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.