21 January 2006

Some random thoughts I need to dump.

Today was WW weigh in and I was up a tad. I'm trying to put a positive spin on this. That was only one moment in time; my eating has been good all week; it's probably from lack of water yesterday; who the hell cares what the scale says. So it's not going to get to me, there is always next week.

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I did something I have never done before. I went for an afternoon run. See, Saturday's are really the only day hubby and I get to spend together and getting up in the morning to run is kind of tough most Saturdays. So, my inner athlete, said, "Well, you can always run in the afternoon!" So I did. Yeah, me!!! 6 miles!!! WooHoo!!!!

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Commodore has challenged the blog world to train until the end of February with NO LIMITS. It's a great idea and I'm going to accept his challenge. For the next 39 days whenever I find myself with nothing to do, laying on the couch channel surfing, mindlessly surfing the net, succumbing to common man syndrome, I will do something. I'm going to focus on core exercises and stretching. If I use all my wasted time during the day for this by the end of February I will have abs of steel, literally. So the gauntlet has been thrown and I have chosen to accept the challenge.

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Tomorrow I will post a real post with my totals for the week and my new training schedule. I will also be planning my menu for the week, though you may not want to hear about that and getting ready for the week to come. Sunday's have become my prep days; cooking, laundry, planning, and that is working out real well for me.

Hope everyone is having a good weekend and training with no limits...

20 January 2006

A really good week.

First, that previous post is NOT a political statement. I try not to get political here as it pisses me off. I think all the bozos should be thrown out of office and we should start over; and I think anyone who WANTS to run for office should not be allowed to. I ran a bunch of different names through that generator and I just like Hillary's the best. It really made me laugh.
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Okay, on to training. Well, for the first time in a long time I had a totally awesome week. I did not get in everything I wanted to but I got in a lot more than I thought I would. I will calculate the totals and log them later. I will also work up and proper training schedule for next week. I'm really liking this swimming early in the morning, and I can already see improvement. Running was good too. I even got a couple of sessions on the bike trainer in, woohoo!!! I'm really looking forward to this weekend; long run tomorrow, long bike on Sunday. I need to fit in a rest day, I don't want to overtrain. I think Friday will be my "rest" day. I swim in the morning but I think that will be it, nothing tonight. That sounds like a plan.

My eating has been totally spot on for 2 weeks now. I'm very, very pleased. I'm following the WW Core program and it's really making a difference. With the Core program you eat as much as you want (you follow this fullness guide - listen to your body, what a concept!!!) but you stick to whole foods; fruits, veggies, whole grains, meat, etc. It's great, I really love it. I don't get starving hungry, I get hungry but not in the, "OH my god, I'm going to gnaw off my arm if I don't get some food." I'm eating every 2.5 - 3 hours and my blood sugar is really enjoying it too. It's been pretty stable and I haven't had any really bad reactions in a while now, and it feels great.

Okay, nuff said.

Hey, decide for yourself.

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I am interested in - do tell me about

18 January 2006

My inner Action Hero has

a prominent 6-pack, upper arms cut from steel, a confidence you can see and feel, and a blue with gray stripes Tyr swimsuit. She gets up at 4:30 a.m. to be at the pool by 6:00a.m. She gets everything together the night before, even though she's exhausted, so there will be no delay in the morning. She swims her program even though she is sure she is going to die towards the end. She swims slow but that means there is no where to go but up. She finishes feeling stronger, both inside and out, and shouting, "I AM AN ATHLETE"

So, as you may be able to tell, it's been a good couple of days. Yesterday I got up and ran my running program and this morning was swimming.

I've changed my focus a little; focus being the operative word here. I've decided to use this year as a building year. I need to get faster in my running and get more confident in my swimming. So I'm going to enter 2 marathons and a number of 5 & 10K's during the year. I'm also going to enter 2 sprint tris but these will be towards the end of the season September/October. I may also include an offroad tri just for something different.

My next event is a 8.25 mile race on President's Day. My running program is to run this distance in 70 minutes. Okay, that probably won't happen (I'm just not that fast) but I figure it will make me a bit faster. For my swimming, I've found a program that will have me swimming a mile straight in 6 weeks. That's what I really need to work on with the swimming, the endurance. So that's my focus for the next 8 weeks; running - speed, swimming - endurance.

I'm happy with this decision. I think if I really work on skills this year, next year I'll be ready to tackle a 1/2 Ironman and who knows, maybe an Ironman in 2008. I was feeling very disorganized and not sure where I was heading. Now I know and I'm really looking forward to the journey. I have a focus, I have a plan, and I have a goal. How exciting. Now all I have to do is pick the races. I may do the Las Vegas marathon instead of Honolulu (they are a week apart) and I'm either going to do Maui in September or the Volcano in June. The Volcano is literally over the volcano and the trail is really rough. That may be a little ambitious. Maybe I'll do that 10k and then the Maui. I don't know, things to think about......

16 January 2006

You Are an Orange Rose

You represent desire and enthusiasm

Your vibe: Sexy yet familiar

Falling in love with you: happens instantly - it's a fast ride

These are a few of my favorite things.

Some things I love:

1) Driving to the Y with no traffic.

2) Watching the full moon while swimming in the pool.

3) Getting my swim done before 7:00 a.m.

4) Going to Starbucks with wet hair and people thinking I just rolled out of bed when I've actually been up for hours.

5) Being an ATHLETE!!!!

So yesterday I signed up at the Y after my run in with the moray eel. They were open this morning, in spite of the holiday, so I planned on going this morning. Now there were a number of things going on mentally here. First, this is something new and outside my comfort zone, hence very, very scary to me. Also, I don't swim in pools, I swim in the ocean. I don't know how all that lane sharing and circle swimming stuff works. What's the etiquette there? Do I ask first? Do I just jump in? What??? This was weighing on my mind so much that I didn't get anything ready last night, nothing. When the alarm went off this morning I said to myself, "ahhh, I'll go tomorrow morning. I have nothing ready." But my inner Action Hero jumped up and said, "No way!!! You're going now!!" So I jumped up and ran around like a maniac getting everything ready. The poor dogs had no idea what was going on. I made it out the door 15 minutes late; thank god it was a holiday. Got to the pool and walked right up to the lifeguard and said, "So how does this all work???" He explained it and I jumped in and started swimming. It was great.

Umm, so yeah, not as good a swimmer as I really thought I was. Managed to do 500 meters and was sore and tired. Need to work on my breathing, my aerobic capacity, and clearly my upper body strength. I think I have pretty good form though. No problem with my legs sinking and I roll when I breath, I don't "turn" my head. So that's good. I have lots to build on, I also have lots of work to do. But I feel good and I'm looking forward to Wednesday.

So this leads to the need to really work out a training schedule. For the last couple of weeks, I've been just been flowing along. No set plan, just get up every morning and do something. Tonight I set up a structured plan. I'm thinking of swimming and running in the mornings and biking at night. Rest days will be Friday and long runs/bike on the weekends. No swimming will be Friday. Maybe that's all I'll do Friday. Oh, clearly I need to work on this.

Well, unlike the rest of the country, I'm at work today. I expect it will be very quiet. I have some paperwork to do and I'm hoping to get out of here early. Hope everyone enjoys their holiday...

15 January 2006

Whew, what a day.


First off it was an absolute gorgeous day. The nicest one we've had in a month (okay, I was gone 2 weeks but you get the idea). So I decided to go for a bike ride this morning.












I decided to do 2 hours and not push it, just enjoy the ride. Boy did I!!! I ended up riding up to Laie. You may not know this but Hawaii is home to the largest Mormon Temple and mormon population outside of Utah. It's absolutely true!!! So I rode to the Mormon Temple in Laie; they had redone the roads leading in and I hadn't seen it yet. It really is beautiful. Although I'm not Mormon I can certainly appreciate a beautiful temple.


After I got back home it was just too beautiful and I decided it was a good time to go for a swim. I was entering the water, and it was cold so I was going a slow, when I stopped to put my goggles on. I'm standing there contemplating the cold of the ocean and realizing that mainland bloggers swim in cold pools and stuff all winter. I had just about convinced myself what a wimp I was being and I was preparing to dive in when suddenly I felt something bite my little toe.






Apparently I had been standing a little too close to the home of a moray eel and he decided I needed an invitation to leave. Although not poisonous or anything, that bugger hurt like crazy. Their teeth are like needles so there are 4 clean holes in my toe, 2 on top and 2 on bottom. Needless to say I got out of the water pretty quick and was afraid to get back in. So much for my swim.





After showering and going to work for a little while, I stopped and signed up at the YMCA. Rumor has it there are no eels in their pool :)

Conversation with Hubby

 So yesterday morning I presented my idea of working out at home to the Hubby. Once I presented it to him, he said he was in. I told him I h...