think I just may do more runs with slowly adding distance.

But regardless of distance today rocked! On my last few runs I have really felt the urge to push my pace and have been surprised by the results. Each time I get about halfway in I feel like I could have run much faster the whole time, instead of holding back to make sure I get in mileage.

So from the beginning I decided I would push. Not terribly hard, but go a faster comfortable speed. I did it the whole way. It felt freakin awesome!

I did a loop that is mostly uphill the first half and on one stretch of downhill I was sprinting (for me) and it felt so good. I never got tired, I felt like I could go forever. I was nearly laughing it felt so good. The winding was blowing at me, it was raining, but still warm. I almost put my arms out beside me to catch some air.

Anyways back to reality. Today rocked.

Good:
Ran 8.5 miles
9.16 min mile average pace. Yeah!!!!!
oh yeah, that's better than a 10 min pace!

Yeah!

Today was speedwork day. And I'm pretty low expectations with all things running so that included the speed stuff too.

.25 mile at 7 mph recovery at 6mph for .75
3 repeats
warm up at 5.8 1 mile, 6.0 1 mile
cool down at 6.0 1 miles and 5.0 1 mile

I usually walk the last mile but I thought I'd try just a slow jog. It was great! I could run at 5 mph for ages! I'd like to up it 5.8 or 6.0 and I think that'll happen soon.

Big goal for my up coming half marathon is to get sub 10min/mile. Anything sub 10, like 9.59 would be just great! Just single digits!

And I'm starting to think I may just get it!

Good:
Ran 7 miles
1hr 11 min

Tempo noodles

Combo post with blogger being down.

Ran a tempo run, which again is slow in the grand scheme of things, but was great for me!
Warm up at 5.8 for mile, then 6.0 for a mile, 6.1, 6.2, 6.3, recovery at 6.0, walk for 1 mile.

Weights again today and I am the noodle!

Good:
Ran 6 miles
walked 1 mile
1.20 min full body weights.

Noodles

I am made of noodles. Today the weights were long and heavy. Today I am a noodle. I think tomorrow I may be sore.

Good:
Total body weights 1 hour and 20 minutes

Another beautiful day

Burke Gilman! Great to run on. Beautiful scenery. Shaded. Flat as all get out.

I'm noticing that flat is not always that much easier. You know the whole up hill part, well it's usually accompanied with a downhill. Which is really easy!

Anyways, it was a really nice run.

Good:
10.6 miles
1 hour 50 min

hrrm hemmm

Family in town has made for a not regular exercise program.....

But I've been thinking about a few things.

I'm not really into the longer runs. Or at least, the 'I have to do a long run' runs. I don't mind doing them if I'm just out for a run and I do an extra lap.

Also I'd like to run more often. The 3 times a week thing has been nice for getting the old legs in fighting form, but I'm ready to add some more on.

Maybe if I do a longer run of 8-10 miles once a week I might do 3 or 4 runs of 6ish miles.
I like the shorter 6 mile runs and I just want to do more of them.

All right?

Beautiful day!

After working a night shift I managed to sleep into 12 noon. Yeah that was good! No kids, no husband. Just me and a silent house.

I had 3.5 hours before I had to leave for work and really didn't want to sit around reading the computer. So out for a run!

The weather was great!

Good:
Ran 6.8 miles

It's working

My quads to hell, that is!

Yeah so good weights yesterday, makes for some sore today. Which makes for a slow and short run. Technically today was a speed workout and it was just a run instead. 5.5 miles of actual running and a mile and a bit of walking.

Good:
Ran 6.3 miles 1.13 hr

Quads!

Today was a wonderful day of weights! I upped a few upper body weights on the machines. And did a better routine with weighted core stuff and squats and lunges.

Let's just say by the end I had to sit for 5 minutes to recover and catch my breath!

Good:
Weighs and core 1 hour 15 min
hoping to be very sore tomorrow!

The sloth!

Do you ever panic when you unexpectedly take a day off? My mum came up for lunch which totally threw off my schedule. How lame is it that I would have rather worked out than gone for lunch?!

So now is the only time I could work out, but I have to leave for practice soon. I used to panic at the thought of missing a day. Like it would keep happening. I think I'm past that stage now, but I still don't like it.

Tomorrow will be a nice killer day. I can feel the sore muscles already.

Good:
Watched Harry Potter Deathly hallows 2 times
Ate at Blue C Sushi
Ate my kids toffee candy

Trashed

Well my legs are pretty trashed. The new weights routine and the 5k have killed the old quads.

Today was a long run day, which I almost skipped entirely, but I wanted to get out and get some miles in. I figured I'd decide along the way.

It was difficult in terms of just having very fatigued muscles, but not much of a challenge cardiovascularly. Now my legs are even worse!

But I'm feeling like I'd like to add another run to my week and do 4 times instead of 3. And maybe some super shorties on the other days as well. It feels nice to have legs that are cooperating!

Good:
Ran 6.5 miles
1:10

5k Results!

What a weekend! Work Friday and Saturday night until 2am!

I got home this morning at 2:30 am, crashed, got up at 7am. Headed for the 5k. Ran! Ran well!
Came home (man those 5ks are short!).

Recrashed. Got up and cleaned a bit, went to the gym. Killed the remaining muscles. Came back home to clean some more and now I'm ready for a shower and a drink!

Good
Ran 5k 29:42 minutes!
Weights 1hour 1o minutes.
Tomorrows long run may be a little dicey!

Rest day Race day

Tomorrow is a 5k! Top Pot Doughnut Dash! Run for doughnuts! Sounds good to me!

Today is a rest day, work last night and work tonight till 2am then up bright and early for the race!

So I've been having some trouble with my swim thing. I got a new suit, which should have helped, but it didn't. New clothes always make things better! But I just haven't been feeling it. I get really bored and I don't really want to get wet.

My plan is when I get bored with something, I just switch it up. Besides 50 minutes in the pool is hard for me to get a good workout in. I know I know. But there really is this thing that if you are not a very good swimmer it's harder to work harder. As I get better at swimming I'm hoping there will be less time spent swallowing water, snorting water and hanging out at the end of the pool.

The pool isn't going anywhere and I can get back on it in a week or so. In the mean time I'm kicking up the weights routine. Gym days I normally split the workout between 30 min weights and 50 min pool. And I think I'm short changing both by doing so.

The past week, when I haven't been sick. I've been doing the full 90 min with weights. Yeah you can seriously get trashed on 90 of weights. I do the machines, then free weights, squats with weights, lunges with weights, sit ups, core stuff, back ups, ect all with weights. And when I can't go any farther I do non-weighted sit ups to finish it off.

And I am so freakin sore it is ridiculous. I guess it's working. I can do 40 real pushups now. Actually I can probably do a lot more, but I ran out of time!

Oh and tomorrow's run, which is short and sweet, on sore as F legs. Should be interesting.

Back into madness!

My schedule has changed so Fridays are crazy.

Drop off the kid at school at 9, take the other 2 kids to the gym. Do serious weights and core workout. Pick up first kid. Get home feed all kids. Eat something myself. Pack up all the kids. Pick up older kid. Take whole lot to the house. Drop off and head to work.

Good:
1 hour weights and core
25 min bike

Got some sick

I'm still alive, but not posting much this week. I got some sick from the weekend and am trying to get it together for work and Sunday's race.

Back on track

I took a few days off after the bout. 5 hours on skates is pretty brutal on your legs. I worked after the game and the next night, so by Monday I was pretty well wiped out.

Today I finally got back to my usual activities.
Funny that I felt like a slacker by only doing 3 miles of speed work!

Good:
7 miles total
1.5 at 7mph
3.5 at 6mph
1 at 5.6mph
and walked 1 mile.

Double Header!

So last night we had our first official game of the season. We had previously had exposition bouts while we got the teams ready for play.

It finally all came together with 4 awesome teams and our wonderful ref crew.

About 6 weeks ago our skate trainer got it in his head that I should jam ref. I had my doubts, but now those are all gone. I also was selected by our director to Head Ref one of those bouts. To say the least I would need to bring my A game, be focused and be ready for some crazy shit.

And to top it all off there would be a reality show filming at the same time. On television too? No pressure though right?

The game came last night with remarkably few butterflies. I felt great! I have to say all my physical training over the last few months have paid off generously. I finally broke a slight sweat, but I think it may have been more flop sweat than from exertion!

My Head Reffing went great! I felt soo on point, checking my numbers, my refs, checking the count. Making sure skaters were on or off track. It's actually kind of fun to yell people off track. We had a few penalty challenges that we managed quickly and decidedly.

Having a good ref crew makes everything go so well, they know their shit, and when a challenge goes down, there is no question to what happened. I have a lot of confidence in their reffing. We still have a lot to learn, but we're doing really freaking well!

My inside crew was seamless. They know what to do and hearing them flow through their numbers and calls kept me very calm. They take no shit, and give no shit. They are so freaking awesome!

The second game I was jam ref and I feel like I did awesome! I skated well, felt very comfortable and in control. My penalties were well called and my points and jam call offs were great. It was a long long night and was everything I had hoped for!

Still spring break

So I'm still slacking on the whole spring break thing. Though after the long run yesterday my knees are very happy about it.

Just a little 8 mile bike ride, some core and weights.

Good:
biked 8 miles, 40 min

Half Marathon!

So I do this 3 lap loop. Well I have been doing 2 laps that equal 10 miles. The first lap is about 6 miles. The second lap about 3.5 miles and the final lap 4 miles ending me up at home.

I've been skipping the third lap and heading home with a happy and easy 10 mile run. I keep thinking about when am I going to do the 3rd lap. When am I going to finally try for the full 13.5 miles.

Well today was that day. I wasn't particularly energetic. I actually had to stop the "maybe I'll make this a short run" thoughts around 2-4 miles. I try not to think about speed or how much farther the distance is. I just go with it and do what I feel.

When I got to the last turn around point, 9 miles in I could have easily headed home for a respectable 10 miles. But I felt fine. I actually haven't had any pain at all for the past couple of runs.

So I headed up the last loop. The first mile of it is all up hill. Not too steep, but definitely a challenge. Once I made the top loop I took a minute breather and happily cruised the last few miles home.

My speed was all over the place. There were a ton of times where my legs just felt like going faster and I went with it. Especially on the last 1.5 miles. I swear I sprinted almost the entire way. Then in the last half mile I thought I might vomit and decided to slow down a bit.

While the distance was a challenge, I really can't say any of it was hard. So there you go. Half marathon, done.

Good:
Ran 13.59 miles
Average 10:13 min/mile

Spring break!

So it's spring break. Which means that the 2 days a week I have to get my shit together, dressed and out the door before 9am, I can slack off.

I usually go to the gym while my son is in school. But why leave the house on spring break? So home gym it is!

Good:
Biked 1 hour 14 miles
Core and weights 40 min

Ref love

You know it doesn't take much to get me feeling great about our group. Tonight was one of those nice nights.

Everyone had good feedback. Everyone was supportive. Everyone said nice things.

I love my ref group.

Speedier speed

Speed work again today. Starting to get back to my normal speeds. Yeah!

Good:
Ran 1.7 miles 7mph
ran 3.7 miles 6mph
ran .7 at 5.5mpg
walked 1 mile at 3mph

I'm feeling a pattern here

Good:
Swam 1 hour
Upper body weights 30 min

Follow follow!

Rest day... and I've set up two of my favorite runners to get reports via email when they pass points in the Boston marathon tomorrow!

I want to set up more of you, but I don't have your bib #s. If you are running tell me your #!

Easy 10

Once again the easy 10. I wanted to do 13 but really I didn't. I just wanted a good run, and to get back home to go have cake.
It's getting sooo much easier. No calf pain, no shin pain, no knee pain! I can feel my hip, but no pain. And I think my form is getting waaay better!

I watched "The gods must be crazy 2" the other night and watched the bushmen run. Total knees down and heels up. Effortless. One of the lines in the movie is where they find a shot elephant and one of the men says "If I run all day and all night I can tell So-and-So's family about the meat and they can come help us eat it". They run so freakin cute too. Just no big deal, moving along.

I thought about them a lot when I was running. Totally effortless. When I headed for the last 2 miles home my legs just all of sudden kicked into gear and I hauled ass home. It was awesome.

Good:
Ran 10.3 miles
1 hour 50 min

It's my birthday!

Today is my 36th birthday and I am pretty pleased with the overall state of things. My house is still a mess. Apparently small children do that, over and over, hourly, half-hourly, ect.

But I can run 10 miles easy, more than that not so easy but doable. I am slow, but getting faster. I killed the killer hill twice last week. I can swim, better. I bike. I can butterfly press 100 lbs and a bunch of other machines.

I can see my muscles under my skin, even though there is still a bit too much here and there, if you know what I mean.

I can skate ref. More importantly I can jam ref. This is really cool, cause I always thought that was the hot shot position. And yeah I totally feel like a bad ass doing it.

I have cute kids. My husband is foxy and we get along pretty well.

Life is good.

Good:
30 min upper body weights
50 min swim/water run
43 min bike 10 miles
20 core and push up stuff

Heading for Mexican food and more importantly chips and salsa.
Happy birthday to me.

Stomach ache

I've had a stomach all day. And not the "speedy solution" kind. The all day lame, make you crabby and feel like maybe you ate too much candy, though I don't have any, kind of stomach ache.

Well it lessened for a bit and I decided I would try running and see if it helped. It didn't. I could tighten my core much cause it hurt. Even my waistband on my running tights felt uncomfortable. Lame.

Still did an ok tempo run. I'm realizing that I am now a bit slower than I was last month. Don't know why. Though honestly I really don't care. I'm running 10 miles easily. How the hell can I complain?

Good:
Ran 1 mile 5.8
.75 @6.2 with .25 recovery at 5.8
repeat 3 times
ran 1 mile at 5.8 mph
ran 1 mile at 5.5 mph
walked 1 mile at 3
total 7 miles 82 minutes

Why we really do it

Why do we really do all this exercising, running, strength training, whatever?

There are some really well thought, beautiful and inspiring reasons to run and be athletic.

But I will full on admit that the way my legs look in short skirts and enjoying peanut butter and ice cream on a regular basis are some of my favorite ones.

Oi vey

The whole baby thing sometimes does not work with my sleep/workout schedule.

Last night after finally falling asleep around 1:30 am (too much coffee? nahhhh) my daughter (who had fallen asleep at about 5pm) decided it was time to get up and play, or eat, or watch cartoons. We did neither but still had the night-night versus get up discussion for about 4 hours. By 7 am I had given up on sleeping. So an hour or so later we headed off for my son's school and to the gym.

Had a decent workout. Weights have been steadily increasing. I'm only doing upper body now with machines as the leg machines all seem to strain my muscles. I'll still do squats, lunges and monsters. Then a swim.

Happy to report that I drank little to no pool water today. Yeah. I've decided as I don't get that much of a workout, (only 50 min on Wed and Fri) that I should start biking when I get home.

I got a new bike computer to show distance and speed. Oh hell yeah, gadgets rule! I'm supposed to go skate tonight too.

Geez I'm tired and really just want to have a drink!

Good:
30 min upper body weights
50 min swim
40 min bike 9miles

Some things I've learned

I'm doing really well with running. And believe me it has nothing with be a natural runner. I'm about as far from it as you can get. I have terrible knees, I've never been athletic and have like no serious experience with sports.

But I'm thinking these things all work in my favor. Having bad knees is keeping me from running too much. I'm old, well older. About to be 36. Which in the grand scheme of things isn't very old, but in terms of a great athletic career it's on the old side.

I have low expectations. The fact that I keep showing up is impressing the hell out of me. I'm ok with being slow, though I'd like to be faster. So I'm ok with poor times, cause I'm getting great miles in.

Due to the age, skill, knee, ect, thing I've spent a lot of time researching running form. I'm very early into my running career so it makes it easier. I have no bad habits to break.

Cross training like a mutha-f-a really helps too. I started a year ago doing anything but running. The running only started 4 months ago. And I've been smart and kept up on weight training, biking and now swimming.

I can run 10 miles with no real problems. It feels good. I do it slow, but I do it and I love it.

Feedback

Getting feedback is hard. Getting harsh feedback is even harder. And when I mean harsh I mean "that was wrong and you feel humiliated" feedback.

But you know I grew up in a foreign country called "my family" and I learn best from feedback. And in particular harsh or humiliating feedback.

So when my refs tell me when I'm doing something wrong. (Though I will say they do a pretty good job of being nice about it) I learn well from it.

I actually really like harsh, blunt, rude and humiliating feedback, but thus far no one has gone there. It just sticks in my brain easier. And I'm happy with the nice version too.

Tonight I got a lot of nice feedback. And I loved it. Because I want to learn. Even if I don't always agree. This doesn't mean anything about me as a person. It's just reffing.

Tell me what to do, how to do it better. I'm all over it.

Sunshine and a giveaway from "Why I run"!

Hey so first of all Jen from "Why I Run" http://jenintraining.blogspot.com/2011/04/giveaway.html is doing a giveaway. She has 3 awesome items; a Garmin 305 (oh yeah you know that's cool!), a running belt (a low profile design that's perfect for a gu and your keys or phone) and a super cute t-shirt that she embellishes with "Bake,Eat, Run, Repeat" and a cupcake.

If you want to enter just go to her blog, enter a comment with why you run and why you like to blog about it. You don't have to follow her blog, but you should cause she's really nice and posts some really encouraging and inspiring stuff about running and life. Jen, no one ever thinks people are really listening, but we are! Also if you reference her giveaway on your own blog she'll enter you again!

Today was a really nice run. The sun was out, I actually got to run in my new running skirt. The air was cool but still comfortable. And I had no pains at all in any body parts. Yeah!

I tackled the hills again. So I had planned to add on an extra lap, but I made a deal with myself. If I made it up the killer hill twice without walking I could skip the final gradual lap. And I did! I nearly puked the first time up. I ran it quickly and almost lost it at the top. The second time around I decided I would go slower and take smaller steps. Totally worked, got up with less effort and did not need to puke and also rested less time before I caught my breath. Yeah!

The run home is always hard after hills as it is also up hill. But it wasn't nearly as hard as the last time I did it. So major improvement!

Good:
Ran 6.4 miles with hill repeats
20 min core

Pool water

Swimming was good again today but I drank pool water like 3 times. Major choke and swallow, up the nose kind. Sucko.

I lasted a little longer and finally bailed cause I couldn't handle anymore water in my mouth.
Yesterday was a rest day, which is funny because I should have just biked. I was sooo bored sitting around doing nothing!

Tomorrow I tackle the dreaded death hill. 2 gradual laps and 2 crazy laps. That's the goal. Oh and I have to complete at least one of the crazy laps and .75 of the second crazy. We shall see.

Good:
Swam 1 hour 5 min
40 min upper body weights.

It's good

So today's long run was slow and easy. As they should be. A little slower than I'd like, but until the hip is back to normal I'm not complaining.

It's weird how doing a run a mile or two longer than the last long run is so hard on my knees and legs. But the next time I do the same number of miles, it's no big deal. I don't really understand how my body is adjusting to the increased miles so easily, but I just kind of go with it.

I think part of it is the cross training, part is that I'm going pretty slow and mostly because while 10 miles is a long run for me, it really isn't getting into the world of long running that really kicks your ass.

My biggest goals really top out at about 15 miles. That's it. No marathon, no ultramarathon. Just a nice 2 hour-ish run.

Today's run was easy. Hip, calf and knee pain as usual, nothing major just the normal aches. No major huffing and puffing. Going up hills feels really good, way better than down hill. I never got tired the entire run

Next week I'm thinking I'll do that last lap and go for the full 13 miles.

Good:
Ran 10 miles slow at 5.5 pace.

Running in a tight skirt

The hip felt better today so I decided to still do a tempo run, just a very slow one.

I did a 1 mile warm up and cool down, and sets of .75 mile at a faster pace with .25 mile recovery in between. I did 3 sets, ran another 1.25 easy to cool down and walked .75 to finish off.

I can definitely feel the weird tweak in my hip. It's strange because it doesn't actually hurt, just is that uncomfortable twingy nerve feeling. Everything on that side feels off. But I focused on form and it seemed to really help.

My theory on running form seems to be that if you are doing every correctly, you essentially run as if you are in a tight knee length skirt. You scoot along, taking short steps, pushing off with your foot and toes keeping your hips and core engaged. When my stride lengthens it's bothers my hip, when I shorten up it's fine. Also running uphill not only makes it feel ok, it actually feels extra extra good.

Good:
Ran 5.25 miles
Walked .75 miles
Total 70 minutes

Days off

Well technically this is my first day off. Somehow my brain equates yesterday as a day off as I skipped practice, even though I had already run.

I'm not so worried as I used to be about days off. I think there are a lot of us who feel being athletic is a fluke. Like somehow we kept having to show up to something and accidentally got physically fit. But it wasn't our natural choice. If left to our own devices we would likely sit on the couch and surf the net.

One of the encouraging changes I'm noticing though is my desire to push through the tired, the heavy, and the unwillingness to perform. I keep expecting my body to not want to run or swim or lift or whatever. But there is a significant pleasure in pushing through this and making myself do it. And then there are those days where I don't feel tired and it just goes well. Those are the days that feel like flukes.

Unfortunately if I'm going to push through the tired, like I did yesterday, I really need to focus on my form. I let my form lag and today I am paying for it with hip strain. It's not bad, not painful. But it's tight and feels off and definitely prime for injury if I don't rest, ice and stretch it.

About half of yesterday's run felt like I was just barely keeping on the treadmill. Not good form. When I'm running with good form I'm always bumping into the front of the machine.

Good:
Rest

Shorter strides

I had been dilligently working on my turnover. Making sure I get those 180 plus foot falls a minute. The thing is, that it's a bit of work to move the legs like that. At least until I get used to it.

Anyways I've been slacking on it the past few weeks and today I got to experience the effects of over striding. Hip strain.

So I'm off the legs for a few days. We'll see how it goes.

Erm no fun

So I may have had a drink or two last night. I may have had a hangover this morning. It may not have helped with today's run.

It was hard to do speed work today. Like super super hard. I got on and started at my normal easy pace of 6mph and it was killing me to just keep up. There will be days like this and I can adjust my speed stuff to still get a good workout.

I know that I will not always have good days when I run. But if I push through it and still give it my all, even if it's less than normal, I can still get a good workout in. Maybe even better than a workout on a day where everything feels good.

Good:
Ran 3 miles at 6mph
Ran 2 miles at 6.5 mph
Ran 1 mile at 5.5 mph
Walked .5 miles
20 min core

Oh yeah, swimming laps

Swimming is getting better every time. My knee is still funky, but fortunately I'm only running 3 days a week so it gets plenty of rest time.

Today's pool time was an improvement. I increased the jogging and lap swim time and decreased the kick board. 10 min kick board, 25 min jog, 25 min lap swim. Now I can actually do a full set, 1 lap crawl, 1 lap backstroke, 1 lap breast stroke, without actually stopping in between. And the breathing is better, I'm not ready to die after each lap.

I came home and did another 40 min on the bike trainer and core work.

Good:
Weights 50min
Swim 1 hr
Bike 42 min

Recovery socks

So yesterdays 11.5 miler was great, but it hit the knees and shins a little hard. No big surprise. But going to work and being on my feet for the next 10 hours may not have been the best idea. Well technically I didn't have a choice about the work thing.

By the end of the night my feet and knees felt stiffer and more swollen, like when you ride on a plane for too long. So now I'm thinking I may want to invest in compression socks. I've been reading about how great they are to run in and for post run recovery. If I'm going to work after a run, this may be the thing I need. And being that I work every weekend, that pretty much guarantees that I will working after a race.

When I got home I was so amazingly exhausted and crashed. This morning, rest day, I've laid around, stretched and pretty much been useless. And I'm surprised at how great my legs, knees and shins included, feel!

11.5 miles

I totally intended to do only 9 as my training plan indicated. But I felt good and just kept going.
It's definitely hardest on my knees and shins. But everything else seemed fine.

It was not the additional cardio effort that last week's 10 miler was. And the hills seemed to no longer be hills after about mile 4. I breathed a little harder, but muscle wise I couldn't tell the difference.

I'm going to just keep going next week too. But my goals are way less lofty than most. I'm really only looking to do 10-15 mile long runs. No marathons for me. And slowly.

Good:
Ran 11.5 miles
And kept a 10:35 pace

Swimmingly

I think I'm getting better at swimming. It is not any easier, but it feels better. Every length of the pool I am huffing and puffing for a few before I take another lap. That gets better right?

Good:
30 min weights
50 min swim
20 core with weights

Oh I can finally do 10 whole "for reals" push ups. Not the weenies ones I've been eeking out. I still eek out a lot of those, but they seem to be helping me get to the real ones!