Ok, dramatic title I realize, however I do find that if it hurts, screaming does help. It helps far more than complaining or crying. Try it! I especially like the "HELL YES!" when I'm out running and I've pushed every last bit of energy out of me during a sprint. Maybe that's why I liked Molly's bootcamp.
Today we're doing a nice gentle warm-up run, drills along the river and a cool-down run. I've found that using Youtube for inspiration is great. Why try to come up with drills that other people have already worked so hard to develop.
Today we'll do (and Keeler doesn't know this yet, unless she reads my blog):
1. High knee - grapevines left (a variation on the basic grapevine, video calls it a Karaoke drill)
2. High knee - grapevines right
3. Skipping - high enough to slap hands under the knee
4. Butt kickers - this time with our legs parallel to the ground instead of vertical
5. Quick feet - a forward and lateral movement
6. Russian Dance - legs straight
We'll do three sets of these drills across approximately 50 yards. If we're really feeling it, we'll do four sets or go a longer distance.
These drills came from the following Youtube video. There are two drills that we won't be doing because I don't think my knees can take it.
After our running drills, I'll head home drink a bunch of water and do my next set of P90X workouts: Chest & Back and the Ab Ripper. Sounds fun doesn't it? With running it works out to be about 2-2.5 hrs of training for the day. But it feels damn good. I will probably yell a bit during drills and definitely during P90X. Sometimes, when appropriate I'll yell directly at Molly calling her names like bitch, whore, bastard and asshole. Sometimes it helps to call someone else names to make yourself feel better. I have to be careful though. One of these days she might punch me. Ah friendship.
7:14PM Update
I was very ambitious when I posted this morning. I was mid-coffee, wide awake and full of great energy. At 5pm, when Keeler and I met, we both had about 1/4 tank left of gas. We did each of the drills listed above for about 50 meters each, but only twice through and then stumbled back to our cars. These were tough drills yes, but we were just sad. She hadn't read the blog and I laughed when she called ME an asshole. HA! Yelling at someone totally helps. It was humid as hell too. Its been nice and warm and we had a spot of rain, but the time we hit the trail it was just hot and thick outside. But, we did it. Towards the end my form was so bad that I knew that if I did any more drills I would hurt myself. Good lesson is that if you're flailing, maybe you should stop while you still have a head. We'll do this set again, hopefully with full tanks and with better attitudes. Damn it.
Apr 14, 2010
Apr 12, 2010
Spoon Me!
I love running in Minneapolis. Molly and I commented Monday that you could run everyday for a year, never do the same route twice, and that includes nothing but parks, beautiful trails, lakes and even a sculpture garden!
We started and ended our run at the Walker Art Center Sculpture Garden. Per usual, we headed out without really knowing where we were headed, and yes Uncle Robert, I am now carrying my health insurance card. The run was great. The air was warm, everyone e
lse in the city was at the Twins season opener at the new stadium, so we had the trail to ourselves. We wondered around until we found ourselves on the Greenway trail and then back again to the art center where we finished with a few sprints. Phew!
Once I got home I continued with my Week One schedule of P90X. What's that you say? Well, I decided that running, biking and swimming six days a week wasn't quite enough, so I've added a strength training program. In fact Pete and I are both doing it. We have also taken before pictures... you'll have to wait for the after pictures to see them side by side.
P90X has been talked about for a while and I've heard far too many people say how great it is. Since we don't have cable and I'm not up late enough for info-mercials, I could have very easily missed out on this. However, too many people from all corners of my life kept mentioning it. People who never work out, or people who have always worked out but wanted to see better results were singing its praises. I needed something more than bicep curls and tricep dips as a strength training program. So Molly (also an endorser) loaned me this discs. Day 1 included a Chest & Back disc along with an Ab disc. I cannot remember the last time I swore so much during a workout. It kicked ass! I didn't have to do any thinking, I just had to follow the instructions. Whats more, you can tailor it to your individual workout plan and strength level. P90X does have their own cardio exercises which I am not doing. Because six days a week of swimming, biking and running is enough I think.
In reality, I haven't added that much to my usual routine. Its something that I've needed to add for a while. Strength training along side any cardio is so important and I'm hoping that it will help me to burn off some of the added fat and boost my metabolism. I feel great and I look forward to the way the program mixes up the routines. Its a 90-day program and I do plan on taking some more pictures so that I can see my progress, but I won't be sharing those for a while... so you'll have to wait.
Tonight I'm looking forward to some relaxation at the gym - stretching, some leg work and maybe even a steam!
We started and ended our run at the Walker Art Center Sculpture Garden. Per usual, we headed out without really knowing where we were headed, and yes Uncle Robert, I am now carrying my health insurance card. The run was great. The air was warm, everyone e
lse in the city was at the Twins season opener at the new stadium, so we had the trail to ourselves. We wondered around until we found ourselves on the Greenway trail and then back again to the art center where we finished with a few sprints. Phew!Once I got home I continued with my Week One schedule of P90X. What's that you say? Well, I decided that running, biking and swimming six days a week wasn't quite enough, so I've added a strength training program. In fact Pete and I are both doing it. We have also taken before pictures... you'll have to wait for the after pictures to see them side by side.
P90X has been talked about for a while and I've heard far too many people say how great it is. Since we don't have cable and I'm not up late enough for info-mercials, I could have very easily missed out on this. However, too many people from all corners of my life kept mentioning it. People who never work out, or people who have always worked out but wanted to see better results were singing its praises. I needed something more than bicep curls and tricep dips as a strength training program. So Molly (also an endorser) loaned me this discs. Day 1 included a Chest & Back disc along with an Ab disc. I cannot remember the last time I swore so much during a workout. It kicked ass! I didn't have to do any thinking, I just had to follow the instructions. Whats more, you can tailor it to your individual workout plan and strength level. P90X does have their own cardio exercises which I am not doing. Because six days a week of swimming, biking and running is enough I think.
In reality, I haven't added that much to my usual routine. Its something that I've needed to add for a while. Strength training along side any cardio is so important and I'm hoping that it will help me to burn off some of the added fat and boost my metabolism. I feel great and I look forward to the way the program mixes up the routines. Its a 90-day program and I do plan on taking some more pictures so that I can see my progress, but I won't be sharing those for a while... so you'll have to wait.
Tonight I'm looking forward to some relaxation at the gym - stretching, some leg work and maybe even a steam!
Coach Pete Must Win!
My man Pete needs to win the Fashion Forward Your Man contest. Please vote for him here! If you'll notice, his picture is real, not staged and every word true!
http://iwannagetphysical.blogspot.com/2010/04/vote-for-best-fashion-forward-your.html
http://iwannagetphysical.blogspot.com/2010/04/vote-for-best-fashion-forward-your.html
Apr 9, 2010
Additional Fees
There is nothing more frustrating than "processing" charges. When I wanted to remove a dual membership from the Y, they charged me $25. For what? Remove the other name from my account. Here, hand me your computer and I'll do it for free!
In February I signed up for the Iron Girl Duathlon. I did it through their website to save on printing a piece of paper, using and envelope, finding a stamp and walking to the nearest mail box. You know what I got in return? A $59.95 charge a month later. There was a hidden Trial Membership charge. I say "hidden" because I have since gone through all of my documentation from registering and cannot find any mention of that charge in the fine print. The fine print was probably on the page where I purchased the event registration and once I hit submit it was never to be seen again. Luckily I do look at my credit card bill - in detail, and when I saw this charge I was floored. It also didn't show up as the same vendor as the original Iron Girl registration purchase (insert expletive here).
The good news is that I was able to call Active.com (the organization that handles the processing and thus charged me a membership fee) and the charge was fully refunded - with no questions asked. I didn't even have to talk to someone's supervisor.
I am very good at reading the fine print, which is why this pissed me off even more. Sometimes you cannot avoid additional charges, like at the Y for example. But don't let yourself get bullied into paying for crap that, well, is crap.
Should this happen to you the phone number to call for Active.com is 877-228-4881.
Thank you and have a nice day.
In February I signed up for the Iron Girl Duathlon. I did it through their website to save on printing a piece of paper, using and envelope, finding a stamp and walking to the nearest mail box. You know what I got in return? A $59.95 charge a month later. There was a hidden Trial Membership charge. I say "hidden" because I have since gone through all of my documentation from registering and cannot find any mention of that charge in the fine print. The fine print was probably on the page where I purchased the event registration and once I hit submit it was never to be seen again. Luckily I do look at my credit card bill - in detail, and when I saw this charge I was floored. It also didn't show up as the same vendor as the original Iron Girl registration purchase (insert expletive here).
The good news is that I was able to call Active.com (the organization that handles the processing and thus charged me a membership fee) and the charge was fully refunded - with no questions asked. I didn't even have to talk to someone's supervisor.
I am very good at reading the fine print, which is why this pissed me off even more. Sometimes you cannot avoid additional charges, like at the Y for example. But don't let yourself get bullied into paying for crap that, well, is crap.
Should this happen to you the phone number to call for Active.com is 877-228-4881.
Thank you and have a nice day.
Apr 8, 2010
Food for Thought
I go on and on about the activities of my day, but what I don't talk about is what I'm eating. And I love to eat. Most importantly, diet and exercise go hand in hand.
You cannot lose weight if you don't eat well and exercise. Now when I say diet I don't mean being on a diet, I mean choosing healthy foods that will fuel you throughout the day and make you healthier. A nice side effect is that you will also be happier. These are the kinds of foods that you don't just eat for a certain period of time and t
hen go back to tater tot hot dish . Diet is not cutting out all carbs and expecting to lose weight and be healthy. Having a healthy diet is about balance and good choices, choices that will last a lifetime. Balancing both food and activity.
"a healthy relationship with food"
Among one of Molly's great talents is looking at food very differently than most people. She actually has a healthy relationship with food. When she finds something amazingly yummy to eat, I get to hear all about it. Like the time she made her own tabouli, I thought she was going to burst from excitement. She doesn't claim to be a master chef, and readily gives credit to Mike, her husband, for doing the majority of the cooking. But what she does do well is find ways to make food tasty and healthy. I've learned a lot about what I should be eating from her. I'm not perfect, but I'm much smarter when it comes to the foods that I choose.
One of my favorite snacks that she's come up with is a salmon salad:
Molly has a great blog about nutrition that you should check out. Since she's a busy gal, she updates it when she can. There are a lot of healthy and helpful suggestions and you can ask her just about anything and she will respond. She's also great at coming up with creative and tasty substitutions.
http://mollykeeler.com
My personal tips:
How did I start? I began eating a small bowl of oatmeal (plain) every morning. Only a 1/4 cup it actually filled me up and it took no time to eat. Some people like to eat a hard boiled egg before they leave the house in the morning, its easy fast and there's virtually no cleanup.
I'm going to blog about food again because its important. Feel free to share your tips or favorite recipes in the comments section!
You cannot lose weight if you don't eat well and exercise. Now when I say diet I don't mean being on a diet, I mean choosing healthy foods that will fuel you throughout the day and make you healthier. A nice side effect is that you will also be happier. These are the kinds of foods that you don't just eat for a certain period of time and t
hen go back to tater tot hot dish . Diet is not cutting out all carbs and expecting to lose weight and be healthy. Having a healthy diet is about balance and good choices, choices that will last a lifetime. Balancing both food and activity."a healthy relationship with food"
Among one of Molly's great talents is looking at food very differently than most people. She actually has a healthy relationship with food. When she finds something amazingly yummy to eat, I get to hear all about it. Like the time she made her own tabouli, I thought she was going to burst from excitement. She doesn't claim to be a master chef, and readily gives credit to Mike, her husband, for doing the majority of the cooking. But what she does do well is find ways to make food tasty and healthy. I've learned a lot about what I should be eating from her. I'm not perfect, but I'm much smarter when it comes to the foods that I choose.
One of my favorite snacks that she's come up with is a salmon salad:
- 3oz can of salmon
- 1/2 cup wild or brown rice (or quinoa)
- 2 plum tomatoes
- 1 or 2 chopped basil leaves
- 1 oz mozzarella
- 2tbls balsamic vinaigrette
Molly has a great blog about nutrition that you should check out. Since she's a busy gal, she updates it when she can. There are a lot of healthy and helpful suggestions and you can ask her just about anything and she will respond. She's also great at coming up with creative and tasty substitutions.
http://mollykeeler.com
My personal tips:
- Bring a piece of fruit to work with you and put it on your desk - you're more likely to eat it that way.
- Have a (sports) bottle of water with you at all times. Bring it with you where ever you can. I walk around work with mine. I have it in the car. I always have water with me - and I'm drinking it.
- For office-bound folks, keep a snack drawer of healthy foods: almonds, apricots, nuts, etc.
- Eat more superfoods. I've blogged about superfoods before and I think Pete wants to punch me every time I say that word. Superfoods include: blueberries, broccoli, beans, oats, and more.
How did I start? I began eating a small bowl of oatmeal (plain) every morning. Only a 1/4 cup it actually filled me up and it took no time to eat. Some people like to eat a hard boiled egg before they leave the house in the morning, its easy fast and there's virtually no cleanup.
I'm going to blog about food again because its important. Feel free to share your tips or favorite recipes in the comments section!
Apr 6, 2010
So you think your hot huh?
I have a philosophy about training that I don't think I've shared. If you are out there training and are trying to look beautiful, good for you. If you're out there trying to get stronger, run faster and don't care how you look ... then you're HOT!
Molly is like my Phoebe, or I'm like Molly's Phoebe. We are good at reminding each other why we're out there doing what we're doing. Its taken me several years to like running and Molly is a big part of that.
Yesterday we headed north along the river and ran drills (Marie's drills, as I like to call them). No one looks pretty doing drills, its impossible. But these are a great way to get stronger and faster.
After a bit of a warm up run we did the following drills over a 50+ meter distance:
1. Skip like a girl (super high skipping)
2. Butt kickers (barely running, kicking your heel to your butt)
3. Knee slappers (high knees that slap your hands)
4. Grapevines Left (running sideways interweaving your legs)
5. Grapevines Right (other side)
6. Long lunges (long steps forward, knee over ankle - lunges)
We'd do the drill 50 meters down, jog back to the starting point and then start the next drill. After completing all five, we repeated it two more times. None of which were pretty. Best part though? Boy, I can feel it today. My quads, gluts and even my abs are sore! I've done drills alone, on the track at the gym even - and people look at me like I'm crazy and just that makes me smile.
Molly is like my Phoebe, or I'm like Molly's Phoebe. We are good at reminding each other why we're out there doing what we're doing. Its taken me several years to like running and Molly is a big part of that.
Yesterday we headed north along the river and ran drills (Marie's drills, as I like to call them). No one looks pretty doing drills, its impossible. But these are a great way to get stronger and faster.
After a bit of a warm up run we did the following drills over a 50+ meter distance:
1. Skip like a girl (super high skipping)
2. Butt kickers (barely running, kicking your heel to your butt)
3. Knee slappers (high knees that slap your hands)
4. Grapevines Left (running sideways interweaving your legs)
5. Grapevines Right (other side)
6. Long lunges (long steps forward, knee over ankle - lunges)
We'd do the drill 50 meters down, jog back to the starting point and then start the next drill. After completing all five, we repeated it two more times. None of which were pretty. Best part though? Boy, I can feel it today. My quads, gluts and even my abs are sore! I've done drills alone, on the track at the gym even - and people look at me like I'm crazy and just that makes me smile.
Apr 4, 2010
Easter Sunday Run
8:30am on a Sunday, Boom Island Loop, warm breeze, clear blue sky and no not a soul in sight. Oh wait. Its Easter Sunday. Sa-weet! Actually there were a few people out, but these kinds of empty days are few and far between. I met up with Keeler in the usual spot. We exchanged gifts of stuff we had for each other and started with a nice warm-up. She kept commenting on how gorgeous it was outside, I think that she was really just trying to tell me how great I looked, but didn't want to be obvious. I let her off the hook and just agreed.
It usually takes my legs a few minutes, like anyone's, to warm-up and not feel so tight. Today, it just didn't happen. Remember the concrete shoveling day last weekend? Well apparently I shoveled concrete into my legs. Or yesterday's ride was tougher than I thought. Wow. My legs just didn't want to move. What should have been a six-mile run was closer 3.5, boo! I was so pooped. That swim/ride yesterday really kicked my butt. I will most certainly be doing a ton of stretching today.
It was a gorgeous morning for a run and it was so nice to see Keeler again. The test of a good running pace is if you can hold a conversation while running. We have the opposite problem, we talk so much that we have to make sure that we think about our breathing every now and then.
Tomorrow and for the next 90 days I'm starting a new strength training program. Its important to incorporate strength training with all this running, biking and swimming. I'm a little intimidated by the program, but excited too. I'll tell you more about it once I've done it...
Great news! My dad is coming out to Minneapolis in September and will get to see me compete in the Iron Girl! Heck yeah!
It usually takes my legs a few minutes, like anyone's, to warm-up and not feel so tight. Today, it just didn't happen. Remember the concrete shoveling day last weekend? Well apparently I shoveled concrete into my legs. Or yesterday's ride was tougher than I thought. Wow. My legs just didn't want to move. What should have been a six-mile run was closer 3.5, boo! I was so pooped. That swim/ride yesterday really kicked my butt. I will most certainly be doing a ton of stretching today.
It was a gorgeous morning for a run and it was so nice to see Keeler again. The test of a good running pace is if you can hold a conversation while running. We have the opposite problem, we talk so much that we have to make sure that we think about our breathing every now and then.
Tomorrow and for the next 90 days I'm starting a new strength training program. Its important to incorporate strength training with all this running, biking and swimming. I'm a little intimidated by the program, but excited too. I'll tell you more about it once I've done it...
Great news! My dad is coming out to Minneapolis in September and will get to see me compete in the Iron Girl! Heck yeah!
Apr 3, 2010
Saturday Bricking
First, before I forget, Pete and I saw someone windsurfing on Calhoun today. Please understand that the ice just broke yesterday. If we weren't on bikes I would have stopped to take a picture.
I was up very bright and early this morning. Despite setting my alarm for 7am I was bright eyed and bushy tailed at 6:30. I managed to drink some coffee, eat a bowl of oatmeal and relax a bit before Pete and I headed to the Downtown Y to meet Marie for our 8am swim. I love the Downtown Y, have I mentioned that? There are only about 5 swim lanes to begin with and two of them are always used for open swimming, not for laps. There were three lap lanes open. Each with a marker on the end: Fast, Medium and Slow, indicating which lane you should swim in depending upon your speed. There was a nice elderly gentleman in the "Fast" lane doing the back stroke at a nice slow pace. There was a woman in the "Slow" lane just hanging out at the end of the pool sort-of bobbing up and down. Logically we took the middle "Medium" lane to share between the three of us.
Now that I'm down to one day a week of swimming, my shoulder is so much happier. Today consisted of:
! Today's successful swim of 1700 meters (1.06 miles) felt really great.
We promptly came home, made hard boiled eggs (to be deviled later) and a cucumber salad (to be consumed later) Yum! Tossed on our bike gear and headed out for what was a two hour ride, but not nearly the speed or distance we were hoping for. The headwind was so strong that I felt like I was climbing Mount Everest at only 1o mph. The sun made it completely bearable and luckily made for a very nice tailwind on the way home. Now I'm sitting and relaxing on the front porch, probably going to nap soon with the Tiggs. It was a good morning. And since its still only 12:30, I have plenty of time to enjoy a great Saturday!
I hope Marie's run of 10+ miles went well!
I was up very bright and early this morning. Despite setting my alarm for 7am I was bright eyed and bushy tailed at 6:30. I managed to drink some coffee, eat a bowl of oatmeal and relax a bit before Pete and I headed to the Downtown Y to meet Marie for our 8am swim. I love the Downtown Y, have I mentioned that? There are only about 5 swim lanes to begin with and two of them are always used for open swimming, not for laps. There were three lap lanes open. Each with a marker on the end: Fast, Medium and Slow, indicating which lane you should swim in depending upon your speed. There was a nice elderly gentleman in the "Fast" lane doing the back stroke at a nice slow pace. There was a woman in the "Slow" lane just hanging out at the end of the pool sort-of bobbing up and down. Logically we took the middle "Medium" lane to share between the three of us.
Now that I'm down to one day a week of swimming, my shoulder is so much happier. Today consisted of:
- 200 meters - warm-up
- 200 meters - kicking (with a kickboard)
- 8x 50 (400 meters) of drills - In Pete's words "Super wide-arm entry" and " Straight arm recovery"
- 3x 200 (600 meters) of build up to hard, 30 sec of rest between each set of 200. This one is tough because the length of the pool is 25 meters. Each 25 meters I'm supposed to be building up, getting faster and faster. But at this point I'm working pretty hard, so really I feel like I'm just maintaining the same damn speed.
- 4x 50 Hard (200) ("That's what she said!") with 30 seconds of rest in between. This one is definitely much faster, not quite all-out, but fast. I can always do the first length of 25 meters pretty fast, but as soon as I turn around its like all the steam as left me. Some day I would really really love to do these drills in a 50 meter pool!
- I was supposed to do a 200 meter cool down, but I had to pee, and since they really frown up people peeing in the pool, I kept it to a 100 meter cool down.
! Today's successful swim of 1700 meters (1.06 miles) felt really great.We promptly came home, made hard boiled eggs (to be deviled later) and a cucumber salad (to be consumed later) Yum! Tossed on our bike gear and headed out for what was a two hour ride, but not nearly the speed or distance we were hoping for. The headwind was so strong that I felt like I was climbing Mount Everest at only 1o mph. The sun made it completely bearable and luckily made for a very nice tailwind on the way home. Now I'm sitting and relaxing on the front porch, probably going to nap soon with the Tiggs. It was a good morning. And since its still only 12:30, I have plenty of time to enjoy a great Saturday!
I hope Marie's run of 10+ miles went well!
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