02 February 2007

A very good day.

First, let me introduce the newest member of the family. This is a female Moluccan Cockatoo named Frodo (that name has to go). We moved her in last night and she is still not sure about all this. I know it will take a few weeks for her to adjust so we all just have to be patient.

She is 10 years old and has a very extensive vocabulary. Her cage is taller than I am. When she sits on the upper perch there is no way I can reach her.

But she's a very sweet girl and once she adjusts to us, and us to her, life will be great for her. I've been toying with the name Lady Bird. She calls herself birdie bird and pretty bird. It's a thought.


So after a very busy evening getting the bird and her huge cage into my tiny house, this morning started very early. I got up for my Friday swimming, got my act together and headed out the door. First I hit the treadmills for my HIIT. I was so freaking excited, I did it again. My recovery running was at 5 mph (for me, that's fast for recovery). My intervals were awesome. For my first interval I started at 6.1 mph, that put me at just under 10 min/miles. Second interval was 6.2 mph. Third interval was 6.3, that's puts me right around 9:30 min/miles. My fourth interval was at an unprecedented 6.5 mph, that's just over 9 min/mile. I have never, ever, in my life run that fast (yeah, that's a lie. I was the best sprinter in my jr high, but you know what I mean :). I was so freaking excited!!! I not only ran faster than I ever have, but I added a 4th interval and didn't drop dead on the spot. Woo Hoo!!!! This really makes me think that I might just be able to complete a 4 1/2 hour marathon. Oh god, did I say that out loud??? That's my super secret dream marathon time.

Okay, that's all I got tonight. It's Friday, I'm tired and the bird is sleeping on the perch making me even more tired. Have a good weekend all.

01 February 2007

New month, new start.

I may have mentioned how I like new beginnings, no?? Well, this one comes at the most perfect time. Rocco had his surgery yesterday, so basically that crisis is over. I had my total food meltdown last night, so basically that's over. And I've missed my last workout. Today is not only a new day, but a new month, and a new start.

I read on Flatman's blog how he plans to run everyday in February. I've decided to steal that concept. Actually, not only steal it but take it further, but wait, I'm getting ahead of myself.

I need to work on my running so I will run everyday in February. Well, that's not totally true Since I have no cartilage in my right knee, running everyday is not the brightest idea. So, I will run 4 days a week and elliptical 3 days a week. I'm excited about that. They will be mostly shorter runs of 20-30 minutes with longer 1 hour+ runs on Sunday. The elliptical workouts will be 30ish minutes. Okay, that's my February challenge to myself.

To take this further, I'm going to make March a swim everyday month and April a bike everyday month. Again, since I'll be doing it everyday they will be shorter, more focused workouts with a longer one every week. I like that.

For February I'm also switching up my swimming and weight training. I'm going to do shorter swims that are much more focused. I want to work on form and speed and each work out will have a specific, narrow focus to it.

For my weight training, I've been following basically the same program for about 6 weeks. I think it's time for a change. I have another program that I started this morning. It's shorter, more intense, more compound moves to cover more muscles.Again, shorter more focused workouts. Wow, I seem to see a theme developing here, hmmmmm.......

Unfortunately, I won't be getting a lot of biking in. Until it starts getting lighter in the morning I'll only be biking on Saturdays and some trainer work during the week while watching TV. On the bike front, I've managed to squirrel away some money for my bike. I was thinking that if they still have that 2005 model they will probably have it for another month or so. If all goes well, I will get it towards the end of March. I'm of course talking about the Kestrel.

January was a pretty darn good month workout wise. I got in all but 1 of my weight training workouts. I missed only 2 swims and 2 runs. I'm very pleased with myself but February will be even better.

My eating the past 2 weeks has not been so good. Starting today I am back on my clean eating, 5 times a day, and getting the macro nutrients right. I feel so good when I eat right and work out so I need to get back to it.

So that's it, my plan for February. I just had a thought, if I paid myself for every mile I run/elliptical this month I would definitely get my workouts in because I want that money for my bike. Hmmm..... This has possibilities, let me dwell on it a little more.

31 January 2007

What exactly have I done now?????

This covers a couple of things.

First, I have been very, very tired the last couple of days. It's either a) relief from the Rocco thing; b)PMS; or c) pure unadulterated laziness. I actually believe it's a combo of a and b.

Second, because of the first thing I have not been working out as much as I would like.

Third, I was soooooo craving pizza tonight that we ordered Pizza Hut for dinner. Now this is odd on many, many levels. A) hubby HATES pizza so we have it once every 5 years. B) we NEVER order delivery because well, Pizza Hut stinks and the really good places don't deliver. C) I've been eating really well and the pizza was not within my daily calorie allotment. Nor were the breadsticks. Or the cinnamon sticks. Or that icing - yum!!!!

Fourth, and this is the biggie, I may just be the new owner of one of these:

Not this one, this is my bosses. But a friend of hers got one about 5 years ago. They are having marital problems and the bird is only making things worse. In a moment of weakness I said I would take the bird off their hands if they wanted. This poor bird went through a divorce in it's first home and ended up relegated to the garage. These folks purchased her and now, 5 years later, they are having problems and the poor bird is taking the brunt of it.

So they asked if I could pick the bird up today but today was Rocco's surgery so it was not a good day. I will probably pick her up tomorrow or Friday. Now, I just need a good name for her. Her current name is Frodo but they don't call her that so I think it would be fairly easy to change it, I just have to be creative. So yeah, I did that.......

Rocco is home from the hospital. He's all dopey and just laying around outside while the guys play poker. The vet said the surgery went very, very well. They've sent the tumor off for biopsy and we'll know exactly what it was in about 5 days. Hopefully they got it all and the edges are clean so it can't spread. He also had a fatty lump right above his penis that I had them remove since he was under. This way that one can't turn into a mast cell tumor in 2 months and he has to have another surgery. So the poor boy has 2 incisions, one at each end of his body, poor baby.

Okay, that's it. I want to do a month-end wrap up but not tonight. I'll do it tomorrow when I hopefully won't be so tired.

29 January 2007

Latest Rocco update.

So after I updated Saturday's post about the surgery being scheduled for Friday, I thought - wait, did I schedule it or not??? I also had a couple more questions for the vet. So I called the vet and left a message for him to call me back. I didn't hear from him.

Sunday morning I called and left a message asking the vet to call me. Not a word all day Sunday. Okay, now I'm starting to get mad. Oh yeah, the girl checked and the surgery wasn't scheduled. Now I'm pissed.

This morning I called and read the receptionist the riot act. I told her that I NEEDED to talk to the vet and he wasn't calling me back and if he didn't want to talk to me fine, just let me know. I was really, really ticked off. The receptionist called me back not 10 minutes later to tell me what the vet had said. Okay, that was it, I was livid. He can't even call me back!!! He has the receptionist do it!!!! Oh, yeah, I'm pissed.

I got the estimate, $1200, and scheduled the surgery, Wednesday. But after I thought about it a few minutes I said, screw that.

I called Rocco's old vet and made an appointment this afternoon. I just got back. I told her what had happened at VCA and she didn't seem surprised. Anyway, she examined Rocco and we are having the surgery on Wednesday. It will be $500 cheaper than VCA and I like this vet much, much better.


Small rant: (carefully totally unfounded thoughts and opinions ahead)
15 years ago we used to take our dogs to this vet that was close to our house. I totally loved this guy. He was older and had an old fashioned way of taking care of animals. Mana got a bladder infection once and he said, 'I don't want to give her any drugs. Leave her outside so she can pee whenever she needs to.' We did that for a week and the infection cleared up. Totally amazing. Anyway, this guy decided to retire so he sold out to VCA. I hated them from the first visit. For years I floated around from vet to vet because I could not find one I really liked. Then about 8 years ago I hear that this very same vet has opened a new clinic on the other side of the island. I started going to him and still loved him. His practice got bigger and bigger and you will not believe what happened!! That's right, last year he decided to retire and sold out to VCA - AGAIN!!!! Since I absolutely HATE VCA I figured I'm not driving across the island to go somewhere I hate, I'll go to the closer VCA. The problem is I HATE THEM!!! I always have hated them and I always will. I heard years ago that the doctors work on commission. I don't know if that's true but it sure seems that way. Anyway, I HATE VCA and I will NEVER, EVER go there again. I won't take my dog there to die!!!!!!! Rant over.

We interrupt this broadcast to bring you some breaking news: They arrested my drug dealing neighbors!!!!!! They conducted the bust at 6:15 this morning. They arrested 6 people and found crystal meth!!!!

Okay, now I'm pissed off and let me tell you why. Hubby and I were home all last week. Everyday we were here at 6:15. But could they bust them last week, NOOOOOOO, they had to wait till today, when we were gone by 5:45. This is so not fair!!!!! But I'm thankful they got busted. Finally, it's over. Yeah!!

This guy was scum. He beat his wife to death in 1987 and he beat a girlfriend. And here I was playing my music loud and trying to piss him off, good move!!

So yeah, I left early cause I went swimming. Oh, right, okay I have my train of thought back. I do his interval training called HIIT (high intensity interval training). Basically it's a 5 minute warm-up, then (1 minute fast, 2 minute recovery) 4 times, and 5 minute cool down. So I vary the machines I use but Monday is the treadmill. I hop on and I'm cruising at 4.5 mph for the warm-up. Now normally that's a little fast for me, but this morning I felt good. So for my 1 minute sprints I was cranking it up to like 6 mph and that wasn't feeling that fast. So for my final sprint I cranked it up to 6.5, I broke that 10 min/mile barrier that's haunted me for years. I could not believe what I was seeing, luckily the treadmill gives mph and pace so I had verification from 2 sources. I was so incredibly stoked!!!! It really felt awesome, not that fast at all. Maybe someday I will be a semi-decent runner :)

The swim was nice too. I was working on form so nothing too exciting. It's really windy here though and the pool was full of leaves. It was kind of like swimming in the ocean.

So overall it was a good day. My neighbors are gone. Rocco is taken care of. I broke 10 min/mile. Life is sweet!!!

28 January 2007

Why???

I use Bloglines to keep up on the blogs I read and overall I'm very happy with it. Sometimes a post doesn't show up or the same post keeps showing up but other than that it's pretty cool.

For the last few days though it's been weirding out. It keeps showing that someone will have 25 new posts and I'll go and look and they are from a year ago. This has happened repeatedly on a number of different blogs. I wonder what's up.

After the last few days with Rocco, I decided I needed to get my butt back in gear. The best way for me to handle things is to keep training, that makes me strong mentally too. So I decided to do the weight workout I missed yesterday. Umm, yeah, not so much. Apparently a week of eating out and 3 days of junk food and little to no water is not conducive to good exercise.

My Saturday workout is a little bootcampish. I will work a muscle group, say shoulders, then do 1 minute of hard cardio, work another muscle group, another minute of hard cardio. You get the idea. Well, every cardio segment sent my HR through the roof. I was having trouble catching my breath and it was taking me an extra long time to recover. About 1/2 way through I was absolutely dripping with sweat, panting like a dog, and bone tired. So I stopped. Who knew that Fritos and salsa and candy bars for dinner would make working out so hard????

I'm guessing a day of good eating, good hydrating, and moderate work is in order. So that's what I'm doing today. I already cleaned house, I'm working on the laundry and I'm carrying around a 50 oz Jamba Juice cup filled with water. I will drink 2 of these today. This should make tomorrow a much better workout.

Okay, that's it for me. I need to clean up this office a little. I have crap spread all over the place.

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...