Backwards

Oh backwards skating, how you have a eluded me! But no longer.

My life has a step stone or maybe building block system going on. I can't move forward easily without the base or the stones that come before.
I want to skate. But I need to do something with my kids. I want to do something with my kids, but we need a common activity.

And enter the world of skating. We've been going twice a week, about to become three times a week. The kids have skated about 6 times now.
Now they can skate fairly well on their own and they like it.
I get fun/exercise, they get fun/exercise and we both get an activity to do together. So nice.

Backwards skating. Same theme here. I need to be able to do transitions better. But I need to be able to handle skating backwards to do the transition and stop backwards.
The kids need help or at least encouragement skating. And I skating backwards, at first slowly as they are still getting their balance, helps to do just that. And thus the skating backwards skill is born!

I spent most of last night skating backwards. It was the best I've ever done. And a lot of time doing transitions and spinning ,slowly, in circles. And practicing stopping backwards. Apparently the kids are my key to all success.

the long path home

And as usual the easy 'won't it all be great when?' bit didn't really happen. Life did not work out how I wanted it too. New curve balls were thrown and my plans did not pan out. A few things did happen.

 I quit my league. That was hard, technically I'm still a volunteer, but I'm fairly well retired. Its not the same as before and with my derby spouse retiring I just can't see going back. But there are always needs for refs in the req leagues and I will likely find myself there sooner or later.

For right now I'm just working on getting back into shape. I've been dreaming about skating lately. How amazing it feels, how easy the transitions are in my dreams. Soon we'll be back at the rink, skating and socializing. It's only a matter of time before the reffing comes back.

My brother in law has moved in with us. He has schizophrenia and needs to live with family. It's a good change but not without complications. But he helps out where he can and one aspect  which I foresee to be very important is that he likes to go to the gym. Which means I go to the gym. This is a good thing.

I've been running daily, lifting weights  couple of times a week. I feel it all coming back. The drive. My runs are still short and slow, but they are daily. My lifts are light but get heavier each time. It's a long road back, but I've started and the good stuff is not so far away.

All good things

have begun. Today I; ran, lifted weights, woke up at 6am, ate normally, fed chickens, sent kids to school, plan on cleaning up, plan on spending time with my family in the evening and going to bed at a normal hour.

These are all good things.

This months goals:
Get back to running 3-4 miles 4 days a week
Lifting 3 times a week
Eating 3 normal meals
Go skating twice

Why hello there!

Oh how the time does pass!
Life has been as usual a whole lotta work, a big bunch of bull, and not enough sleep.
Derby has been nil, running has been slim, weights have been slimmer, and I have been struggling to keep it all going.

But my eye is on the prize and I am but 5 weeks out from my new life. Everything changes next month (Sept) and my life will become good again!

Day shift. This is what it's all about. Right now I am on 4 nights, Fri -Mon. That means 3 nights a week, for about 2-3 hours I see that guy I married. Sometimes on the weekends between sleeping and working I may see him in passing. It's kind of lame.

I do get to spend a lot of time with the babies and this is a really good thing.

But day shift is coming. Day shift means a whole lot of things. Waking up the same time everyday. Not feeling like a zombie because I worked late at night and then got up early to take the kids to school. Getting regular sleep. Eating normally.

Day shift also mean seeing my man EVERY NIGHT OF THE WEEK!!!! Yes that's right.

Day shift means I won't be going back to sleep in the mornings when school starts up in the fall. Oh and did I mention my youngest will be going to school 5 half days a week? Oh yes and what will I do with that time? I will be running, I will be lifting, I will be awake and getting back into awesome shape!

And this means I won't be sacrificing one of the few nights a week I have to see my man to go to derby. This means I can go to derby, almost every week, and skate, and ref and get back to life I once new.

Oh yes my friends, the world is coming back and it's just a few short weeks away.

Spring Suggestions

Spring challenge has been a serious bust. I've not gotten anywhere the miles in I wanted. But honestly I don't think I really thought this one through.

It's ok, I'm running fairly regularly and that's enough. I'm getting to more practices and my home gym is finally back in functioning shape. Summer is coming and life is getting really good.

I love a good plan!

Four miles again today and I think I'm hitting a pattern! Now I just need a plan. Everyone loves a training plan. And a training plan that gets you back towards the great shape you used to be in is the best.

Running. This is my biggest push right now. I need the endurance, I need the negative calories, and I really need to feel my body move. Once I'm back to regular 5 and 10 mile runs I'll be happy. Until then the push to meet my spring challenge is really important. I know I won't make the frequency part of the challenge. But I know I can make easy 5 mile runs by next month.

Weights will be slow for a while. Right now a weights session renders me incapable of walking normally much less running. While I'm focused on the running, weights will only be once a week and on Fridays. I start my work weekend that day and trying to do anything active while working is pretty difficult. I can hobble around work and rest up to get back to running by Monday or Tuesday.

Skating. Wednesday nights with my babies! The kids are being indoctrinated to the life of the roller rink. Thankfully they don't need me to hold their hands anymore so we all get to go out and have fun! I'm focusing on spins, transitions, skating backwards and turn around toe stops. This is my biggest challenge on my fourth year of skating. Time to finally get this shit figured out.

Food. I'm so back and forth about this part. I'd like to lose a bit, get back into most of my clothes. But I'm not sure how far I want to go, or how strict I want to be. Eating paleo-esque always seems to be a good choice, and maybe add in some brown rice or whole grain items from time to time. I'm trying a new route with food this time around and it is once again foreign territory.

And thankfully summer is coming, which makes all of the above a lot easier. Biggest goals is to keep it going through winter.

Running and derby!

Oh and both running and derby have made a solid come back! I've been able to run 4 miles easily with the stroller (when I can actually get out).

I'm trying to do a spring challenge. March was 3 miles 3 times a week. Easy. April is 4 miles 4 times a week. Not so easy. The miles aren't bad, but trying to find 4 days to run is not easy. May is supposed to be 5 miles 5 times a week. Yeah, pretty unlikely. But we'll see.

Derby has been good too. I've been skating with the kids once a week and made a few practices. I won't skate in the next bout, but I will likely get to skate in the following if I can make enough practices. So nice to be back on skates!