02 June 2006

What a swim!!!!

This morning I almost took off. I have one of those memory foam pillows and apparently it died the other day. I've been waking up every morning with a sore neck and it took me all week to figure it out - DOH!!!!! Anyway, hubby also has one that he doesn't use. So last night I took his and my neck felt much better this morning; still sore but not as sore as usual in the morning. So I woke up this morning and felt pretty good and thought, "ahhhh, I'll take the morning off" but then almost immediately changed my mind and jumped out of bed. Then it was off to the pool.

I have been swimming pretty low mileage, 300 - 500m, so I decided to go long since I'm not running this morning. I pulled out a good 2000m workout and headed out. The numbers broke down like this:

400m swim: 11:00
4 x 25m (:05): 2:55
4 x 25m (:10): 2:40
4 x 25m (:15): 3:11
100m hard: 2:13
400m pull: 11:23
100m side: 3:06
100m breast: 3:15
100m back: 3.:22
100m side: 3:03

Total: 2000m in 51:22 not setting the pool on fire, but I'll take it. More importantly, I felt great. I could have kept swimming but no need to go crazy.


The following takes place between 8:57 and 9:10 am (god, I HATE 24) and is a lot of self analysis so you may want to skip this.
Why do I have such a hard time pushing myself??? I find I give up way too easy. I almost gave up this morning during my swim. The only reason I kept going was because I had lots of time left. If time had been tight I would have bagged it and left. Why???? Why do I throw in the towel so quickly? Why do I do that???? I'm slow, I know that, and the only way I'm going to get faster is to push the envelope now and then, yet I have a hard time doing that. Why? I don't think I have the answers, god knows I wish I did, I hope being aware of it will help. Now I know I tend to do this, hopefully I'll be able to fight it off. When I do overcome it and push myself I feel great, like this morning. It really empowers me to go further. Maybe that's it. I'm back to fake it till you feel it. If I push myself once, the next time may be easier, and the next time easier, and the next time eas....... Wow, I may be on to something here. That's why I like this blog. Writing it out helps figure it out a lot of times. Now, due to scheduling problems I'm going to do my long bike tomorrow and my long run on Sunday (I prefer that anyway) but then I can't run on Monday. Oh wait, it just hit me, why don't I run Weds, Fri, and Sun; bike Tues, Thurs, and Sat; swim Mon, Weds, Fri. There we go, see, writing it down really helps me work it out. That's it, I'll just switch up the schedule a little. That will give me Monday as a "rest" day after a big weekend. Okay, got it. Off to work now.

01 June 2006

May is in the books.

It's been quite a month for me. I started out in not so good a place. Managed to pull myself out of the hole I was in and take baby steps towards my fitness goals. Mothers Day came and went. I had to say goodbye to one of my favorite creatures. It's been a month, but it has ended with a bang and June has started with a vengeance.

Yesterday was swimming and running. I love the early sunrise, I seem to get much more done. So I hit the pool and did 500m (it is a recovery week) then hit the marsh trail for about 2.5 miles. It felt great. I felt great when I was done. Woo Hoo!!!!

Today it was weights and biking. I did legs and then a 6 mile ride. Okay, that wasn't the smartest thing I've done all week. But it was good. I really enjoyed it and felt completely awesome after.

So, since I completed all my workouts (except for the excused ones when Mana died) I am now due a bento box for my bike. I'm going to go on Amazon.com right now and order it. I'm so excited.

30 May 2006

Regrouping.

Okay, the last few days have not been great what with the whole thing with Mana and all, but this morning things are back on track.

Since the whole Mana episode, I haven't been hungry. Now this is huge for me. In the past when things got tough I'd head straight for the sweets. I'd eat till I was sick, really sick. This time I couldn't eat much. I had to force myself to eat meals because I had no energy. Anyway, that's very, very different for me.

It also threw off my training. Sunday I was too tired and emotionally exhausted to train and yesterday I just plain didn't feel like it. But I got up this morning and picked up right where I left off. Luckily I've moved into a recovery week so it won't be too tough this week. (So I've given myself a free pass for the 2 days of missed training. These were unusual circumstances and I've recovered nicely so they don't count against me :)

So this morning was a 6 mile bike ride. That's almost hardly worth getting the bike down for :) It was fun. I'm trying to add weights regularly so I get up early, do my weight training then go for a ride. It was a glorious morning and riding was a total blast.

That's all I have to say.

29 May 2006

Thank You!!!!

Thank you all for your kind words. Yesterday was hard , very hard, but it's slowly getting better.


Thank you to anyone who has been in the service of this country. THANK YOU!!!!!!

Today, Memorial Day, is the day to remember all those who have served this country and those who have made the ultimate sacrifice so we could barbacue and play games and take the day off work. I often wonder how many of the people I went through boot camp with are still around. Over the years we've lost touchs but I still remember them.

I'm not going to get political but one thing people must remember:

FREEDOM ISN'T FREE!!!!

28 May 2006

She's gone.


At approximately 7:45 this morning (just about 1 hour ago) Mana was put to sleep. She was 15 years old and just the best dog in the world.

We got her 15 years ago this past April, from the Hawaiian Humane Society. She was 12 weeks old when we adopted her so I always figured her birthday was in January.

We have no idea who or what her parents were. She was clearly a mix and smart as a whip. She was our first dog together. Hubby had dogs before and I had dogs before, she was our first one together.

When we got her she went everywhere with us, camping, hiking, swimming, you name it Mana was there. All our friends got used to the fact that Mana went everywhere with us.

When she was about 4 years old I found myself partially unemployed. I only worked about 2 days a week so this left a lot of time for playing. Me and a friend (who was also semi-employed) spent that summer hiking the trails all over Oahu with our dogs. Me with Mana and him with his weimariner. We had the best time and Mana loved it.

After that summer things began to change. I got busier and didn't get to go out as much with Mana. Soon we got another dog, then another, then another. When you have 4 dogs it's hard to just take 1 out, the others go crazy. So more and more Mana had to stay home with the other dogs.

All too soon she started getting older and slowing down. Walks with her began to be much slower and much shorter. I noticed her going deaf followed shortly by cataracts. In no time she was almost completely blind. She developed arthritis in her hips and this started to become an issue. Getting up and down was hard for her though not impossible, she just had to go slow.

The past 2 years I knew we were approaching the end, I just didn't know when it would be. She spent most of her time sleeping. Play was no longer an option for her. She still enjoyed being around us though and still loved her food. I figured as long as she could move and eat, that was fine with me.

Friday night was completely normal. She ate her dinner and then headed off to bed like she always does.

Saturday morning was normal too. She got up, did her business, had a morning biscuit and laid down for a nap.

Yesterday evening when we got home from seeing The DaVinci Code, we found her collapsed on the front lawn. She seemed to be tired and dehydrated. I got her up and walked her to the back where she sleeps. She was walking really, really slow. Every single step was a struggle. We got her into her bed, gave her some water and waited. I checked on her every 1/2 hour or so. She didn't seem to be getting any worse but she didn't seem to be getting any better. By the time I decided we should do something the vet was closed. I decided to give it until morning and see what happened. We all went to bed.

Around 2 a.m. Mana started moaning like she was in pain, real loud. I went to her and ended up spending the rest of the night laying with her. By the time the sun came up I knew this was the end. Her breathing was getting extremely labored. She could not move anything but her head and she was almost constantly moaning. Somewhere around dawn I decided it was time to end it.

When hubby got up for work I told him to say goodbye to Mana, this was it. When the vet opened at 7 a.m. I called and they said to bring her in. The vet looked her over said her breathing was rattly (the death rattle??) and her heart was beating irregularly. I had made the right decision. So, as I stood there cradling her head they gave her the injection and she crossed over the Rainbow Bridge. Mana, I am going to miss you.

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...