Christmas Hockey (kinda)

Merry Christmas, people!

Or, if you don't celebrate, Happy Thursday!

Even though I'm blogging today, Brandon and I actually played hockey on Tuesday night. It wasn't the best game for either of us - we were sluggish and our legs never really got moving. Still, it's always nice to get out and play some puck.

In terms of fitness-themed Christmas gifts, I got a few. I got ski goggles and two different types of ski pants from my parents (now, all i need is a jacket ...), my brother gave me a $25 gift card to REI (which, in all honesty, will probably go to the boy) and the awesomeness that is Brandon gave me snowshoes (i got him a pair too) and Wii Fit. Yay! Not that we can use the Wii Fit right now as our set-up right now is a little tight and doesn't give us enough space, but if we can get the proper cables for the family TV downstairs, much Wii Fit-ing will ensue ... if not by me, by Brandon fo' sho'.

What about you guys? Did any of you get anything fitness-related? Or did you not (and were totally cool with it)? I'm curious!



(photo is the one we sent out with our holiday cards this year)

Went for a run...

...and it wasn't good. Not good at all. I'm not surprised, given the lack of working out that has been taking place up in here. But still, the mighty have fallen, and fallen far and fast.

We didn't even make it a mile along our run before we needed to stop. It was our 1.27 mile run that we like to do, and we couldn't even finish it. It was ass cold, to give us some credit, but we also didn't dress for the weather (cause we're stupid) and like I said, we haven't worked out at all lately.

There are some positives to take from this, though. I was able to run on the ankle, which was good. And it did motivate me. I realize now how far I came from where I was, and also realize how quickly it can all go away. Within a couple months, my stamina has decreased and my weight has increased a lot. Boooo.

We have some ideas for January to boost this back up. Not new years resolutions, but just some ideas. We'll get to those in a bit.

So Dead

Brandon and I are in rough shape.

We ran today for the first time in a long while. We were planning on doing only a short run - the 1.27 mile loop - but we only managed .91 miles of it (and did it in 9:05). So while we had a decent pace (keep in mind a good chunk of that was downhill), we couldn't maintain it. My lungs and ears were hurting - 47 degrees out, but with a fairly cold breeze and I just couldn't maintain it.

Surprisingly enough, my legs felt okay. They took a while to warm up, but were fine once that happened. Basically, we let our cardiovascular endurance go to shit. Again.

At least we got back out there and we're going to set a plan for January and the rest of the year.

Blah

Ah crap. We actually played hockey this past Tuesday (yay!), but forgot to blog as we got home late and yeah.

Due to the lack of blog posts, you can (rightly) assume that we haven't been working out. It doesn't help that Brandon hurt his foot a while back and is now fighting off a nasty something-or-other (hacking cough, ear whatnot, possibly feverish) and I just work too much. I only have the time to blog now because it was on my to-do list before I go to Minnesota with the boy to celebrate an early Christmas with his family ... and he's covering my scorekeeping shifts because I work all day tomorrow before we hope to catch a flight. Yeah, we're busy in this house.

As a result, I haven't read blogs in a few days (boo!) or worked out. I did pack a nice, healthy lunch for work today so that's a helpful start.

Anyway, much Wii Fit-ing is in store for us in Minnesota as we won't be doing much of ANYTHING outside given that it's single digit temps here in Colorado. Brrrrr.

Swimming

Well, I forgot to blog from my workout Tuesday morning. It would make sense as to why I have been so silent over the past few days.

I was playing hockey with our buddy Jimi and his little hockey team. Well, in an effort to make the kids work harder, I slid into the boards full speed and mildly sprained my ankle. Well, obviously, that made working out a struggle. Or just non-existant. Whatever. The bottom line is, my ankle is healed and we headed to the gym for a workout today.

It was agreed that we would swim if the pool was open, or elliptical if the pool was not. The pool was open, so we swam. I swam about 700 meters total. Slowly, and yes, it was a struggle, but I still got it done.

The final 3 months of the year have definitely not gone well. And really, both girlfriend and I have been making excuses for not working out. Pretty sad, if you ask me. But we will turn things around. I vow it.

Such Slackers

I should never sign off on this blog by saying "be back tomorrow!" because really, odds are that I won't.

And I hate it.

But, given work and the holidays and the apparent lack of hours in a day, workouts just don't happen for me as much as I'd like. I opened three days last week and, as a result: took two naps (i NEVER nap), overslept and got to work 30 minutes late and, after it was all over, slept 10 hours before my next shift. Yeah.

Still, whenever I've been feeling guilty about it, I remind myself of a post Merry made over at Cranky Fitness about exercise and sleep. Both are important, but when it comes down to it, you need your rest. The main day job keeps me pretty active during the day, what with running around the store and everything, so I figure I'll get in some activity when I can and when I have spare time, try to sleep instead.

However, on days where I don't work much (like today! only working a hockey game ... and am blogging instead of paying attention. oh crap, there's a goal ... nevermind, i'm good), fitting in a workout is a manageable thing. Therefore, Brandon and I made it to the gym. We decided that if the pool was relatively empty, we'd swim - if not, we'd do some elliptical (lower impact as his heel's still acting up from the other day) and lift.

There was ONE lane open, so we grabbed it and shared it. I ended up doing about 600m total (he did 700m) though it took a while. Not surprising as neither of us have swam in who knows how long. Still, it felt good to get in the pool and be slightly achy as we walked back to the car.

The goal for the rest of the month is to not go overboard on the food and work out whenever possible given the general craziness of life. Not to sound like a New Year's Resolutionist or anything, but January is when we'll start our tri training and whatnot.

But, to keep Mr. Blog updated, I'll try to be back with other sorts of posts, since I'm sure just reading about our workouts gets boring. :-p

Ummm....

So...I really don't know what to say here...

Over the past two months, my fitness has simply gone down the drain. I went from working out multiple times a week and starting to look pretty good to watching my weight climb rapidly, my overall feeling good-ness take a huge dive and worst of all, my endurance take a nosedive.

I am trying to pinpoint where this happened, but I really can't find a specific time, place, or thing that set these wheels in motion. The bottom line is, it has to stop. And it has to stop now. The slacking, the excuses, they have to go. I was doing really good this year, and in two short months, threw it all away. Time to get back on the horse. Now.

We went to the gym today, a little later than planned, but still made it and did some intense lifting. I wanted us to walk out of there in pain, and I know I did.

Tomorrow it's supposed to be nice, so we're planning on going for a run. It's time to get back into an everyday routine, instead of just talking about it. Dammit.

Need: Motivation

So. I know ideally we'd like to be all about the healthy living over here, but damnit, I'm young and vain and I hate that I looked fat in all photos over thanksgiving except for the race ones because I was wearing about five layers of clothing.

I've said it before and I'll say it again - as miserable as I was on the bodybugg, I didn't look too bad on it. If it weren't for the all-encompassing depression, I may have actually been confident in my looks.

I'm not saying that I'm going to go back on the bugg or do anything crazy (though a teenytinyminiscule voice in the back of my head says why not), but I know I need to rein in some of the bad habits I've fallen back into - like eating like crap - and get back to working out more regularly and just being more active.

The gym today was step one. I (well, we) really should have gone Saturday. We technically had time in between waking up and looking at townhomes and work. Sunday afternoon in between jobs I could have gone as well. But I didn't. That can't happen anymore. So, we went today.

After the typical warmup we were going to do cardio, but the gym was getting crazy so we just decided on a hard, intense lifting session. The session was mostly upper body, doing 2/10s of every exercise - dumbbell chest press, dumbbell curls, incline dumbbell shoulder presses, standing bent-over dumbbell rows (after my two sets, i did five reps of the one-legged variety on each leg). After that, we did weighted walking lunges across the group exercise room. No cardio, but we're going to go for a nice walk after dinner (after which i won't blog because really, no need).

I need to work out more, I need to post more, I need more discipline.

Happy Thanksgiving!

First I'll start by wishing all our readers a Happy Thanksgiving, and hope you are enjoying your day.

Last night, we played hockey after I got back from Minneapolis. While in Minneapolis, I did quite a bit of Wii Fit, which was nothing special, really, but at the same time, I was still somewhat active. At hockey last night, it was pretty obvious I haven't played in awhile. My passes were off, my skating was slower, and girlfriend even commented that "you seem to have a weight on your shoulders". I didn't take this well and even had thoughts of leaving the ice; something I haven't wanted to do in many many years. Eventually I straightened my game out and played decently; scoring a goal right on the doorstep by catching the rebound off the end boards and another one by getting my own rebound and being paitient with the puck. At some point in the game, I took a puck off the ankle that I had surgery on back in high school. I was worried about the implications it would have on my run.

This morning, we ran in the Turkey Trot 4 mile race in Denver. Both girlfriend and I were apprehensive about running in this race; we haven't run in a long time and it was ass-cold outside. Plus, we were both tired. Nevertheless, we got to the race site and began warming up. Well, first we walked around and took in the sights. More on that in girlfriend's blog later.

We warmed up and decided that we would go in the 10:15 wave, rather than the 10:30 walk/run wave. No issue with that. We started out nice and slow, a very very slow pace. Coming up on mile 1, I stumbled and nearly rolled my ankle. The same one that I hurt playing hockey the previous night. I fought through it and we kept going. Made it to mile 2 and began slowing down. My ankle was beginning to act up again and we slowed even further. At mile 3, we walked a little bit; girlfriend needed to reattach her timing chip and we could both use a break. As we came up on the finish line, we actually stopped. Not by choice, but the race, poorly organized, was so jam-packed at the finish line that we had to walk the finish. Not cool, man.

I think our time was in the 47 minutes. Which honestly, we are both ok with. Should we be? Probably not, but for now, we're fine.

In the meantime, time to give my thanks for the year:

- My family who has always been there for me
- My friends who I can always rely on
- The fact I have a job in a rough economy
- My wonderful darling girlfriend who is WAAAAAY too good to me

Enjoy your turkey day people!

Hockey, Turkey Trot and FOOD

Okay, so I didn't get a chance to upload pictures until today OR blog, so I'm doing it now as I have a few minutes before working CC/AFA hockey (and after working the insanity that is starbucks across from a factory outlet mall on black friday. omgCRAZY).

First things first - hockey. Brandon and I finally got a chance to play hockey again on Wednesday night. Since drop-ins are usually late at night and I typically work early in the morning, it's half-impossible to play hockey. However, it worked out Wednesday.

It was a decent skate (or so i thought - boyfriend thought differently) for being the first time skating in almost two months. I did take a shot off the arm that hurt like hell at first but is fine now - not even that swollen anymore. I tried to get a picture of it to show y'all, but couldn't get a good one.

Anyway, after getting to bed at almost 1am, it's understandable that neither Brandon nor I wanted to get out of bed Thursday morning to go run 4 miles. We almost backed out, but figured since we had already paid, we may as well go. So, we dragged our butts out of bed, ate a small breakfast and headed to Wash Park to join 4,000 of our closest friends in running four miles.


Brandon pre-race prepping.

When we got there, it was understandably crowded (and cooold).


With Gobbles the Turkey mascot.


The line to get free Starbucks. They ran out by the time we got there post-race. Boo.

We decided to go visit the bathroom and then warm-up and stretch out. By this point, we're feeling marginally better about the race.


Not many port-o-potties for 4k people, eh? There was one more cluster near the finish line.

After stretching out and deciding we'd line up for the 4mi run start (as opposed to the 4mi run/walk start), we made our way to the start ... where we sat for about 20 minutes before the stupid race finally freaking started.


Start line ... and people!


Brandon waiting. Obviously not ready to start yet as there's not many people around us quite yet.


Brandon and I waiting for run. Look! We're finally excited!


Some guy's turkey hat. There were quite a few crazy costumes/hats.

After what seemed like forever, the race finally started. Despite having to walk pretty much until we got to the start mat, the race started out pretty well. We started off on a 10:00min mile pace ... but that died soon when my retarded timing chip fell off my shoe. Yeah, the zip ties they gave us were of a really good quality. *rolls eyes*

Anyway, we were a little sore, but we held up okay throughout most of the race. The course was primarily flat with a few "hilly" areas though I really am loath to use the term. We got overheated and our pace progressively slowed some, but we kept, well, jogging along until right around the three mile mark where we gave it up and walked for a few minutes. It wasn't long, however and probably only seemed bad because I stopped to put the stupid chip back on my shoe.

Eventually, we started to see the finish line which meant the end was in reach. Woo! As a result, we decided to be nerds and take pictures of the other running.


Brandon running along.


Go me!

The finish was actually the most disappointing part of this race. Because of the vast volume of people running, the finish line was a complete bottleneck - in short, it was the first race I haven't been able to sprint across the finish line which disappointed me. Even in the tri this year where I about melted and walked the majority of the run section, I still pulled out a sprint finish. So, to not be able to do that sucked. Hard. The one silver lining about it? I was able to get a shot of the finish line.


Finish line. Stupid walk finish.

In any case, we were glad to have run the race, even though we think we may just do a smaller 5K next year because this was just ridiculous. Oh well, it's one of those Denver races that everyone does/knows about so it was fun to do for that reason. Plus we got sweet coffee mugs from Runners Roost which made the entry fee almost worth it.

Oh, and we ran it together, although Brandon's official time has him finishing ahead of me by one second. Loser pants. Anyway, I personally had a time of 48:26 for a 12:06.5 mile. Not great, but hey, it's the longest run I've done to date so I'm okay with it.


Post run.

Besides, running made us feel marginally less ... bad about eating dinner. Although, thinking on it, I really didn't eat as much as I have on Thanksgivings past. Still, it made the deep-fried turkey a little more enjoyable (yes, our family deep-fried a turkey. we also baked one. 34 total pounds of turkey at our house. i know, i know.).


As my brother put it, Kentucky Fried Turkey.

Back again tomorrow when I actually have time to put in a decent workout.

Happy Turkey Day!

Will blog later about hockey last night (pain!) and the 4-mile race this morning (more pain!) AND include photos ... but for now, I've got to finish a column.

Hope everyone is enjoying their Thanksgiving! (or, for those elsewhere, happy random thursday!)

Frozen Ears

So I ran today. Should have worked out yesterday as it was the first day since FRIDAY that my legs didn't hurt (too badly; okay, i tried to do squats in the bathroom randomly and my hamstrings still whined), but boyfriendpants left me and I was whiny and yeah.

BUT, since I have a crazy FOUR MILE RACE on Thursday, I figured I better get off my butt and run.

Well, that, and I got two pairs of running tights (that i can wear under shorts) at the Nike outlet - one full-legged and fleecy and the other cropped and non-fleecy - so I wanted to test them out. Turkey Day's supposed to be rainy and I want to be WARM.

So, I laced up the ol' sneaks and headed outside in the cropped, non-fleecy pair of tights, a pair of Maine hockey shorts that I picked up when visiting colleges and a Nike dri-fit long-sleeved shirt that I think I'm going to have to toss as the sleeves are about two inches shorter than they probably should be.

What I realized I forgot and probably should have worn about two minutes into the run was my fleecy running toque (that has a hole for my ponytail even). See, one thing you should know about me (and, in all honesty, i've probably already mentioned in a hockey post) is that when the surrounding air is somewhat cold - well, cold enough to make my ears feel frozen - and I exert myself, my sports asthma gets accentuated. Don't ask me why. As a result, I realized soon into my little jog that it might not go as well as initially thought.

Initially I wanted to do at least a good two miles, since I'll probably be running the longest distance of my life to date* on Thanksgiving. Buuuut, due to the cold (temp. thing inside house said 53 out ... weather.com concurs) that reallyisn'teventhatcoldnow and the way my body reacts to said notreallycoldness, I trimmed down my mileage to a less-ambitious 1.35 miles which I completed in 13:32 for a crappy 10:01.48 mile.

A crappy 10:01.48 mile, I might add, that I would be THRILLED with should it turn out to be my average on Thursday.

HOCKEY TOMORROW!


*which, if you think about it, is pretty sad as in THEORY, I should have been running like six mile distances in my triathlon/5k prep. yeah, not so much. that is to change though next spring if the feet hold up though!

A day off, but not really

After shopping for delicious holiday items such as turkey, stuffing ingredients, and green bean casserole items, girlfriend and I left her mom at the store and walked home. Total distance of 1.55 miles. We did it in about 20-25 minutes, so a decent clip. I like the long walks with girlfriend because we talk about serious stuff, which is good since we are normally two dorky kids!

Since we were sore today, I think that's about all we're gonna get, but you know what??? It's ok. It still was a decent workout.

Stretching the Legs

The family (okay, mom, brandon and i) did our Thanksgiving day grocery shop today before everything gets crazy and we can't find turkeys anymore.

Anyway, thanks to the crazy workout from yesterday, both Brandon and I are sore-pants. As a result, we didn't want to do anything too strenuous as it would be counterproductive to muscle repair. So, Brandon and I decided to just walk home from the grocery store - about 1.55 miles. It took us a little over 20 minutes and we actually started working through some of the soreness which is good.

In other news, we, perhaps misguidedly, signed up for a 4mi race on Thanksgiving - the Mile High United Way Turkey Trot. It will be interesting and it will probably not go as well as say, the Autumn Color Run, but we're planning on doing it together which will be good.

That, and it'll help us justify the turkey, pumpkin pie and assorted other goodies we devour later that day.

My Poor Hammys

So, yeah, the streak ended ... go figure. But, we went back to the gym today since I was off (and am off until tuesday).

Started out with the typical warm-up and then did 15 minutes of intervals on the treadmill (the 2/3 pattern three times). I'm thinking something went wrong during this part of the workout because after we lunged, my hamstrings started being achy ... and they usually don't get achy right away. I'm thinking it was either a.) I pushed myself too hard during intervals ... given that I'm sick and I tried going crazier than boyfriend at first (weird) or b.) my feet didn't like the fact that I was wearing my gym shoes which are my OLD running shoes. In any case ... mmmrrraaaa.

After we did some crunches, we decided to scrap the leg press thanks to my stupid hamstrings and just moved on to calf raises. Pounded some of those out and then it was on to upper body. We did lat pulldowns where I ended up doing FOUR sets of 10 instead of three - started at 40lbs and moved all the way up to 70 so yay.

After that, it was dumbbell fly(e?)s, dumbbell chest presses and standing tricep extensions before we boogied on out.

My hamstrings are going to kill me tomorrow and especially Sunday, so I'm thankful I'm not working for a few days so I don't constantly have to bend over to grab stuff.

Big gym session

To prevent talking ourselves out of going to the gym, which has kind of been a staple for us lately...we wrote down last night what we wanted to do at the gym today. My main thing was LIFTING! I haven't lifted in awhile, and my muscles have been feeling it.

Here's the list of what we wanted to do:

- 5 minute warm-up and stretch
- 15 minute treadmill workout
- Lunges
- Situps
- Leg Press
- Calf raises
- Dumbbell Flys
- Dumbbell chest presses
- Triceps
- Lat Pull downs
- Curls

We did most of those. We left out leg pressing due to girlfriend having a sore hamstring and left out curls, because I was getting some pointers in my left wrist (has been a problem for awhile now, but no big deal, really).

My body was kind of screaming at me today, saying "what the hell is going on up in here? You haven't pushed me this hard in a LONG time!" I think that's a good sign...and an even better sign is how much working out we have done this week. Is it where we were at in May/June? No. But at the very least we are maintaining.

Call Me Coach T

I don't want to get all of our hopes up ... but I/we've worked out every day since Saturday. Only four days, but that's impressive given my crappy, crappy track record lately.

Today was ridiculously warm out for Colorado so Brandon and I were thinking of going for another run ... until our mutual friend Jimi texted Brandon. Jimi coaches pee wee hockey (9- and 10-year-olds) and asked if we wanted to help out tonight. Since the two of us haven't played hockey in FOREVER (mostly in part due to my crappy schedule), we jumped on the opportunity.

So, we got a little over an hour in of skating, passing and shooting. It wasn't all that strenuous, but I still managed to work up a little bit of a sweat, so yay. :)

RUN OUTSIDE! OMG! INBD!

Ok, maybe it is. Since I have not run outside since October 20th, this is actually a big deal for me. Nearly a month of not running outside. Sure, I've tried keeping up with the cardio (and failing) at it, but every now and then I've gotten some in. But really nothing beats running outside for the workout. Espeically for my mind.

So in any event, girlfriend had an eventful day, as you can tell by her blog. Mine, not so much. Instead, I laid around and cleaned up our room. WHEEEE! When girlfriend got home, we cuddled a bit and then went running together. We did the classic Lodgepole Loop. I was able to run it in 11:51 which is actually surprising and not bad.

I hope this starts me on the right track again. I need to step it up.

WOO HOO!

To recap the last 13 hours or so:

- get off work at 12:10am
- get home at 12:35amish; get to sleep by 1am
- first alarm goes off at 4:45am. Press snooze.
- roll out of bed at 5:15am, get dressed, brush teeth, etc.
- crawl back into bed at 5:22am, curl up next to boyfriend
- another alarm goes off at 5:30am. Go downstairs and make breakfast (egg and toast)
- leave for work at 5:44am; clock in at 6:01am
- break at 8am; eat reduced-fat coffee cake and drink Thanksgiving blend (mmm); go back to work 10min later
- lunch at 9:53am; consume sausage breakfast sandwich, fruit and cheese plate and iced tea; back to work at 10:24am
- clock out of work at 1:30pm; get coffee frappuccino and apple fritter as well as peppermint mocha twist for boyfriend
- drop PMT all over ground and self at 1:40pm
- leave for home at 1:45pm with new PMT
- get home at 2:05pm, finish frappuccino and fritter (splitting the latter with boyfriend); cuddle with boyfriend
- finally decide to run at 3:15pm; stretch
- hit the pavement at 3:30pm to do the Lone Tree/Lodgepole loop
- start feeling that apple fritter at 3:32pm - not good
- 3:37ish - fritter feeling starts going away, weird, considering I'm running up a hill
- 3:39ish - boyfriend catches up with me
- 3:40.30ish - boyfriend passes me
- 3:42.17 - finish run, dying in process

So there you go. The loop we ran was 1.24mi (give or take .01mi) and I did it in 12:17 for a 9:54.35 mile. Not too shabby for not running in about a month.

That time, right there, gets the title WOO HOO!, especially considering the last time I ran I averaged a 10:30ish mile over 1.33ish miles.

There's probably no way I could maintain that pace over a 5K or, say, the Turkey Trot 4mi, but I'll take it for today.

I'm Brandon, and I approve this message

Yes, we shook our groove thang last night at Beta. It was fun to dance and felt like a good workout. Go us. Next time I will buy some glo sticks so I can live up to this image that some people have of me....

Anyway, off to the gym tonight. The original play was to do both cardio and lifting, but unfortunately while I was on the elliptical I started feeling...not good. Stommy problems. We scrapped the lifting, but still feel good about working out.

And yes, we are getting old. Maturing and coming into our own, but getting old.

Groove Thang and Cardio

Though we didn't blog last night (too tired; we're getting old), we did FINALLY go out dancing again to shake our groove thing. All in all, we did about two hours of dancing and waving our imaginary glowsticks. ;) Since we're both tired and aging individuals, we left the club at midnight so we could get some sleep.

25 and already old. Eh, we like to call it "growing up."

In any case, even though it was hard as all hell to do so today, we went to the gym for a quick workout. We did the typical ISDreams warmup and then 15 minutes of elliptical on one of the cross-training settings.

We were going to lift originally, but Brandon started feeling icky so we left. Which was probably good because I'm kinda sick right now too, so yes.

Hopefully more tomorrow, but again - I MAKE NO PROMISES. I'm no crazy TV politician.

Gonna Be Sore Tomorrow

As per boyfriend's post below/before mine, Brandon and I hit up the gym this afternoon. Only working mornings the next few days (and less than 30 hrs next week ... boo! and yay! i need money, but time and sleep would be AWESOME), so we can gym it up in the afternoon.

Did the typical warmup and then hopped on the stepmills for a little bit of cardio. I did 15 minutes of intervals and holy crap did my heart rate get up there. I usually don't really test mine (i know, i know, i should), but my heart felt like it was pounding crazily so I checked it and I was between 170 and 180 bpm which is CRAZY. I think. My lungs felt scratchy too, but that's also in part because I'm fighting off a pretty nasty cold.

After the stepmill, we headed to the weights. We did 3/10 dumbbell bench presses (i did them with 20s and about died) and then standing tricep extensions (the ones where you hold a dumbbell above your head and then lower it behind your head, rinse and repeat) and dumbbell curls until we couldn't do either anymore. Which for me, was about 10 and 20, respectively.

Then it was off to the standing calf raise machine where we did about 3/10 ... upping the weight. Boyfriend can kick my ass in arm exercises, but I can match him raise for raise on calves. What what.

Hopefully more tomorrow, but I know better than to make promises these days.

Hooray, Gym again!!!!

Well, the month has not gotten off to the start I wanted to in terms of working out, and sadly, I have gained a few pounds as a result. However, there is a silver lining to that. More in a bit.

First, girlfriend and I went to the gym. Hooray! 5 minute warmup and stretch, then we did 15 minutes of interval training on the stepmills. It was short but intense. Our heart rates were up quite a bit.

We then lifted. 3 sets of dumbbell chest presses. Then we did tricep thingies where we used a dumbbell and went until we couldn't go anymore. Then we curled until we couldn't curl anymore. For finishing, I decided to do some standing calf exercises, and this is where I may have got the new motivation. When we were doing these, girlfriend and I started doing something we haven't done in a LONG time. We pushed each other to do more. I think if we're going to succeed in staying in good shape, we're gonna have to push each other and motivate.

woohoo, the gym!

Yes, I made it to the gym. The last time that's happened? I dunno. It's been awhile...

ANYWAYS...warmed up and stretched as normal. Since it's been a long time since we lifted, I thought of taking it easier on us tonight but still working hard. I also did some things that we haven't done in awhile or at all.

We started off with dumbbell bench presses. I upped my weight considerably, doing two sets with 35's and one with 40's. We then did rows with dumbbells, I used 25's for these. Then flys. I did 25's and 2 sets.

Then for some cardio. Treadmill? Elliptical? Stairs? No! Swimming! That's right, swimming. We decided a swim would be good for a change of pace and let's face it. I still am planning on doing a tri next year. So we hopped in the pool and did 500 meters. It felt really good actually.

What I hope tonight was is a kick-start. I have been stressed a lot over the past few weeks with my job and girlfriend's job. Basically life is stressing us out lately. And unfortunately, we aren't dealing with it the proper way we should be. I know this year is not a wash for me in terms of fitness; in fact there are many milestones that have been achieved. But right now, I am feeling that the rest of this year will be a struggle in terms of where I want to be. Obviously my running is suffering, which is what I have most prided myself on. And I'm getting a tiny bit of pudge. Sadly.

OMG A POST

Holy crap. I worked out. For like the first time in a long time.

First things first:

October goals? Full of fail. Rejuvenation for me ended up equaling not working out. Granted, I went through a few life changes (got a new job, been working an ass ton, have a possibility of another job that i don't know if i'm going to take or not but am being pressured to do it by the parents), but should that really be an excuse for falling by the wayside? I think not.

I know I probably didn't gain weight during the month. If anything, I lost weight (most likely muscle mass) because I've been keeping busy and eating kind of doesn't happen.

Still, I can't keep continuing on like this, regardless of my job and its crappy schedule and my seemingly perma-exhaustion. I like my job(s); I just need to find time to sleep, rest and find time for ME and BRANDON and US.

Enter tonight. Even though I was freaking exhausted (fell asleep for about an hour this afternoon, causing my column to be submitted 90 minutes past deadline. oops.), we still managed to make it to 24 tonight to work out. It was probably the first time in three weeks that I made it in there to do something other than change my EFT.

We started off with our typical warmup where we decided to swim instead of other cardio since the pool was empty. First, however, we did some upper body lifting - dumbbell bench presses, standing bent over dumbbell rows and dumbbell flyes. Then it was off to the pool. Managed 300m breaststroke without stopping - albeit slooooowly.

Sucks when I was doing like 1500m in July and August for the tri. *sigh* I did this to myself, I know, I know.

Anyway, did another 100m breast and then 50m crawl and 50m back to get an even 500m on the night.

I'm hoping to get out a workout in between jobs tomorrow, but I make no guarantee. All I can guarantee is that if I do, it'll be without my workout buddy. :(

That, and I'm hoping to pop in around here more often because it'll mean I'm WORKING OUT AGAIN (as opposed to just merely working).

Oh, and because I should:
November Goal(s):
- Get my butt back into the gym
- Run when I can and hopefully do the 4 mi. Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving (if i'm not working)

Treadmill workout

Right. It's time again to start running.

All I did was 15 minutes on the treadmill, but I turned up the intensity. 2.0 incline and 7.0 run.

More tomorrow in the Springs, hopefully.

45 Minute Treadmill Workout!!!!

Yes, you read that right. I did a 45 minute treadmill workout.

As I'm sure all our readers know, our workouts have suffered in October. Jobs and whatnot have hurt us, but both girlfriend and I have slacked slightly. In any event, we haven't kept up. And I vow to change that. It started today.

I was going to run in Billings until I couldn't run anymore, but it was cold outside. Too cold to run. So instead, I slunked over to the treadmill and fired it up. I did the whole thing at 3.5 and 6.1, with the exception being the final sprint.

It was kind of sad to see myself struggle with it, but the bottom line is, I made it. I got through it. Go me.

Yeah...

I'm sure you all read girlfriend's post and noticed she mentioned how we haven't been blogging much. It's simple. We're not working out much. And even when I do work out, I feel it's a worthless workout and I didn't get anything out of it.

Take Fargo the other day. I wanted to do a 25 minute treadmill workout. I only did 20. And it wasn't a good 20. It was bad. I felt worthless.

Yesterday I sat around the house all day. ALL DAY. I walked to get the mail and that's about it. Why, you ask? Because I'm sitting reserve. I can't just go to the gym for 2 hours. I have to have my phone handy. And i have to be ready if I get called into work. It's not good. I actually had to ask scheduling yesterday if I could just leave the house and go on my run yesterday. They said yeah, no problem, but good luck getting a 2 hour window break.

As girlfriend alluded to in her blog, there's just not enough hours in a day.

So anyway, I think this is a good time to set my goals for November, and really, there's only one.

RUN!

Yes, you are reading that right. Run. That is my goal for November. Girlfriend and I are doing a 4 mile run on Thanksgiving day. And I am NOT going to do shitty in this run. Not after PRing in my last 5K. I refuse to let that feeling die. So my goal in November is to RUN.

Not only that, but I have a triathlon in June and haven't really been doing what I should be doing. :-(

I dunno. Maybe I'm not cut out for this fit and healthy lifestyle.

Work Is Not an Excuse.

Really. Honestly.

You may have noticed a major drop off in blog posts here at Inspiration Stardust Dreams. Brandon should have had one from a few days ago when he worked out in Fargo, but my last blog post is the last time I worked out.

I have three jobs right now. I'm blogging right before the start of my second phase at work (though this one's unpaid). I've already put in an 8 hour day. I've been at this job for 30 minutes and will be here for at least another three hours. At least. In theory, I SHOULD head to a bar/club to see two of my friends whom I haven't seen in at least two months, probably longer. However, I have to be back at work tomorrow for another 8 hour shift ... and another 6 hours unless boyfriend isn't flying in which case he gets three of them.

Most days I work one job only and part of a second (writing) so it's not quite as bad as my weekends seem to be, but ugh. The downside to all of this? Two pretty important things start falling by the wayside - exercising and my diet.

The lack of blog posts here demonstrate my lack of exercise (really, it's horrible), but since I don't yammer on about what I eat all that much, it's not quite as noticeable.

But I notice it.

I notice that I haven't been finding time to eat or, more accurately, eat well. Take Thursday. Thursday was supposed to be an "off day" to spend writing my column and going to an Air Force football game with Brandon. Then Brandon gets called in to fly. Then I get called in to take over a closing shift at another store. It gets to 3:30, about when I need to leave to go work, and I realize all I've had that day has been an egg and a nugget meal and salad at Chick-fil-a. I get to work a little early and eat a piece of reduced-fat banana chocolate chip coffee cake and it gets me through my shift.

I get home to eat ... and the kitchen is a mess from the family dinner. I instantly lose my appetite, clean up the kitchen, and crawl upstairs where I fall asleep pretty soon.

Come Friday morning, I wake up at 6am and get to work 20 minutes late at 6:20. Thanks to me not eating anything in, oh, 14 hours, my body rebels on me and I lose all color in my face, almost pass out at the register and go dry-heave in the bathroom. After I almost pass out for the second time, I plead to get my break early and eat some oatmeal to survive the shift.

That story is an extreme example of what's been happening, but the rest of the reality isn't too far off. I haven't been eating a lot ... in part because I'm not working out, I'm sure. But I think part of it is also because of that, I feel ridiculously fat even though, in all actuality, I'm probably losing (muscle) weight.

Today ended up being another day where I didn't eat all that much going on. Did NOT want to get out of bed for work so barely had time to cook myself an egg before I walked out the door to be at work. Ate an oatmeal on my break. A quarter-pound of turkey breast and some fruit salad from the King Soopers' deli for lunch.

All of that, plus an 8 hour day are what I ran 1.34 miles in 14 minutes on. That was my worst time in over a month for running. Not that I can really blame my body for the performance it put in - I really hadn't fueled it for a workout at all.

Still, I know that I can't use work as an excuse. I just can't. I know I can find some way to balance all of this, some how. I can't keep letting my health suffer ... because if I do, I know I'll get the Sickness of Death this year and it'll incapacitate me for a week ... which we all know just CAN NOT happen thanks to my schedule.

Blah.

Intense lifting

After a decent run yesterday, I really didn't want to lose the feeling of adrenaline that was crawling through me...since it hasn't been here for awhile...

So we went to the gym. And it was good. Girlfriend's blog describes what we did (really people, have you figured out that I'm REALLY lazy, at least in the blogging sense? ;-p)

In any event, I'm rowing with more weight than ever before, I leg pressed really well, and my calves are killing me, which is exactly what I was looking for. So I consider that a good session! :-)

Another run tomorrow?

Intense Lift

This job thing is making working out next to impossible. Yesterday, after getting not much sleep, I worked from 8am-4:30pm (though officially didn't leave work until 4:45pm), got home at 5pm ... and had one hour to unwind a little, change, eat and do whatever else before leaving to go to job #2 where I was at until 11:40pm.

Yeah. That leaves time for working out.

Anyway, since I'm off today as well as the boy (yay!), we went to the gym for a quick, intense lifting session. Seriously, we were there for about 20 minutes. After the typical B&T warm-up, we did:

- 3/10 incline leg press
- 3/10 standing calf raises
- 3/10 seated rows
- 3/10 tricep extensions (standing ones with the rope attachment of the cable machine)

We upped the weight each set so the last reps were basically to failure ... especially on the two arm ones. The last set of 10 tricep extensions for me should read set of 7. Boo.

Oh well, just a quick session to blast before DATE NIGHT!!!! Though we still spend a decent quantity of time together, we feel like we don't spend any quality time together anymore thanks to various jobs and crap, so we want to change that. Thus, date night. Neither of us are doing any work today, too, even though I most definitely could.

Cardioooo tomorrow.

A Fall Run

Well, I guess running outside could be considered rejuvination, right?

After my Vikings lost by a touchdown, I hydrated and went for a run. It's what I would consider my standard run. 2.25 miles. I did it in 21:38. My main concentration was pacing. I want to make each mile faster than the last one. I looked at my graph on nike+ and found out that yes, I sped up pretty consistently as the run went on.

The best part about the whole thing is that I felt really good when it was all done. I wasn't hurting like I have been as of late. I certainly don't want to say I'm back to where I was weeks ago, but we're on the right track. Which is the most important thing.

Hopefully gym tomorrow. And then I'd like to run again on Tuesday.

Deja Vu ...

... and not the good kind, either. After I got off work, Brandon and I headed down to the park to do some agility drills outside. If you've ever played organized hockey or football or perhaps even basketball, you'd probably recognize the box/cone drills we did.

To start off, we did a small jog around the softball/baseball backstop and stretched out. Then, we set four cones in a box and did box drills. If I remember all the ones we did correctly, we did:

- straight, shuffle, straight, shuffle
- straight, backward, straight, backward
(add extra cone in middle of box)
- start at middle cone and loop around all outlying cones
- start at middle cone, run to each cone, facing forward each time

We then took the middle cone back out and did a forward/backward x type thing. All of that crap took about 20 minutes. We stopped after that because:
A.) it was tough. H.I.I.T. in the house (technically) and that shiznit wears you out
B.) we are so not the people/athletes we were either in high school or college
C.) we still feel ass out of shape. Boo.

It's sad to think you've come so far when something like this happens and you realize that no, you still have so far yet to go.

Weightlifting and Agility

Sweet, two workouts in one day!

Ok, here's the skinny. While girlfriend was at work, I felt an urge to go to the gym. And get some lifting in. So I did. I blasted my arms hardcore. It felt great. I did seated row, triceps, curls, and shoulder presses. I was gonna do more, but I was feeling good enough, so I left on a high note.

Then this afternoon when girlfriend got back, we went down to the park for agility drills. That was one of our goals this month; it works out because we're outside and happy, plus we are working on something that will help our endurance + fat burning.

We warmed up with a light jog and then stretched. Then we started the drills. Girlfriend will review the drills in her blog.

Bottom line is, I'm out of shape, still.

Went for a run

Since I haven't gone running in A LONG TIME, I knew that I needed to get a run in and start getting back what I had.

Girlfriend and I decided to take a run to the bank. A SLOOOOOW run. Basically just to get us back into it. No worries about time, anything like that. Just a chance to get back into it. And get back into it we did. I ran a 1.84 mile in 18:24 for a 10:00 minute pace. Not too shabby, actually.

Gym tomorrow. Turkey Trot the day of Thanksgiving, so I have some work to do.

Decent Run

Didn't end up working out yesterday due to some emotional stuff up in here, but did manage a run today. I had to go to the bank to deposit a paycheck (yay money!) so we originally decided to run there, deposit the dough and run back home.

Well, two out of three ain't bad.

We were hoping on taking the run slow since, you know, we haven't run in about two weeks, but we still managed a 10:00 mile on the nose by doing 1.84 miles in 18:24. Boyfriend also said my running form looked really good, so yay. :)

Since we probably pushed it a bit (i subconsciously sped up any time i started to hear boyfriend right behind me), we decided not to run back home, so we took the shorter (1.6 mi) route and walked it.

Something tomorrow evening after work and I finish my column.

FINALLY! MADE IT BACK TO THE GYM!

Yes, it's been awhile, so forgive me for being slightly giddy that I made the gym, even though they have screwed up my account...grrrrrrr....

Anyways, we warmed up on the bike then stretched for awhile. Felt good to stretch. Goddamn did it feel good to stretch. Then we did lat pull downs, 3 sets of 10. Those hurt a bit...could tell I haven't lifted in awhile. We then did some curls, 2x10, which kind of frustrated me, because my arms were coming along SO nicely up until this minor derailment. BOOOOOO! We finished it up with some hammer strength chest presses. 1 set of 45's, 1 set of 35's, and 1 set of 20's. I could only do 9 of the 20 lb weight, which FRUSTRATED ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We then did some functional lifting. Started off with some sit ups on a ball using a medicine ball. Followed this up with jump squats while holding a medicine ball, then did a wall sit passing a ball back and forth. Closed out with torso twists and some stability exercises.

All in all, a good session, and hopefully back for more soon.

T Actually Lifted?!?!?!?!

Yes, actually, I did. CRAZY I KNOW. Didn't end up having time to run in Minneapolis - a severely screwed up sleep schedule will do that to you, but I did do about 30 minutes of Wii Fit on the boyfriend's parents' Wii. What what.

Anyway, in the midst of all this rainy crap that's going on here, Brandon and I went over to 24 to go lift and start crackin' on those October goals of ours (functional lifting, for a reminder). We started off with some non-functional lifting with some lat pulldowns, bicep curls and chest presses on the Hammer Strength machines ... after warming up and stretching, of course.

From there, we moved to some more functional-type stuff:
- Crunches on a swiss ball, adding in a medicine ball toss
- Squat jumps with a medicine ball (crouch and EXPLODE!)
- Wall sits passing a medicine ball back and forth
- Back-to-back torso twists passing a medicine ball back and forth
- Bosu medicine ball tosses

Should be good enough for today. No cardio, but we'll work on that.

Off to shower, grab food and scorekeep for me!

Playing Hockey

Right. Today we worked out twice, technically...the first workout was just us dinking around in the park, throwing a softball and enjoying ourselves until Mr. Crankypants Dickhead Coach kicked us off the field so little 4 year olds could pretend like they were athletes and kick around a soccer ball...we just moved over and did our thing still. As girlfriend alluded to in her post, it's a month of rejuvination and enjoyment for us, so that's what we are doing.

Part of that rejuvination includes playing hockey, and that's what we did tonight. I played pretty well given that there were about 6 skaters aside and I really haven't played much hockey in the past month. I scored two nice goals and made quite a few plays out there. Not too bad. But unfortunately tonight, there were some issues with some players.

T and I are considered "regulars" at this drop in. People there know us, like us, and have fun when we are out there. We are both good players, we get along well with others on the ice and quite frankly, we belong out there. There are some players that when we skate with them we click like we've been playing together for a long time. But every now and then, a player comes along and treats drop in like it's his own show.

See, drop in is fun. Or supposed to be. Tonight there was a dude on our team who was just a ridiculous showboater; a cocky fuck who just thought he was the greatest. He passed very rarely and made excuses every time. The other guys we play with, they are nice fellas. But they were losing patience. Eventually it boiled over and the guy that pretty much runs drop in told Mr. Showboat to not come back. This of course led to some yelling and I finally had enough and got off the ice. I vented to a guy we now call Green Eggs (his name is Sam) and he likes girlfriend a LOT!

Anyway, I want to play some more, and plan on doing so.

Fun and Hockey

Even though over here, the two are mutually exclusive. For the most part. We won't go into how I basically ended up crying after every single game I played in college.

ANYWAY.

Geez, I've been going on tangents over here a lot, haven't I?

And there was another one. Crap. Well, today was a double workout day technically,though the first one was us basically just goofing off in the park throwing a softball around and, in my case, attempting to hit it (and attempting to pitch it to brandon). Still, one of the goals for the month is rejuvenation, and playing softball in the park (and trying not to kill the mini soccer girls) was pretty damn fun because really, I equate rejuvenation with FUN in many respects. Maybe working out has become a marginal grind lately and maybe that's why I haven't felt like doing anything in a while. Maybe having fun with what I do is just what I need. We'll see.

Later tonight (okay, last night, since it's almost 1am), we played some hockey - another goal and something we haven't done in a while. It was a pretty empty skate - five a side with one or two on the bench (depending on the side) ... which meant that T was a laaaazy defenseman. Oh well, when a skate has fewer people, it's generally more laid back and I generally have a lot more fun then. That, and I'm of the firm belief that I play better when I don't care. ;)

Brandon had an issue with one of the players on our "team," but I'll let him blog about that.

Now, to shower and stay up all night (okay, three hours) writing so we can catch an ass-early flight to Minnesota. Brandon's college roommate is getting married so we're heading on out. Expect at least A blog from each of us as we're planning on running at least once. Probably not tomorrow due to lack of sleep, but we'll see.

T's Goal Recaps

Sprague Lake; Rocky Mountain National Park

Yay, it's fall!

First things first, haven't worked out today. I won't, either, unless you count running up ... 6 flights of stairs twice so far and at least once more at CC. Silly work.

So, September review:

General Goals:
- Skirt Chaser 5K and the Autumn Color Run
- core, cycling and general cardio
- MAYBE looking into hockey leagues
- run Red Rocks
Personally:
- H.I.I.T. training for cardio
- general focus on upping the strength training
- flexibility

I ran both the SkirtChaser and the Autumn Color Run, so check. Core? Check. Cycling? FAIL. General cardio? Half-check - didn't do as much as I probably should have. When I wasn't running a race or running outside, all other cardio I did was H.I.I.T. training, so check! It probably helped with my awesome time in the Autumn Color Run, too, so yay. Didn't strength train as much as I wanted to, so half-check there, but check on flexibility.

Overall? Not bad.

Now, let's repost October's Goals:
- maybe a 5K
- enjoyment outside - REJUVENATION
- hockey
- agility
Personally:
- endurance for cardio; stamina
- functional strength training

I'm extremely unsure on whether a 5K will happen this month or not, but I'm thinking succeeding this month will be better than last.

A review of goals for both September and October

Ok, so here comes the much anticipated goal reviewing. As you all know, girlfriend and I established goals for two months to keep us on track. I'm training for a triathlon next year and also trying to just get in better shape.

Here's September goals:

SEPTEMBER GENERAL GOALS
- Skirt Chaser 5K and maybe Autumn Color 5K
- Core, cycling, and general cardio
- Run Red Rocks

SEPTEMBER PERSONAL GOALS (MINE)
- Endurance for cardio (treadmill workout, hill sprints, etc)
- Core strengthening
- CONSISTENCY (week to week)

I did both the Skirtchaser 5K and the Autumn Color 5K, each time setting a better PR. Goal, check. I did a lot of lifting focusing on my core. Goal, check. I did quite a bit of running + a few treadmill workouts. Goal, check.

I didn't cycle once. Fail. I didn't run Red Rocks. Fail.

My endurance can speak for itself with two PR's in 5K's! My core I believe is stronger. And the consistency thing went pretty well.

So overall, I would say September was a success.

October...not off to a great start. I've been sick for a little while (boo). And been pretty busy unfortunately. But I will review the goals here.

OCTOBER GENERAL GOALS
- Maybe a 5K
- Enjoyment outside (October is probably our favorite month)
- More hockey

OCTOBER PERSONAL GOALS (MINE)
- Intense weight training
- flexibility
- agility

Doubt the 5K is gonna happen, but that's ok. It's not something I was planning on. More hockey...I'll try. I need to put 45 bucks aside for ice time. And enjoyment outside has been happening. Thankfully.

I need to hit the gym for the weights. It's not too late to get started for sure.

A quick run yesterday

So on Thursday, I got really sick. Don't know why, but ended up not being able to hold any food down and feeling very weak. Naturally, working out took a back seat to feeling better.

Yesterday I was feeling almost all better so the girlfriend and I went for a run. Nothing too big or exciting, just a 1.25 miler. I did it in 12:22 for a pace of nearly 10:00 but I didn't care. I just wanted to get back into it.

In other workout news, since I haven't been to the gym in awhile, I can feel my muscles atrophying real quick, so I have to get back to lifting. And soon. Hopefully today. And I PROMISE I will post my goals later. And my recap of September. I promise. :)

Post from Work (job #1)

Job number one, of course, being the one that really doesn't pay me despite the hours I put into it ... and being the one that makes me feel like I'm actually utilizing my degree. Yep, I'm sitting here blogging from the Air Force Academy campus right before an exhibition hockey game.

However, that's not why I'm here. I'm here to say I FINALLY WORKED OUT AGAIN! YAY! It took me a week thanks to my various jobs and a sick Brandon (mmrraa :(), but I finally got out and ran today.

Funny, when you consider I'm actually working all three of my jobs today.

ANYWAY, did a short run of 1.23 miles (gotta ease back into it, yo) which ended up being a quite painful 1.23 miles, in 11:59 for a 9:44.55 mile. Not bad, considering I haven't ran - or done anything - in a week. I'll take it.

Reviewing of September goals and October goal posting tomorrow.

I promise.

Workout in Fargo

Yesterday I was in Fargo on a trip, so I decided to do a high intensity treadmill workout. It was only 20 minutes, but I had the incline cranked up to 4.5. First 5 minutes was 6.2, second was 6.4, third was 5.8, and the final sprint was increased every 30 seconds, eventually at 11.0

Also, I'll review my goals later tonight. I'm on 3 hours of sleep.

Hiking in Rocky Mountain National Park

Like girlfriend, haven't really worked out lately...been very bad. I did some Wii Fit on Friday and Saturday, which I guess is good, but 2 days of nothingness = bad. But anyway, we did some good hiking today in Rocky Mountain.

We went up to 12,000+ feet and probably hiked over 3 miles total. Not too bad.

Reviewing September goals tomorrow as well as my October goals.

T = Fail

So I haven't blogged in forever. Yes, I fail here. I just haven't made it to the gym yet.

However, boyfriend and I did make it up to Rocky Mountain National Park today and hiked around for a few miles and some steep inclines and at ass-high altitude.

More from me tomorrow including:
- a recap of my September goals
- the October goals
- a photo or two from our adventures today
- hopefully an actual freaking workout blog

But for now, sleep 'cause I have to be at work at 4:15am. Boo.

Frustrating Math

New job (up early + late lunch) * dinner issues ((food anxiety * late hour)/lack of decent protein in house) + early wake up tomorrow for said job - workout buddy = no gym time for me today. :(

We've discussed how life is not good for me if I take more than two days off from working out. Hopefully I can get back on track tomorrow after training day two. Hopefully. *siiiiigh*

In other news, I am now supporting my ill-paying hockey watching career by becoming a barista at Starbucks. I feel so disloyal to my favorite coffee shop EVER (colorado local what what), but T needs money and the world's most humongous coffee shop happened to be hiring and can work with my scorekeeping AND writing jobs (in that i can work mornings/early afternoons only). I'll put the upsides only, as I'm trying to stay positive over here ...

1. I'm making money. This is good, as my bank account is the lowest it's been since ... forever. Boo.
2. If I even maintain just 20 hours a week, I can get health and dental insurance that will undoubtedly be cheaper than the $156/mo I'm paying now.
3. I get a pound of coffee or box of tea free ... per week. This means that I could in theory hook all five of you readers up with coffee/tea at some point. Or a pound/box to give away to your respective zillions of readers. What what.

Sadly, I can also think of a few negatives, but I'm restraining so as not to post them. Trying.

Running in Wichita

Just went running along the river in Wichita. It was really nice although ridiculously humid. I hate humidity. I hate it.

Anyway, ran pretty well for a distance of 1.64 in 14:08. I felt really good throughout the whole thing, sometimes taking some stairs along the path.

More tomorrow, hopefully.

Running...

Nothing too special today, except I ran pretty well. We took a slightly new course today that totaled out to be 1.94 miles. I ran it in 18:17 for a pace of 9:25. Not bad. It was hilly as hell, but that should be expected in Colorado.

Start a 2 day trip tomorrow. Hope I get some time to work out. Then I go home to Minny!

And I Ran ...

... I ran so far away ... Gotta get away ...

And now since you have that earworm, the blog post.

Since we didn't end up running later yesterday, we went for a run this afternoon in the time between What Not to Wear and Jeopardy! We mapped out a 1.93 mile course (that includes that bitch of a hill, arrowhead way) and ran it. That course actually is really hilly - it sucks.

Regardless, I ran it in 18:24 for a 9:32.02 mile. What what.

Nice workouts today

I was in a lifting mood today...not sure why.

In any event, girlfriend and I headed over to the gym. Later than we wanted, but still got there. And of course, parking lot started filling up, so we decided rather than have a long session of mediocre lifting, we decided to up the intensity of our lifting.

Read girlfriends blog for what we did.

Then we went for a walk after delicious sushi lunch and decided to play a little softball at the park. I miss doing that.

Run for tomorrow.

Random Gym Day

So this post probably should have been a little earlier today, but Brandon and I were still unsure if we were going to run or do another gym session or not. However, we ultimately decided no. So, he's down watching CSI: Miami and I'm starting season previews and watching The Hills. And yes, I'm marginally embarassed because of it, don't worry.

Anyway, I realized I hadn't blogged yet so decided to get on that.

We went to the gym early today - around 10:45am which was almost too "late" if you consider the crazy times at the gym. Silly lunch rush. Because of the crowds, we ended up having to do some higher weight than normal so we did the smarter thing and dropped the reps. So, we did:

- 2/8, 1/6 dumbbell bicep curls
- 2/10, 1/8 standing, bent over rows
- 2/10, 1/6 tricep extensions (using the rope on the cable machine)
- 2/10, 1/6 seated rows
- 1/10 turkish steamrollers (or turkish sit-ups or whatever. someone around the fitosphere talked about these a while back but i forget whom)

A little while after we had lunch (mmm, $1 sushi!), we decided to go for a walk to the park. For a change, we brought our baseball gloves, a softball and a bat so we messed around with that for a while, tossing the ball, hitting each other fly balls, etc.

See, two workouts and we were even pondering a third. We're crazy, I know.

5K #7 of the Season

And yes, technically this was #8, but yeah yeah. Whatevs.

So. We drove up to Buena Vista, Colo., yesterday to pick up our packets for the Autumn Color Run. This was my last run of the season last year and PRed with a 26:27, still my fastest race to date. I really liked this race last year so Brandon and I decided to do it this year. It's a great course - yeah, it's at 8,000 feet, but it's a nice straight line for 3.1 miles and slowly drops a few hundred feet over the course. Awesome? Yes.

After battling our food anxiety issues for dinner and some pre-race hot tub soaking, we spent the night in Salida which is about 30 miles south of Buena. It wasn't the best night's sleep and I definitely didn't want to get out of bed, but get out of bed I did. We packed up our stuff, loaded the car and went back inside for the hot breakfast (go holiday inn express, man). Some watery yet dry (how that happens, i don't know) eggs, papery bacon, instant oatmeal (at least it was quaker), bruised banana, crappy orange juice and coffee-milk, we were on the road back to Buena.

We got to Buena, parked and walked to this one park. The park was the race end and where we warmed up.

Brandon getting his warm-up playlist going on the ol' iPod.

Us pre-warm up.

We started to think we needed to poop, but the line at the port-o-potties was RIDICULOUSLY long. Luckily, the race director told us about another bathroom in another part of the park. A permanent bathroom.

Yay for actual restrooms at a race!

Sadly, I couldn't really poo, so I decided to try and warm up some instead. After some dynamic stretching (not plyometrics ... but kind of. i forget the name of them. did them for hockey all the time), some jumping jacks and some regular stretching, I decided to try and poo again. I was only marginally successful.

Since my bowels were not going to cooperate, I said a quick prayer to the running gods and asked if they did anything for me that race, they'd let any urges to go to wait until AFTER I crossed the finish line. I said this while we were walking back to the race central part of the park ... passing the port-o-potties. We saw people getting on the bus already, but I snapped a quick shot:

Only two port-o-potties for this race. Yeah, it's a small one.

We hopped on the bus (almost late! oops) and were driven 3.1 miles away to the race start which was officially outside of the city limits in random unincorporated Chaffee County.

Getting off the buses. Yes, that's Brandon in black.


Start was at an abandoned drive-in. How cool is that?


Pretty! View from the start.

The race people who were at the start got word of the time (or something) on their walkie-talkies, some Boy Scout shouted "GO" and we were off. As everyone was on the right side of the street, I was smart and immediately headed to the LEFT side so I was running against traffic, not with it. I also made sure I was in the margin as the county road we were running down wasn't closed to cars. I almost took a few pictures of the cars, but didn't feel like taking the time to do so.

Being on that side of the road meant I could see the spray painted mile markers on the street. Because of those, I'm pretty damn convinced that NO RACE has proper mileage signs. Or at least no race in Colorado. I saw the one mile marker painted on the ground and then, at least a good five minutes later (judging by the songs on my ipod), a sandwich board saying that there was two miles to go. A tenth of a mile in five minutes? Yeah, I'm not that slow, thanks.

Regardless, I kept running. The conditions were almost ideal - high-40s, but a little sunnier than I'd like. I passed a few people along the road which is always nice, but not too many. Once I got a bit more into town, I saw the stop light that's near the park. However, I kept my pace as I know distances can be deceiving. I didn't start to get really excited until I saw my car which was parked about three blocks away. Still, I didn't start my kick until right about the turn into the park for the finish. At that point, I saw Brandon coming back toward the course to try and get a picture of me finishing, but I told him no and just sprinted onward.

My time? There's a reason I love this race - 27:45. Nine minutes faster than my first 5K this year. 15 minutes faster than the 5K portion of the tri, but I'm not counting that. :-p It's kind of upsetting because had I finished in the same time I did last year, I would have placed second in my age group. *sigh* Still, I'm proud that I pulled that time out of my ass because I haven't done under a 9:00 mile yet this year and still have issues getting under 10:00 at times.

Even though Brandon had some issues with his time (he so finished before me though the official time won't say that due to some mishap. sucks, but i guess it's an unfortunate result of it being a VERY small race), we were still both happy about our races.


Though the Autumn Color Run is tentatively our last race of the season (*tear*), we still have possibilities on the horizon. For me, the biggest thing will be keeping up with running because I kind of stopped last year (partly because of ditching the bodybugg and just eating lots of crappy food without exercising) and it's been a total bitch getting back into it. It especially sucks because it's been a year and I'm still not back to the point I once was.

Oh well, someday, right?