CycleFit

Well that was depressing.

I'm unfortunately not taking Judy's class for Series I due to swim lessons and not wanting to do CycleFit on NROLFW days. So I'm taking Kathy's class on Tuesdays and Jared's class on Thursdays. To be completely honest, I really don't like Kathy's class and won't sign up for it again, but I do like Jared's class. I think it helps me to have an energetic instructor. Although Jared may be borderline too peppy...

Anyway, today was Power Challenge day. I normally love power challenges! Jared's Power Challenge, I'm pretty sure, is one of the rings of Hell. Judy's Power Challenges are four minutes in length, working at your 100% effort. Jared's are NINE AND A HALF minutes long. I sort of wanted to puke at the end of the first one. And then I had to do it again.

So, I did all that work, and then, the depressing part. My average power output was 170 Watts. Last time I did this challenge, it was 215 W. Granted, that was a long time ago and I know I've slacked off some, but ouch. That's only slightly better than where I was this time last year. You know, when I first started taking CycleFit. Ouch.

However, I know that really my average power output lately has been about 185 W. So I think I'm going to try to push and keep that as my 100% level.

I think part of my problem lately is that I just don't drink enough water. I always mean to, but I'm just never really thirsty. I've always been that way. But I think as I work out more, it matters more, and I need to make a conscious effort to drink more water.

Bike Trip Meeting

Yay!

We had our first Bike Trip 2012 meeting tonight. We did some reminiscing about last year's ride and talked about what we want to do this year.

The plan is to leave from our doors! No driving days! A Hoosier tour. Yay! We'll be leaving from the church parking lot on June 9th and coming back on the 16th. We'll be heading down to Spring Mill State Park, spending a few days there doing day-trip loops. Then we're heading east toward Clifty Falls State Park and St. Meinrad Monastery for a couple days. Finally we will head back to Bloomington via Scottsburg.

This trip will also allow for some off-bike attractions, such as Marengo Caves, historic Becks Mill, the village at Spring Mill State Park, and Clifty Falls (which Seth and I really enjoyed when we went camping there).

Exciting!

Run

I think I am hopefully for reals out of my running slump. I skipped my four-miler this weekend. Serious case of the lazies and a solid sheet of ice covering the whole town made running cross over to the "Things I Definitely Don't Want to Do Right Now" list.

So this morning, feeling guilty, I ran my little heart out on the treadmill. Yes, it was still hotter than Hades in there, but I'm getting better at ladying up and getting it done anyway. I walked 0.25 miles (3.5 mph) then ran 3.25 miles (mostly 0 incline and 5.5 mph, but the last mile I worked hard ramping the incline up to 0.3 and the speed to 5.8 mph, with the last 0.15 at 6.0 mph, no incline), then cooled down with 0.5 miles at 3.5 mph.

I may have mentioned that I love my iPhone. Seriously, I don't know how I lived without it. This morning, running on the treadmill was slightly less awful. I streamed NPR's Ultimate Workout Mix. Better than the same old playlist I normally use (which I love, but start getting tired of after a while). And more energizing than watching Netflix (tried that and it was still boring). Love.

Although now I am like starving today. I did not miss the constant hunger. But maybe I won't die at the IU Mini Marathon.

Also, I think I may sign up for the IU Indoor Triathlon.

Blinded

I just blinded myself with my iPhone flash.

I did NROLFW this morning. It was my last time doing Stage 2A. I'll wrap up Stage 2 on Wednesday. I'm not 100% sure I made good progress in this stage. I think I did, but it definitely was not the same kind of progress I made in Stage 1.

I had my third swimming lesson tonight. Other than the fact that I'm not coordinated enough to work my arms and legs together in breast stroke, I'm doing really well. Yay!

And in other news, I got some new glasses in the mail today.

Running slump & CycleFit

I've been in a running slump. That's probably been obvious. After the IMM half marathon, I just kind of tanked on the running front. At first I was floundering because I didn't have any sort of plan and nothing to work towards. Then the holidays. And then it had just been so long...

Anyway, I think today I may have rediscovered my running legs!

I planned to run outside this morning but apparently "feels like17" is really stinking cold. So I headed to the treadmill. I really hate the treadmill and it is always so hot in the HPER, but today I decided to lady up and just get it done. And I did! I ran three super slow miles! Not awesome, but it's a step toward getting out of my slump. Yay!

Also, I did my first CycleFit of the semester tonight. It hurt so good. And my friend Brett has signed up for the same classes as me! I burned 383 kJ. And I feel awesome after the great workouts I had today.

And in honor of National Popcorn Day, I'm putting my new air popper to good use!

First Swim Lesson

I had my first swim lesson tonight. It went well!

I wasn't sure if I should sign up for Level 2 or Level 3, so I erred on the side of caution and signed up for Level 2. They said if it was too easy, I could move up during the series.

I got there way too early and sat around like a dork in my bathing suit. Eventually 5:45 rolled around and we divided into our classes and got in the pool. Holy cold water! I was shivering pretty quickly. We did some really basic stuff. A few strokes each of freestyle, backstroke, and breast stroke so the instructor could gauge our skills. Then we spent some time working on breathing and kicking and freestyle arm technique. We didn't do a lot of actual swimming, but I feel like I did learn some things. At the end of the class, the teacher talked to each of us individually to tell us what he thought. He said I did really well and was borderline between Level 2 and Level 3. Yay for having a realistic idea of my own skills! He also said I have a really good kick. Which is good, because I'm mostly concerned with figuring out what my arms should be doing. :) I told him my goals and that I had signed up for a half Ironman, and he said that he can give slightly tailored instructions to each of us to meet our goals. So I think I'll stick with Level 2 and then if I feel like I need, I can do Level 3 as well.

I'm looking forward to becoming a swimmer.

Encouragement

This morning called for NROLFW Stage 2B. I wore ridiculously short shorts this morning because I needed a laugh.

Anyway, I was working my way around the gym, doing my thing. There are still a fair number of new faces hanging out there in the morning. This morning two guys were kind of around me and when I finished one set at the free weight benches, I heard one say "I don't think I can do another set of 10." I chimed in with an enthusiastic "You can do it!" and continued on my way. Later when I had moved on to the ab section of my workout, that guy thanked me for the inspiration and told me he was able to finish that set after all.

That's a pretty awesome way to start the day. :)

Failure

I am setting myself up to crash and burn at the IU Mini Marathon! Already!

I was supposed to go on a 4-mile run this weekend. Yesterday I was having such a good day hanging out with my husband, I decided I'd do it this morning. I loved Sunday morning long runs in my last half marathon training cycle.

While I did wake up early enough to get a run in before church, it was cold and dark and slippery (snow and ice) outside, so I thought I'd do it after church. Riiiiiiiight.

Instead, I went to the mall and came home with this:

So I spent my afternoon curled up on the couch with a bowl of popcorn, watching Harry Potter, and knitting a hat. Yep.

Although I did learn that I still fit in my wedding dress... That counts for something, right?

Free food!

On Wednesday after yoga, the SRSC was having its semester kick-off week with lots of little games and stuff in the lobby. So Rohini and I visited the tables to get some info and win free stuff. We both left with t-shirts and other various prizes.

Yesterday I received a phone call that I was a major winner! One of the tables had a jar filled with candy hearts and the person who guessed closest won a bag of groceries! I'm freakishly good at these things and won! I guessed 369 and there were 374!

So I went to pick up my groceries today. Here's what I got:

• Pizza crust 
• Pizza sauce 
• Pepperoni 
• Rice cakes 
• Bag of clementines 
• Raisins 
• Chocolate pudding 
• Nuts 
• 2 liter of Citrus Drop (Kroger brand Mountain Dew) 
• Nacho chips 
• Salsa 
• Vitamin water 
• Cough drops 

Not too bad!

At the risk of being redundant...

Ow.

I'm still sore. So sore I skipped my 3-mile run this morning.

I did the NROLFW Stage 2B yesterday morning and then checked out a free yoga class at the SRSC yesterday afternoon. I really felt like the moves in NROLFW were kind of lame yesterday while I was doing them. Today I can definitely tell they worked. Ouchie.

I really enjoyed the yoga class though. It was a very basic Yoga I series. We mostly just did some sun salutations. I'm doing another free yoga class on Friday, but it's Core Power Yoga. I really want to incorporate yoga into my fitness routine, but I think I'm leaning towards the more stretching and relaxing yoga than the super workout yoga. So we'll see how I like the class on Friday. Either way, I think I'll just do it at home on Friday afternoons, because yoga classes are kind of pricey and I've already signed up for CycleFit and swim lessons. It's not meshing with my other goal for the year of not spending so much money unnecessarily. I can do sun salutations on my own just as well as in a class. And then only the dog will make fun of me when I fall over in tree pose.

Ow...

This morning was rough.

 Seth kept me up way past my bedtime last night and my bed was just so toasty and comfortable this morning. I didn't want to get up. I woke up starving and the first thing I did was spill chia seeds all over the kitchen. Then Seth ran over a cat on the way to work. Seriously. I was in a bad mood.

Also, Stage 2 of NROLFW yesterday really killed me. (Although I really think it has more to do with essentially taking three weeks off...). I did some of Yoga X (the yoga portion of P90X) last night to help stretch out my poor muscles. I did the first 30-ish minutes (a lot of downward dogs and warrior poses) then skipped the balance and most of the core work (I did a little of the core work... it was hard!) to get to the cool down. Yay corpse pose! I think Yoga X may be a little much for my planned Friday afternoon yoga, but I did feel better after doing it and even worked up a sweat. And I got the dog working out with me! She is very good at down dog! (i.e. She laid on the floor beside me.)

Anyway, I somewhat randomly signed up for the IU Mini Marathon on a whim. About ten minutes before we left for NC in December, the local running company posted a coupon for $15 off the registration as one of their 12 Days of Christmas specials. I was considering running the Carmel Marathon, so I checked my marathon training plan and saw that the day of the IU Mini was the 20-mile day on my plan. So I signed up for it and figured I'd either do it and run home for my 20 mile training run, or chicken out of the marathon and just do the half. Win/Win!

So I didn't run nearly as much as I wanted over Christmas (caught a cold and too much family to visit!) and I was a little scared that I was taking on too much too soon. So I've decided to just do the half and save the marathon for after my 70.3. Today I restarted the half marathon training using the same plan I used for the first one.

I ran on the treadmill this morning. I have got to stop doing that. It is hotter than Hades in the HPER on the treadmill. Also, my ipod died. And I've been too busy playing Angry Birds and beating my husband at Scrabble to put music on my iPhone. The plan called for a three mile run, but just moving was a little difficult, so I did a run/walk routine. I walked one lap (0.25 miles) then ran a lap, until I got to 2.75 miles. Not the best, but I'll take it.

And, to make a point on this all-over-the-place post, I feel much better now. Still sore, but not as stiff, and in a much better mood. I need to remember that when I don't want to get out of bed at the ungodly hour of 5:15. Going to the gym makes you feel better.


EDIT (1:38 pm):  Today keeps getting better! We submitted a paper, of which I am the first author, for publication in the Journal of Virology and it was accepted today! I'm a soon-to-be published scientist! Woot!

NROLFW Stage 2

Holy cow. I don't know if it's the long break over the holidays, the way-too-early wake up call, or what, but Stage 2 Workout A of the New Rules of Lifting for Women sort of kicked my butt this morning. In a good way. Unless my legs fall off.

Although, I have to say, the Resolutionists were out in full force. I did see many familiar faces, but the small population of early morning HPER attendees was more than doubled today. I think it's great and hope people keep up with their resolutions.

Anyway, I'm really glad to be back at it! This is going to be a great semester!

New Year, New Blog

I'm still working on all the update posts I want to make, but in the meantime I thought I'd work on one of my goals: Make my blog more interesting.

I really enjoy reading exercise-related blogs, but I find the ones I enjoy the most include elements from the blogger's personal life. So in 2012 I plan to make my blog more personable. I will still use my blog to keep track of my fitness, but hopefully spicing it up with other stuff will make it more interesting to read. I also plan to make more frequent posts.

So today I think I figured out my spring training schedule. I'm really looking forward to getting back to it on Monday! Here's the plan:

Monday: NROLFW and swim
Tuesday: run and CycleFit
Wednesday: NROLFW and swim
Thursday: run and CycleFit
Friday: NROLFW and yoga
Saturday: long run
Sunday: much needed REST!

It's kind of a lot, but I really want/need to take swim lessons. This schedule means I can't take Judy's CycleFit class, but I may rearrange when the swim lessons are over. I am really liking the New Rules of Lifting for Women and want to keep up with that. And I've wanted to incorporate yoga into my fitness plan for a while. But if it proves to be too much, I can reevaluate and rearrange. Overall I'm really excited about this!

Exciting News!

I'm posting this from my new iPhone 4s! Hopefully blogging will be more frequent and include more pictures.

Also, I still promise to fill you in on things. Soon!