28 June 2008

What to do, what to do???

I couldn't get into the chiro yesterday since he's not open on Friday's - grrrr!!! I sure wish my medicare insurance covered chiros, I'd go a lot more often. My butt felt pretty good yesterday though. It was the end of the month and I was really busy so I was on my feet all day. I think that helped. Last night I iced it and took care with the way I slept so as not to aggravate it. It's feels okay this morning but now I face a decision. Do I bike to WW or not?? Normally biking doesn't bother it but I've never biked when it's been this bad. I want to get a workout in but I don't want to lay myself up for weeks. What to do........what to do........... I just don't know. I have about an hour to decide. Maybe I'll hop on my bike and see how it feels. I just don't know........

27 June 2008

MY BUTT HURTS!!!!

At some point in the middle of the night I woke with a pretty bad pain in my butt. I immediately realized it was my piriformis muscle which hadn't really bothered me in 4 years. I readjusted my sleeping position and hoped it would go away. No such luck. When the alarm went off this morning not only did my butt still hurt but the pain was radiating down my hamstring slightly. UGH!!! So all workouts were promptly cancelled and, as soon as I can, I'm calling my chiro to see if he can fix this.









The piriformis is a fairly tiny muscle but man it can sure cause a lot of pain. Also, I was told years ago that my sciatic nerve didn't run under the muscle like it's supposed to, it runs through the muscle. So when the sciatic nerve gets inflamed it can set off the piriformis and vice versa. Nice!!! Since both running and swimming aggravate it and since that's what I was supposed to do this morning, I stayed in bed :) No, actually I'm not very happy with not working out but I'm not going to kill myself either.

I had this about 4 years ago and it was incredibly painful at the time. Then we got a new mattress with a big, thick mattress topper and that seemed to help a lot. Apparently that wasn't it because now it's back :(

Anyway, that's the story of me and my butt. Hopefully I can get in to see Jesse today and get it fixed. I have a long bike ride tomorrow although biking doesn't seem to bother it for some weird reason. Oh well.....

26 June 2008

Another milestone

It's kind of funny how when things start to go right other things seem to kick in and go right. The Law of Attraction??? Hmmm....

This morning was a bike ride, 70 minutes. Again, I was going to go out on the road but I need to start by 5:15 and it's just starting to get light. I'm nervous in the dark so I hoped on the stationary bike. Did 2 - 30 minute programs. It was a good workout. While I ride I am reading a fantastic book that was written in the 70's and everyone smokes, everywhere. It's pretty funny. One of the characters is in the hospital and his visitor is smoking in his room. Right!! Also, there was a spectacular freeway crash and it involved a VW minibus filled with hippies. Brings back my misspent youth.

As I was getting dressed for work, I was looking for something to wear. I've said before, my workplace is very casual and I wear shorts to work. About 2 weeks ago I went to Old Navy (my favorite store) and bought some new shorts. I haven't worn them to work yet because 1) I work with chemicals and tend to destroy clothes (yeah, I will not miss that at all when I start teaching), and 2) I wasn't thrilled with the way they fit. They fit, just something felt a little off. So as I'm standing in front of my closet whining about having nothing to wear, I notice the shorts sitting there. I picked them up and thought to myself, 'I'm not going to like the fit' and tried them on. Lo and behold, they fit like they were made for me. Woo Hoo. They felt perfect!! Absolutely perfect!! I am wearing them now. I love when that happens. In fact, although I get hung up on the number on the scale, how my clothes feel on me is really way more important to me. Watching what you eat and working out regularly works. Who Knew???? I keep having these successes I'm going to need to stock up on ink pens to log everything :)

Okay, it's the end of the month so I expect to be swamped today. I'm off.

25 June 2008

I broke 1 minute!!!

I know I'm a slow swimmer but I've been working on changing that. I think a large part of the process is not necessarily looking at the time. When I swim fast I got all out but I haven't been timing myself. I've felt like I've been getting faster but since I don't time I don't know. If I time every lap I get too caught up in the numbers and too bummed out by how slow I am. So I don't, I just swim and I've been doing really well.

Well this morning, for some unknown reason, I decided to time my 50 m. The first set I did; 55, 59, 1:04, 1:04. I was so excited I was ready to scream!!! That is the first time I have ever broke 1 minute swimming a 50. The next set of 4-50's I went a little slower; 1:08, 1:08, 1:09, 1:07. That first set I was sucking wind and could not catch my breath between sets. I decided to go just a little slower and not kill myself :) I just went back through my archives and found that I had been doing 50 m under 1:00 with fins!! Hello! Fins!!Holy Crap, I have made some huge improvements. I rock!!

So that's it. I have nothing more to say. I did my swim, I'm happy and I probably should get to work. Today I have to get my application to grad school done. It can all be done online, which is very cool. It's almost as easy as booking some las vegas hotels :)

24 June 2008

Synapses firing, connnections made

It truly amazes me sometimes how dense I can be. I make a connection between two things and I have to make that connection over and over and over in order for it to really stick. Usually it takes 2 or 3 times. I will get the initial ah-ha!! Then the next time it will be a, oh, right!! Then, usually the final time, it will be a huge, DOH!!!! That was me this morning, DOH!!!

Friday I didn't workout because of my test. 1 day missed. Saturday I got into my mouse cleaning frenzy and didn't workout. 2 days missed. Sunday I wanted to finish the house so I didn't workout. 3 days missed. Yesterday was my regularly scheduled rest day. 4 days missed. The problem was that by yesterday I felt like the Pillsbury Doughboy, all soft and squishy. I really did feel pretty bad. My eating was good but I still felt like crap. It felt like nothing was digesting. Weird, I know. So I'm reviewing in my head things I've eaten and trying to figure out why I'm feeling so crappy. Then it hits me - DOH!!! I haven't worked out in 4 days. Yes, I've done things. But I have not had a heart pounding, sweat pouring, gasping for breath workout in 4 days. So I got up this morning and did a heart pounding, sweat pouring, gasping for breath workout. It was awesome. 50 minutes of hard intervals on the bike and then a 30 minute run. Fantastic.

As I'm running I'm reveling in how good it feels to workout hard. I love pushing myself and I like the way my body feels when I do. I'm thinking how I hate that Pillsbury Doughboy feeling. I'm thinking how when I feel like that I don't feel like eating right or working out. It makes me feel fat and lazy and it's hard to get going again when you feel that way. That's when it hit me - DOH!! It's hard to get going when you feel that way. I used to feel that way all the time. The bad feelings create an environment for continued bad habits. While the good feelings from exercise and eating right create an environment for continued good habits. Of course!! I knew this. I've learned it a hundred times in the past 10 years, but there it was like something brand new again today. My lesson for today?? I have to do some workout every day in order to feel the way I enjoy feeling. DOH!!!

22 June 2008

I got a lot done this weekend

and none of it was training related :) I'm thinking I finally got the moving bug. I have a lot of stuff that need to be gone through if we are moving back to the mainland. I have a year but I think it's begun already.

In the computer/birdie room I had a very large desk, 6 shelf bookcase, dresser, extremely large bird cage, 2-drawer file cabinet, smaller parrot cage, and lots of training gear. After my weekend I now have a very large desk, 2-drawer file cabinet, extremely large parrot cage, smaller parrot cage, 7-drawer plastic stand. Everything else is gone and there is so much room in here it's awesome. And I've caught 2 mice in my Rat Zapper. All Hail the Rat Zapper!!!!

Then today I also tackled the living room. Our living room is kind of small. We had a small couch, coffee table, 4-shelf bookcase and TV on a stand. That's it. Well, over the past year or so the dogs have gotten stiffer and stiffer and their beds have gotten larger and fluffier. I finally realized that the only reason the coffee table is there is to collect my various magazines. Since I've cancelled all but 1 subscription, I no longer need that big table. So out it went. There is now room for both large dog beds and too walk around the living room. Who knew???

I am very pleased. I've got a ton of stuff together for a garage sale that we will have in the not too distant future. I got rid of some junk. I'm very happy with my work this weekend.
Tomorrow morning it's back to our regularly scheduled working out.

In other news, I was down .2 lbs at my weigh-in yesterday. That was actually pretty good. When I got up yesterday I felt kind of bloated so I wasn't expected a loss. I was pleased.

The bad part to all this work this weekend is that I didn't track my food. My eating got thrown off when I took the test on Friday and it's been a little screwy all weekend. I haven't recorded anything and so many things I ate on the run so I'm not sure I could remember everything. The good part is that I think I ate pretty well as I wasn't full or stuffed at any time. I think I'm good. Starting tomorrow it's on again.

I think that's it. I'm off to fold laundry and head off to bed. I'm tired.

Sunday morning....

Okay, I got some good sleep last night. I was so exhausted and there was no crying baby!! This morning though I still did not want to get up. I eventually did cause the birds were screaming for breakfast - spoiled birds :). I have a whole bunch more cleaning/rearranging to do today, so I should get moving.

I've put that video up at top for awhile because it inspires me right now. It'll wear off and I'll get bored and remove it, but for now it's there. At least you have to hit play to hear it, it does not come on automatically, that pisses me off.

Okay, I'm off to get things done around here.

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...