Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Unbalanced

I am unbalanced. At least that is what my new Wii Fit keeps telling me. I was pretty skeptical about playing games on a gaming console in an attempt to "get fit" but my wonderful boyfriend bought me this device for Christmas so I figured I'd give it a go. I probably wouldn't feel comfortable soley relying on this device to keep up my fitness so of course I still have made it to the gym to run or do the eliptical.

I won't go into the details of every aspect of this system because there is just too much to talk about. That and some of the details are rather embarrasing. (Like how it adjusts your clothes so that they don't fit!) Every day after doing the Wii Fit, I end up really sore so I figure it must be doing something. Evidently I am really pretty bad at balancing. I haven't even tried the Yoga stuff yet but I'm assuming it will tell me that I suck at that too. It did, however, tell me that I was a "calorie roaster" in most of the aerobic exercises. It also has a few games where you can run (in place of course). It also said that I was strong with the strength exercises but I think it may be lying to me there.

Anyways, that is how I have been spending most of my hours after work this week. The gym has been rather empty and I'm just waiting for it to fill up with "New Year's Resolutioners". AH how I hate January at the gym...

Monday, December 28, 2009

2009 in a Wrap Up and Goals for 2010

In the Year 2009....

Added some new running partners to the mix--
Started the season with the Run of the Mills 5k with my brother and dad.
Tried to balance running with school and volunteering and didn't always succeed.
But most important--
Finished my goal of running the Twin Cities Marathon.
And then returned to Kansas City to run the marathon relay with my cousin and brother!


For the Year 2010...

I plan to resist the urge to run 26.2 this year. I don't have the time to do so. My goal is merely to run the Chicago Rock N Roll Half Marathon. It is also to finish up my classes and start student teaching in the fall! I may add a few extra races when I see that I have the time to do so. But they will be mostly shorter races. My ultimate running goal this year is to increase my speed.

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

6 Stupendous Miles

My runs have felt soo good lately. I think that break really helped. I ran 6 miles in under an hour yesterday and felt awesome afterwards. YAY!

On a funny note. Yesterday when I was at the gym running--there was this dude behind grunting like he was on the toilet. At first I was concerned like perhaps there was something wrong and I was tempted to glance back. But his grunt continued every time I heard his weights lift from their setting, and I figured he was alright. Grunters usually bug me period--but this guy really sounded like he was straining over the lou. And the noise continued for the duration of my gym visit...Odd duckling.

The next few days will be bittersweet here in Minnesota. I'm really looking forward to the holidays but not looking forward to the Mammoth of a snow storm that is headed our way. I've heard estimates as high as 20"!!! And the tires on my car are really bad. Which really sucks because my car is only 2 years old.

Anyways, hope you all have the best of holidays!!

Friday, December 18, 2009

Back and Ready to Rock It

Sorry for the extremely long delay in posts. It appears that I was hit with a whirlwind of "other stuff" to do and my workouts were really lacking. I have 3 weeks before school starts back up again and I'm going to make the most of it.

Yesterday I managed to turn something that I used to hate into something I now enjoy. Intervals! I really did despise them before and used to actually avoid them as much as I could. But this whole treadmill thing is starting to get boring real fast and I also wanted to try to up my speed before Chicago RNR. So....I rocked the intervals yesterday. I actually came out feeling really strong--ran a little over 3 miles and increased my speed by 2 minutes for the intervals. I'm hoping to get it up a little higher the next time that I do intervals.

Anyways, life has been hectic lately. Next semester is going to be even worse. In an attempt to student teach by next fall--I am cramming more classes than normal in. My work load has also been slightly stressful and I've just increased my commute. That and it is winter in Minnesota--so the snow storms usually leave me with 2-3 hour commutes. Ick.

Anyways, on a positive note--I've found a new love in intervals! Happy holidays to all of you!!!