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)
...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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
