trying my best to stay optimitic

I had a hard time sleeping last night but I had a good work out this morning which always makes me feel better. I got to the gym around 5:40a and did 15 min on the stair mill before my Pilates lesson. Pilates went pretty well - I really like that I am figuring out the different movements and can tell I'm getting stronger :) My traps and neck were super tight - which would explain the head ache I have had for the last day of so. After my lesson I did another 30 min on the stair mill. I took it a bit slower because I forgot to eat anything after pilates so I was a bit low on energy. But I stayed strong and finished the 30 min feeling good. I stretched out for about 20 min or so. Then I ate some breakfast :) Now I am at work and trying desperately not to think about not having a job in 9 days and trying to see that this will all be resolved when people get back from vacation.

no more excuses

Yesterday I had Pilate's at 7a and had planned on running 4 miles before but my car had a flat front tire and by the time I actually got to the gym it was almost 7. My lesson went well - my hamstrings were a little tight but generally I'm progressing well. I can defiantly feel a difference in the stability of my core :) So after Pilate's I had to head back and deal with my car before I went in to work - which of course took way longer than expected - pretty much an all day event. So the day was stressful for many reasons and I just never got myself to go out running in the pouring rain.
Today I did much better. Before I went to bed last night I got some good reassurance about my job and it started snowing big huge flakes - both of which put me in a way better mind set. This morning when I woke up at about 5a everything was covered in an inch or two including the roads.
I got up and checked the Bellevue road cameras to see what it looked like on the roads to the club and they looked manageable so I got my self out the door. I made it a couple minutes before the 6a spin class. I felt really good - it was a endurance focused class with 30 min or so of consistent high cadence (90s) then about 30 min of gradual increased seated climbing/increased resistance. I really tried to keep my upper body quite and keep my core active and stable. I felt bad about missing my run yesterday and I felt pretty good so I ran 2 miles after the spin class. It was cold, very wet and I know I'm not supposed to do that but I felt like I needed it.

recap

After the power outage fiasco last weekend, getting ready for the holiday and an issue at work I just have not been on top of posting my workouts. Now that I have a moment to go over what I have done since the last post. Thursday I had Pilate's in the morning - as usual it went really well. She had me do a new hanging pull up thing which was really difficult. I'm starting to get the inverted sit up things pretty good as well :) Afterwards I went for an easy 5 mile or 50 minute run down on west lake sammamish pkwy. I felt good - I really tried to keep my pace up and keep it "easy". The great thing is that my foot has not been bothering me. I was a bit low on energy but I think that was mostly due to eating to many Christmas cookies the night before. lol
Friday I took off as a rest day - though it is was mostly full of stress from work. oh well. Saturday I was going to ski or ride but instead I finished holiday shopping :( and of course it was pouring rain and Kyle would not take his bike out of the garage in that weather. lol
Today I talked Kyle into getting up early - well earlier than he would have liked 8:30am and go for a 4 mile run with me. We just went down to sammamish trail and did 2 out and then back. I felt ok though my mouth of filmy the entire time which made it hard to breath. Other wise it was good - since the miles were marked I could check our pace :) 1 - 9 min, 2 - 8:25, 3 - 9, 4 - 8:16 :) for a total time of 34:41 min. We finished right before it started raining and raining and raining..

all mixed up

This whole power outage thing is starting to wear on me and my power is not even out - but half the gym is closed and I can't seem to get a couple of days of work outs straight. Yesterday I did have Pilate's even though the front desk people said they were not doing them due to the power outage. It was good but the room was cold and kind of dark. I was supposed to swim but since my normal pool is closed I was going to swim with Kyle at his other gym - he wound up working till after 9 (pool closed at 10). I could have gone and swam at Helen Madison with Col at 8 but in the effort to spend some time with Kyle I choose him and his pool. So in the end I did not get my swim in :(
Today I just mixed up my work outs - I did 45 min of stairs and then stretched when I was supposed to run 5 miles and do arms. I figure tomorrow I have Pilates and afterwards I can do my run esp since I'm taking the day off from work to deal with Holiday stuff and go to the Nutcracker with Kyle and Joan.
I can't wait for things to go back to normal...

cold nights

I feel like a total slacker and did not do my Friday, Saturday and Sunday workouts but this weekend was kind of crazy. (Of cource Kyle lectured me about keeping everything in perspective and letting it go - it is only December). We lost power late Thursday night and it stayed out till mid morning Sunday. It was cold.. Luckily we have a gas range and gas hot water heater so we were able to cook and take hot showers. We tried to heat the house using the fireplace but it only did so much. I'm still just so happy we got our power back. My mom and a lot of other people won't have power till maybe the end of the week - even the rest of our neighborhood is still dark.
This morning I tried to get back on track with a 4 mile run with a hill. It was crazy cold so I waited till there was a sliver of daylight ie 7am to start. I started at the club and ran down hill to the trail out a mile then back and up the long hill back. I felt pretty good - kind of cold but good. No pain in my foot which is always wonderful. The hill still kicked my but but I kept going and keep my pace up as much as possible.
Then I tried to do an arm and abs workout but the club only has half of its power back. Only one cardio area was open and the only weights they had were in the circuit training area. It was sweltering hot and sooo crowded I just did a quick few bicep curls and shoulder raises then stretched out as much as I could.

dark and stormy

This morning I got back in the swing of things - getting up around 5:30 am to get to a 6 am Pilate's lesson. It was great - I'm starting to feel like I have clue and improving. Today she increased the resistance on some thing and has started adding in more difficult movements/positions. The over head ab things are definitely the most difficult - but each time I do them I can maintain better form and it is not as bad. The best thing is that I feel like my core is becoming a lot more stable and strong (and my little pooch is going away :) Today was the first time I really felt like it was a work out - still not comparable to most of my other work outs but I could feel the benefits. The whole thing is just hard to explain I guess.
Afterwards I ran for 30 min outside in the cold. I have no idea how far I went or what my pace was so I just ran for time. I did go run the hill on 40th near the club to challenge myself which it did but I was able to keep going and tried to keep my pace up as well. Other wise I felt good - I forgot to eat anything which sort of sucked and running on sidewalks still bothers my foot some. But everywhere else was still very dark and common sense won. Just for fun I did the last 6 min at a sprint pace and up a gradual incline. It felt good to move my legs a bit faster and kept my focus off my foot and empty stomach. Afterwards I stretched out for about 15 min focusing on my calves and legs in general. I have also rolled a tennis ball under my foot and iced.

years gone by

First off I was completely exhausted yesterday morning from getting up a couple times in the middle of the night to check on Pixel (my cat) to giver her pain medication and do to just general concern for her. So I did not do my planned 3 mile morning run :(
I did still meet Colleen to go for a swim in the evening at Helene Madison Pool - which is where I learned how to swim and swam at till I was about 13. It was so strange being back everything looked smaller and the entire time we were there I was remembering little things. Anyway on to the workout - The goal was 2000 yrds but I ran out of time and only got in about 1800 yrds.
Warm up - 300 yrds
Drills - 200 yrds
Main set -
100 @ 1:50 15 sec rest x 3
200 with pull buoy easy
100 @ 1:52 15 sec rest x 3
200 with pull buoy easy
100 @ 1:55 15 sec rest x 3

I felt kind of tired but generally ok. It took me a while to get warmed up and moving. Once I got going I really tried to maintain good form esp when I got tired. I'm still not very patient when I breath and some times I fall back on pushing down rather than pulling back - but at least I was able to recognise it and correct quickly.

always fun to push the legs

This morning I did 20 min of stairs on the stair mill to warm up. Then a leg workout. Squats with 10lb ball on balance board x 50. One leg squats on balance board with 10lb ball x 25 on each leg x 3 sets. Lunges with one foot on a bosu with 10lb ball 25 each x 3 sets. Balance on one foot while tossing a 5lb ball side to side to side 50 tosses on each leg x 2 sets. Hamstring curls with ball 25 with both legs , 25 on each leg x 2 sets. Calf raises to fatigue. Lateral side jumps 50 x 2 sets. Then I stretched out really well. I felt pretty strong - it did take me a bit to get some of the single legs stuff stable and not shaky but I was able to do it.
I tried to go to bed early last night but it took me a while to fall asleep - it is always hard when Kyle is away. I think I need to be getting more sleep so this week I will try and go to bed at least an hour earlier - hopefully by 10ish rather than 11-12. Which will give me 7-7.5 hours vs only 6 hours of sleep.

too much at once

This weekend has been to crazy. It started on Friday when I noticed one of our cats - pixel was not able to go to the bathroom and was trying which led us to the vet hospital and we were there till midnight. She had to stay to have a catheter put in to drain her bladder. We did not sleep much that night - the vet called around 2 am saying that she was doing ok and that they found that she had some sizable stones in her bladder and a lot of solid build up as well. Pour thing..

Anyway so Saturday Kyle went and coached skiing while I got another hour of sleep before I went and did a spinning class for 60 min. I had planned on riding outside but I just could not get myself to go while it was pouring rain. My legs felt great even though I was a bit tired. I just tried to keep my cadence up around 100 and I did 2 "climbs" where I increased the resistance for 5 minutes each.
Later in the day we went and visited pixel at the vet, then to a toys for tots party, then to Bmans birthday dinner.
Sunday has not been much calmer - I went to hot yoga with Steph. I was kind of all over the place - I had a hard time with my left leg tightening up a bit - my shoulder/bicep muscles hurt. Ah well some days it is easy others it is not.
Kyle had to work most of the day and had to catch a plane at 5:45. Pixel pulled out her catheter and the vet said they would be able to move up her surgery to today vs Thursday.. So I'm waiting to hear how it went and that she is ok. Hopefully tomorrow I can pick her up and bring her home finally.

brrr

I had great fun this morning swimming - though the pool was very cold getting in (I don't get it). This mornings goal was to build up my endurance by swimming an overall longer distance.
The plan was to warm up with 200
drills 100

4 X 50 easy
3 X 100 moderate
2X 150 mod hard
1 x 200 easy
2 x 150 mod hard
3 X 100 moderate
4 X 50 easy (actually just kept going for a 200 easy)

cool down 100
Total=2200 yrds Actual overall time: 61 min

I kept my rest time as short as I could between intervals (take a couple breathes and go) and around 45 sec or so between distance change. I felt really good the whole time even in the longer sets I kept my pace even. My shoulder never really hurt much - only when I fell back on bad form when I breathed but I quickly corrected and was all better. I think that last lesson really helped - the wall of the pool seemed to come at me sooner and for the first time I wanted to keep swimming more just because it felt good - to bad I had to go to work lol.

evening run

I stayed up to late last night and just could not make it to a morning work out. Luckily tonight I agreed to run with Steph and a couple of other expedia ladies. It was fun we just ran probably about 4 -.5 miles at a 10 min mile pace for a total time of 47:38. Before we started I felt kind of tired and just bogged down from work and stuff. But once we started I felt great and even the initial hill up from expedia felt easy - which surprised me. I felt like I could have run faster and a lot longer :) I did have some weird pain in my left knee - which I have no clue where it came from and still hurts a bit right now. I stretched out afterwards and used the stick in my legs to see if it was because of some tight muscles.. I had planned on going to the gym after my run but decided to just go home and do a few of the pt exercises so that I have eenrgy for my swim tomorrow morning.

in the water

This morning nice and early I did my swim work out - total of 1600 yrds in about 50 min. Warm up - 300. Drills - 300: side kick 100, side switch 100, side switch w/ fists 100. Main set: 50, 100, 150 w/ pull, 200, 200, 150 w/ pull, 100, 50. Cool down - 100 kicking on back. I focused a lot of being patient and not pushing down but pulling down and back with a bent elbow. It was great my shoulder did not hurt at all - which is a first. Usually it will get a bit tight no matter what. :)
After swimming I did a Pilate's lesson. I feel like I'm improving at least I have some clue about the sequence of movements and such. She gave me a bunch of ab exercises to do on my own that target the lower abs that need so much attention.

basic morning

This morning I ran 3 miles in 27 min on the treadmill out of the pure convenience factor. It was boring and I am still sore from the leg exercises this weekend - but I got it done all the same. I stretched my legs and then did arm and upper body workout. My shoulder felt surprisingly ok and I did some core exercises.
For some reason I'm a bit shaky right now - I don't really know what it is about but hopefully it will resolve itself as I eat through out the day.

weekend in review

I started the weekend off with hot yoga fallowed by doing some weight training focusing on legs including a bunch of the pt exercises for my foot. I made sure to do extra sets on my left side to start balancing out. I also added a few bicep curls and shoulder presses while I did one leg squats on the balance board to make things more challenging. Kyle coached all day and said the skiing was really good at Alpental - I guess they even opened International.
Sunday I ran with Steph - who is still recovering from a broken rib and has only just started running a mile or two - so we took it easy and just ran around Beaver lake. It was very cold and the roads still had some snow/ice along the sides. Parts were super slippery. I felt really good and even though my legs were a bit sore from working out yesterday it just felt good to run again.
I considered going skiing today - but Kyle called and said it sort of sucked - frozen and they did not groom so it is just bumpy and hard. I guess I'm now officially a fair weather/condition skier. lol who would have ever thought that would happen. I did watch some good ski racing on tv for a bit anyway.
Some wonderful news is that Colleen qualified for Boston today at the California International Marathon :) Yeah!! I know she worked really hard and she defiantly earned it.

I have been thinking a lot about whats next - since I don't have any races coming up for a couple months. First off I want to be able to run 10 miles with ease at a 9 min mile pace. I need to build my endurance and speed swimming. Build up and balance out my overall muscle strength esp in my core. Though mainly I need to not get bored and stay focused on the big prize/challenge of IMC - which I'm sure will be here before I know it.