24 June 2006

Whew, what a day....

I have had just a great day.

It started with my bike ride to WW. My first ride with my bike shoes. I was so nervous but they turned out to be great. Why didn't someone tell me???? I discovered a couple of things during this ride.
  • I had apparently been holding my foot in some weird way. After every ride my right knee would bother me just a bit. Not today. It felt perfect after my ride.
  • My lower back didn't hurt at all. After a long ride my lower back starts to ache. Not today.
  • I rode faster. It usually takes me about 45 minutes to get to WW. Not today. I took me 35 minutes. Woo Hoo!!!!
  • It was totally fun!!!!

Okay, I did fall once and it was completely embarrassing but not very painful. Trying to get out of the way of a pick-up backing up I ended up going really slow and decided I needed to put my foot down and stop. Good idea, accept I tried to just put my foot down. Probably want to unclip first. It was very interesting because there was one clear moment when I realized, I'm going down, and there was nothing I could do to stop it. I ended up on the ground laughing while the poor guy in the pick-up thought he hit me. So I've fallen and lived through it, hopefully I'll be less worried about it from here on out.

My bike ride ended up being 18 miles in 1:53. Now, I need to explain that. I was cruising through an area looking at houses for sale. Yes, we've decided to break down and buy a house. This is not something I really want to do, but it's become a financial must. So I've begun the hunt.

After my bike ride, I ended up at the Racquet Club. Hubby was working so I hung around the pool reading waiting for him. I tried to swim in the pool but it's like 10 feet long; 4 strokes and I was at the end. In 3 minutes I did 6 laps. It was too weird. So I read my book.

Once hubby was done we headed over the hill so I could go to work. A half hour there and we were heading back to our usual Ruby Tuesday's Saturday lunch.

We then cruised the mall and picked up a couple of knick knacks for the house. Then it was home, load up the dogs and off to the beach.

Whew, I'm tired. It was a good day. I'm going to have dinner and head to bed early. I plan on getting up early tomorrow to run. After about 7:30 it's too hot to run so I'd like to be done by then.

Hope everyone is having a great weekend.

22 June 2006

A week in the life.......

It has been a week. It all started on Sunday when I got the brilliant idea to jump rope while weight training. Monday my calves were sore. By Tuesday I could hardly walk. Whenever I stood up from sitting my calves had like frozen. I would walk all stiff legged until they loosened up. Yesterday was better but they were still sore. Today is even better but they are still a little sore. So jumping rope is something you have to start really slowly with. I was doing 2 sets of each exercise with a 90 second break between sets. On the 90 second breaks I jumped. Do the math; 8 exercises, 2 sets, equals 24 minutes of jumping. Add to that a 5 minute warm up and I jumped for 29 minutes. Yeah, that may have been a little too much.

Then, because it's that time again, I have felt like a bloated whale all week. I have been eating sligthly more than normal (that's typical though) but I feel like I weigh 400 lbs. So with that feeling and hardly being able to walk, it has NOT been a good week.

The good thing is, today is much better and tomorrow I'm going to workout in the morning.

I probably could have gone swimming with my calves but pointing my toes (which I do when I swim) can lead to cramps and that would be bad in the pool.

I probably could have ridden my bike also. But I changed the pedals and would have to wear my bike shoes. Since I am scared to death of riding in those shoes, and totally freaked out about getting unclipped in time, I decided I needed fully functional legs for my first ride.

It's funny how these seemingly random events occur and conspire to make me take a week off. I wonder if the universe is trying to tell me something, hmmmm???

20 June 2006

We really thought it was a he.....

I came home tonight and went to play with the bird like usual, and this is what I found:















He She was just playing with it like it wasn't a big deal.






I guess that explains why he she has been acting so weird for the last few days. Who knew?????
Okay, this is going to take some adjustment.

New bike shoes!!!

Well, I've done it. I've gone and gotten bike shoes. They arrived yesterday and last night I put my pedals on my bike and the cleats on the shoes. I'll have to work on the placement of the cleats but it's official. I have bike shoes.

My plan was to ride this morning but I woke up and my calves are so incredibly sore I decided a day of rest was in order.

My eye is much better this morning. I did scratch it and the offending item was still in there continuing to scratch away. The Dr. removed it and by yesterday afternoon was feeling much, much better. Because of the scratch though, I had to wear my glasses not my contacts. If you wear contacts you know how lazy your eyes get. When I wear my glasses for any extended period my eyes get really tired. So by 8 last night my eyes were exhausted. I was in bed by 9 and then sleeping in this morning, I feel pretty darn good. I'm going to try my contacts today and see how they feel. I'll bring my glasses in case they start to bother me.

I probably should feed the dogs and go get ready for work. Just because I'm not training doesn't mean I can sit around all morning.

19 June 2006

Among the missing.

Seems like a lot of bloggers are that. I'm guessing that with the nice weather people are out doing things instead of sitting inside in front of their computers. That's what I've been doing.

I've reached that point in my month where I have no real energy. I want to do things I'm just tired. So I've scaled back training a little and am taking it easy. It's already starting to pass so that's good.

Friday was my rest day so I slept in and it was sweet. Saturday turned out to be kind of busy and I ended up not getting any training in. Sunday I did not feel like running or biking so I decided to do weights. I had picked up a jumprope at the store and put together a little bootcamp for myself. I jumped for 5 minutes to warm up, then I did my weights and jumped on the recovery periods. It was fun but it was hard!!! Today my calves are killing me. I feel like I'm walking funny. But it was definitely fun. When I get into these low energy periods, one thing I've discovered is something new will keep me moving.

This morning was swimming. It was raining and I was so thankful that I didn't have to run or bike :) So today was my long swim and I decided to do 800 meters at a moderate pace. It took me 21:43. Now my goal for my tri in one month is 850 in 20 minutes. I think with some focused work I will be able to pull this off, Yes!!!!

I also am trying to work on my rolling. When I roll to the side I tend to sink. None of the TI drills address this well so I made up my own little drill. I stretch out my arm and balance on that side and kick down the lane. By staying on my side with my arm out (like during a stroke) I'm able to work on my balance on the side. This morning I found that if I put my head against my arm and pushed down just a little I was able to balance fairly well. So I did about 6 laps going down on my left side and returning on my right. It was going pretty well, now I have to incorporate that into my stroke. Overall a good morning.

I have to go call the doctor, I think I scratched my eye. Last night while I was doing dishes I suddenly got this pain in my right eye. It bothered me the rest of the night and when I got up this morning. Everytime I blink (which I do way more than I thought) it feels scratchy and it's driving me crazy. So I'm off.

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...