My muscles burn for team fire.

At the dojo they've started this "clan" thing. It's a competition between three teams (called clans), which involves gaining honor points. Honor points can be gained a number of ways, but the easiest way I've learned is to do extra sit ups (100 per honor point) and pushups (50 per honor point.)

After class last night, my clan, fire, decided we needed a few extra honor points. We did 100 pushups. I decided that I needed an extra point, since I've been slacking in the attendance area, so I proceeded to follow that up with 100 sit ups. Now mind you this is on top of the normal class, with sit ups, push ups, squat thrusts, "dippers" and random other things (like swinging around a six foot wooden pole.)

Today, I am sore. Very, very sore.

The awesome part about today was that today is my "late shift" day, so I got an extra hour of sleep, and had time to take a nice, long, hot shower. That helped the muscles a lot.

Unfortunately, it also means that I did not work out this morning. I'm hoping I get it together when I get out of work to at least pound out a half hour of something, but I'm not optimistic.

This new fitness commitment is not going well.

Slow start

So I exercised last night, kinda. I busted out the resistance bands I got for christmas (and hadn't used, shame on me) and did a couple sets of arm curls, V raises and kick backs. Unfortunately my left wrist has been bothering me, and it decided that this was too much, so I had to stop with that. I did about 25 knees to chest on each side, and about 10 squat/sidekick combos on each side, then settled in on doing my basic kicks, 10 per side per kick. Unfortunately I only got about four kicks in before we had to head to the Soon-to-be-In-laws (SOBIL's!) for dinner.

The other unfortunate thing about dinner, is what I ended up eating. I tried to be good, I tried to eat small portions. But dinner was pasta with chicken garlic and olive oil, bread, Cajun corn, more bread, then apricots, almonds and chocolate for desert. I wasn't terrible, and I resisted the warm brownies that were brought out later, but I still tipped the caloric scale past 1800.

I'm hoping today goes better.

Throwing down the Gauntlet

I havn't been exercising enough.

That's the simple truth. With less than three months until my wedding, fitness seems to somehow have taken a back seat to everything else in my life.

This is no good.

I'm not gaining weight, yet, but I'm not loosing any either. I'm in a kind of stasis, where the exercise I am getting: Walking the dog, getting to the dojo twice a week, is enough to keep me where I am. I signed up for a 5k again in the fall to try to kick my butt into running, but for some reason the deadline isn't enough.

I'm getting married in less than three months. I'm scared that my dress, which is already ordered, won't fit. I'm worried about the jiggly bits under my arms, and the extra size on my back. My dress is strapless, did I mention that?

I'm making a commitment right now, right here, to get at least half an hour of exercise a day.

Exercise that raises my heart rate and makes me sweat. Walking the dog cannot count in this. I need to sweat for this to count. I need muscles to burn.

I think if I can do this, I'll be in good shape.

I'm throwing down the gauntlet with myself today. Drawing that metaphorical line in the sand, and restarting this blog to keep myself accountable.

Even if no ones reading anymore, I know that if I make myself post every day, I will make myself work out every day. Because no one wants to post that they skipped a workout.

Reaching a Goal, Starting back up, and Counting down.

It's funny how the busier I get, and the more I have to write about, the less I seem to post. I really need to work on that.

Yesterday was the last day of a 33 Seigan at my Dojo. A Seigan is a period of time of dedicated training. For this particular Seigan, we dedicated half an hour a day to our martial arts practice for 33 days. There were a whole lot of rough days in there for me, but I made it all 33 days. True some days the half hour consisted of me going slowing through my basic punches over and over, but I did it. Even the couple of days when I was sick enough to contemplate calling in sick to work (I didn't) I got myself up off the couch for that half hour. My rewards for completing the entire 33 day Seigan (besides bragging rites) are going to be the purchase of a new Gi (karate uniform), a new Bo staff and a new awesome sports bra.

To keep myself motivated past the end of the Seigan, I agreed to sign up for another 5k with my Running Buddy. We missed out on doing the Lilac 5k again this year, but we've signed up for the Fleet Feet Summer Fest 5k, which is in September. Plenty of time to get my running chops back.

The other looming date is my wedding in August. August 13th to be exact! I'm DIY'ing a lot of stuff for it, but I'm trying to keep the stress level super low. As far as fitness is concerned, my only real goal is to trim up my arms, since my gown is (gasp) strapless. This shouldn't be an issue, since one of the things we do a lot of at the Dojo are push ups.

101 days to go till the wedding. Plenty of time to firm up these punching machines!
122 days to go till the 5k. More than enough time to get myself used to running again, and try to beat my PR from the Lilac 5k.

Lets do this!

Long time, no post

It doesn't mean I haven't been working out...just well, life has been getting away from me a lot lately.

So much is going on in my life. I switched jobs, to a prepress position which is a much better fit for me, although I now worry about sitting down too much. I got a dog, who turned out to be a lot of work (he's a pit lab mix so he's big and energetic.) I got engaged, so I've been stressing about planning a wedding...

And Thursday I got myself back to the dojo. Finally.

I am so incredibly sore from that one workout. It's amazing. I'm now planning on hitting the dojo twice or three times a week, and the gym twice. It felt so amazingly good to be back at the dojo, it was like coming home. I pushed myself too hard, which is something I always have an issue with at karate, but I enjoyed every minute of it. I can't wait until my body recovers enough for me to go back again. I was planning on going again today, but seeing as I can still barely walk, I thought I should wait a little longer.

All in all things are going alright, Life is just so full lately, with very little down time. And I have this bad habit of piling more stuff on top randomly.

Children are great workout partners.

Who knew a job running around after kids would be such an effective workout regime? My only exercise lately has been my job, and yet, I'm actually loosing weight right now. Not a ton, but small increments, steadily.

I have plans to return to the dojo soon, hopefully as soon as later this week. It's mostly a mater of timing right now.

Ran Today

Only one mile, with a second mile tacked on as a hike, but it felt good. Going to try adding the fitness thing back into my life a little at a time. I'm going to try to take it slow so I don't do anything wonky that requires me missing work. Since work involves a lot of movement and lifting small children, I need to protect the machinery. Adding Yoga back into my routine will be part of this plan. oh yes it will!

Falling off the wagon

Seriously. I tumbled good. After our move, I got a job right off the bat working with kids at a daycare, which is awesome. I still haven't hit my stride as far as my schedule though, and between a packed schedule and lot of tasty but horrible for me foods, I'm in serious need of a weight management makeover.

I've started to get exercise again, at least a little here and there. Swimming laps after work, or going for bike rides. My consolation is that my job is very active. I'm on my feet all day running around after kids, doing a lot of bending down, squatting, and lifting. So it's a lot more active than sitting at home on the computer doing design work.

I'm hoping that once my schedule solidifies in the next couple of weeks that I'll start being able to add a bit more in the way of exercise back in. The swimming and bike rides are awesome (I forgot how zen swimming laps can feel) but I really need to get my butt back to the Dojo, and start running again. Especially since the weather is starting to get a bit cooler, which makes for perfect running weather.

Knockoff Fitness Shoes

I was at DSW and saw that they had the Reebok Easy Tones, but at $100 they were still a bit out of my price range right now. Later I was at Payless and saw they had the Champion version of the Easy Tones for only $30.

I've done a few long walks in them (very long in a couple cases), and so far, I have noticed a marked difference in how my legs feel both while walking and later. My knees don't hurt as much after a long walk, but my calves and thighs are sore the day after.

I'm going to hold off on a formal review of them for a while, to see if, once I resume my normal workout schedule, they add anything to my fitness level or not. But so far, I'm really enjoying them.

Getting bendy again

Just did the first yoga video I've done in a while. Oh man was I stiff! The plan is to ease myself back into it, doing the easy video every morning this week, and then moving on to the slightly tougher video next week.

This is the last week of our membership at the gym down here in NYC, so we'll have a one week gap where we're still in NY, without access to a gym. With the way temperatures have been down here, that may be an issue.

It may be time to do a 2 week trial at another gym ^_^

Just trying to keep myself in the game.

I had a good run yesterday, although I think there's something up with my Nike+ sportband. I did 3 miles according the sportband, but close to 3.5 according to the treadmill. I was running at a 5.5 pace according to the treadmill, and I ran for over 35 minutes. I don't understand how that only totaled up to 3 miles, but maybe the sportband just needs to be re-calibrated. Who knows.

I'm basically just trying to get to the gym enough to maintain my level of fitness right now, since everything else is eating up so much of my time and energy. Between getting ready to move at the end of the month and a sudden influx of possible design projects, I'm swamped. It's awesome, but it makes for not a lot of drive to get myself to the gym.

After the move things will be quite different, fitness wise, well everything wise really, but fitness wise I will have a lot more motivating me. I'll have my Running Buddy to get me up and moving, and just as importantly, I'll have the Dojo again. It's been literally years since i practiced Martial Arts, and it's going to take me a while to get back up to speed, but oh man am I excited to get back to it.

Pushing on through the heat and humidity.

Went back to the gym for the first time in a while on Tuesday, in 102 degree heat. Yeah I'm a tad crazy, but at least the Gym had A/C.

Got in a decent run, some squats and some strength training. Two days later my legs are still sore. I'm hoping that it won't affect my run today, but I know it will.

As much as I want to go to the gym and get myself out of the house, I'm not looking forward to the trek to the gym in this hot sticky smelly mess of a city. But with only a window unit providing A/C at home, there's no way I could work out here.

Ah well, hopefully this heat wave will give up soon.

Heat and a broken toe

Many things have conspired lately to keep me from the gym, chief among them are the heat and my toe.

It is blastedly hot here in NYC. Not only hot, but humid. Walking outside feels like wrapping yourself head to toe in hot wet towels. Just going about your day is exhausting. We have minimal A/C here in the apartment, so working out at home is right out of the question.

Even with the heat I was managed to get to the gym a few times last week, until on Saturday, while getting ready to go to a friends party, I kicked our scale while walking past it. We have one of those glass topped, square, scales. I kicked the corner of it with my second to last toe.

I swore a lot, sat down, and tried to put my shoe on. The act of putting on my shoe caused a nausea level pain to shoot through my body from my toe. There was more swearing, followed by a heated debate between me and my S.O. as to whether I was OK to go to the party. When I still couldn't put pressure on my foot half an hour later without loosing several shades of color, my S.O. called it, and spent the next two days making sure I was as immobile as possible by waiting on me constantly.

Having broken several toes several times, I am almost positive (as positive as I can be without an x-ray) that this toe is broken. So I'm doing the sensible thing, taping my toes together, splinting it, and staying off my feet as much as possible. This also means little to no exercise.

Today I'm going to attempt a return to the gym, but I'm going to stay away from running. I'm going to be demoted to either the bikes or the row machine. Both of which are far from my favorite machines. But hey, at least it's something.

Stupid toe.

Running in pants makes me hot.

Yesterday's run was educational. My normal workout clothes were all dirty, so I ran in my running pants, instead of the capris I normally wear. I was hot. The entire run that was all I could think about, how hot I was. By the end of the run I was drenched in sweat, and I felt like I had run faster and farther than I had. 3 miles at a 12:13 pace isn't great, but it was all I had in me.

After the run I did some Ab work, my Sensei Mark Specials, some cross crunches, some lying straight-leg raises, some knee crosses in Plank, and some strait leg raises in the captains chair. The machines were all full, so I grabbed some hand weights and did my old strength set of elbow curls/shoulder press and french presses. Nothing too amazing, I was only using 7.5 lbs.

It wasn't a stellar workout, but it wasn't that horrible. Unfortunately the 12:13 pace keeps that run from counting towards my "run faster" goal. I'm now one run behind my target to hit an average 11:00 pace by 7/9. Hopefully the next couple of runs will pick that pace back up.

Keeping myself moving.

Yesterday I did a proper run, and got myself back on track. This weekend did not go well, fitness wise. After walking around a bunch on Friday, I stepped funny walking home from the train, and then spent the next two days nursing my knee back to health. It frustrates me to no end that still, years after the injury, one bad step can cause me to loose almost complete mobility. To that end I have decided that I need to strengthen the muscles supporting my knee. I've grabbed a bunch of exercises and found a workout DVD I want to get (Strong Knees by Gaiam), and once I get health insurance again, I'm going to try to get in to see a sports medicine doctor about some serious PT.

Anyways, trials of the weekend aside, yesterday I got myself back on track at the gym. I've set myself up with a bunch of goals on the Nike+ site, one of which is to run faster. That is, according to the goal, to run a 11:00/mi on average by 7/9. I knocked one run off the total requisite 5 under pace yesterday, clocking a 10:51 pace for a little over 3 miles.

I've noticed a distinct lack of motivation in myself lately. I'm not sure what is causing it, all I know is that it's been increasingly difficult to convince myself that working out is a good idea. I think I may be bored, or maybe it's the lack of a 'goal' like the 5k. I suppose I'm not doing too badly overcoming it, since other than the weekend of immobility, the past week was a decent week workout wise. I just wish it didn't feel so difficult to get myself to the gym!

Realizing progress.

I suppose a proper post is in order. I've been horribly lax since the Lilac 5k about updating. That week, after the Lilac 5k, I went on a bunch of runs with friends up in Rochester. It was great to run with a people, and to have that motivation around when I felt like just skipping a run.

It got tough again when we got back to NYC. We got in really late on Monday night, and ended up taking the following Tuesday and Wednesday to recover and get settled back into the routine. That Thursday, I was starting to develop some sort of post-nasal drip nastiness, but forced myself to go to the gym. I did a tough 30 minute run, only keeping a 12:35 pace, and then did a full strength set to make up for the slow run.

The next three days the sickness was on full force and I coughed and snotted my way through in a haze of NyQuil and DayQuil. By Sunday I was starting to feel better, but wanted to give myself that extra day to make sure I didn't tip myself back into sickness.

Monday's run was awesome. One of those runs where you barely feel the effort, where you run faster than before and feel you could run faster still. I ran 3 miles at a 10:54 pace, and still had enough energy left in the tank to do a full strength session afterward.

Wednesday's run was the opposite. My left calf was bugging me before I even stepped on the treadmill. I paid for every step. I tried to keep my pace up, but ended up barely being able to push through 2 miles. It was a completely frustrating run, especially following Monday's. I did a full strength set minus the ab work afterward, and went home feeling depressed and discouraged.

Today I'm feeling a little better about it. I waited till today to post to let myself get a little distance and perspective, to keep this post from being all doom and gloom. Today I can look at it as: I went, even though I didn't want to. I ran 2 miles on a bad day where once I would barely have hit one. I kept my pace at a respectable 11:15, where once I couldn't crack a 12 min/mile.

This is progress. Hard won, small steps. I am also weighing in below 155 again. Today the scale told me 153.3. The graph of my weigh ins shows a distinct downward slope. I'm refocusing on my goals. I'm keeping better track of my caloric intake than I was before the Race, when my focus was squarely on finishing the Race.

I've set new goals on my Nike+ site. Run 10 times by 7/7, Run 30 miles by 7/7, and average an 11 min/mile by 7/9. I've been toying with the idea of starting one of their training plans, but I think I'll wait until after my friends wedding on the 19th. I think it'll help me to have a specific goal for each workout.

Quick Update!

Oh man I need to update! Life has been so busy lately. After the 5k, I rested for a couple days, then went on a couple shorter runs with everyone. It was so hot! I don't do well running in the heat, but I suppose it's something I'll get better at.

My nike+ system just told me I've reached Orange level now! that means I've run more than 30 miles since I got the arm band. Woo!

I'll post a more comprehensive update later...right now I'm battling a bit of a cold or something and am rather fuzzy headed.

Medved Lilac 5k 2010!

I did it! I ran an actual race, and finished with a PR!

The race was early, well early for me, with a start time of 8am. This meant I was up by 6 and out the door by 6:30 to meet up with my race buddies at 7. We had quite a pack, My usual Running Buddy, her recent training partner (who's done marathons before!), a friend of mine from college, his 6 months pregnant wife, and me.

I was super nervous before the race. This was my first race, EVER, so I had very little idea of what to expect. Also, I've been running at a relatively slow pace, around 12 minute miles, compared to my Running Buddy's close to 10 min miles, so I was worried about keeping up.

We headed up to the corral, with our two spectators in tow: My running buddy's Hubby (who happens to be my S.O.'s brother) and the marathoner's boyfriend (who is *also* a friend of my S.O.'s family - everyone knows everyone up here!) They both had cameras in tow, so we hammed it up pre-race.

Then it was go time. It was weird because I don't remember a starting gun or announcement, just everyone started moving slowly forward. The mob picked up pace and I fell into step behind my Running Buddy. We got separated from my college friend and his wife rather quickly by the crowd. I've never run in a pack that dense before, it was odd. It's hard to tell exactly how fast you're running until the pack starts to stretch out.

The group of us: My running buddy, the marathoner, and me, spent the first mile dodging around slower runners, and generally keeping a fast 10 min mile pace. I felt good, but it was a slight downhill, and I was still worried about how I'd handle the last part of the race.

Close to mile two we passed a friend of ours, who is a super awesome runner, but who was currently out of commission due to a pulled muscle in her hip. She was helping mark the course, she saw and recognized my running buddy and cheered us on as we passed.

Halfway through the course we turned into the uphill. It wasn't a huge hill, but by then it was incredibility muggy out, something I have never dealt with before. I was finding it hard to breathe, and by the time we were near the top of the hill, I found myself gagging and coughing, close to tossing all over the road. Someone who was running by me slowed down to ask if I was ok, and I tried to smile and nod, but I hope they didn't think i was being rude, I was just concentrating so hard on not throwing up.

I was still keeping pace with my Running Buddy, although our Marathoner friend had taken off somewhere near the bottom of the hill. Both of us called a surrender at the top of the hill to learn how to breathe again. I walked for about 30 seconds before deciding I was ok to run again.

I remember thinking the whole race "this isn't that far, this shouldn't be this hard" but each breath felt like it was half water, and I just couldn't seem to fill my lungs. It was tortuous by the end.

When we got to the big flags that had marked the starting line, I realized that we still hadn't crossed the finish line. I turned to my running buddy and said (rather loudly) "Where the F*%k's the finish line?!" Only to spot it a few seconds later a little way further down the road.

Pushing through the finish line took everything I had left in me, which you can see in these two pictures of me and my Running Buddy crossing the finish (Yeah my sunglasses are fly, I know ^_^)


I got our official results this morning: we crossed the finish line with an official time of 33:26, which gave us a pace of 10:47. That is by far a PR for me. I finished 56 in my age group (30-35 for those who care) out of 107, and 714 overall out of a pack of 1079. I can officially say now that I am a mid-pack runner ^_^

After meeting up with my parents, who had watched the race but hadn't seen me pass, we regrouped, and headed to get some food at a local diner. There was much talk about a half marathon that may or may not be in the cards for me in October, and much good food and camaraderie.

It was awesome hanging out and just enjoying the fact that we had just achieved a goal we'd been working towards for months.

A few more runs

Did a couple runs since my last update. I actually got out and ran on Saturday in Prospect Park. We did the loop, with the hill near the end, and then tacked on an extra 1/4 mile for good measure. I started out feeling sluggish, almost like I wasn't going to be able to finish the run, then about halfway through I hit my stride. The hill felt a lot easier, and I kept the pace up even through the "bonus round."

Sunday we walked around the park, but other than that I took the day off. Monday I did Self's "Slim and Sleek Fast" video, which didn't feel like a ton of work when I was doing it, but man was I sore the next day.

Yesterday, we hit the gym. I had an amazing run, which I had to cut short because of the 30 minute time limit when the gym is full. I pushed it a bit, till I hit 3 miles and then a short cool down walk, but no one called me on it so it's all good. After the run I did some ab work and some strength training. Enough that I'm pleasantly sore this morning.

We're getting down to the wire here. Only one more run on the schedule before Race Day.

Treadmill Intervals and Getting used to new tech.

Yesterday I had planned on doing random intervals on the treadmill. The plan was to not worry about distance, and instead go for time. Unfortunately my body was uncooperative. My knee was aching due to the weather change even before I got on the treadmill. The ache subsided for a bit during the first part of my run, but partway through it started to intensify. I kept to my plan of doing random intervals, pushing my speed up and dropping it back as I felt like it. When I was close to two miles I realized I was going to have to cut the run short or risk more knee pain. I pushed the pace up slowly to 7.0 (which feels like flying to me) and finished out at two miles.

I did some extra ab work and a few extra weight machines to compensate for cutting my run short. I can really feel the extra strength training this morning!

I'm going to rest my legs for a few days. We're planning on another run in Prospect Park this Saturday, which I'm calling my "long run" since I'm going to tack some extra distance onto the end of it (hopefully.)

I'm slowly getting used to tracking my runs with my Nike+ Sportsband. I love this thing. It's great to know the numbers with certainty, to know exactly how far I'm running, exactly how fast. I'm stumbling a bit with the technology, trying to get all my tracking systems synced up. Right now the hardest to sync has been Mapmyrun which I use to track the distance on my shoes (I've already hit 48 miles on them!) I'm not sure why but it keeps syncing in extra workouts from the Nike+ which I have to then go in and delete. I'm sure I'm just doing something wrong, and I'll figure it out soon.

We're getting down to the wire, race wise. Only three more runs on the schedule before Race Day!