Ranting Post

Yikes. Anyone else get a calendar in the mail from Runner's World? No thanks! They sent me a calendar in the mail and then billed me 21.95 for it and I never asked for one! Then they want me to send this calendar back on my dime! They sent it to me without me requesting it! Grr.

Anyways, I don't have much positive to report about my workout yesterday. I ran 3 miles and it wasn't the best run I've ever had. My legs were really tight and I never really got into the right rhythm. I biked for 20 minutes afterwords and have decided that biking on a stationary bike deems little rewards. According to the machine, I only burned 90 calories in 20 minutes. This just seems crazy. I was going at about 85 rpm, perhaps that is slow? I don't even know as I'm not really much of a cyclist. Anyways, I'm probably going to have to work on that more before the triathlon.

I plan to get a better run in tonight. We'll see how it goes.

Addicted to Events

Yep...I've signed up for another one already. Get this--my first "kind of" triathlon. I say, "kind of" because it is indoors and not what I would typically envision as a triathlon. I will be participating in the Lifetime Fitness Indoor Triathlon on Feb. 21st with the NF Endurance Team and my cousin!

Considering I am not much of a swimmer, this is going to be a bit of a challenge. I actually try to avoid swimming at all costs. I am going to have to actually go out and buy a swimsuit that I can swim in. We will see how this challenge wraps up in February!

Hope that all of you had a wonderful New Year's Day! It has gotten bitter cold here. -10 this morning. We are expected to stay bone chilling cold all the rest of the week. Yuck.

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...

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.

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!!

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!!!

Slacker

Just call me...the slacker. I've barely done any running lately. I had so much going on and just really lacked the motivation to hit the dreadmill (if you recall--I don't run when it is cold and we've reached cold temps).

Good news...I moved in with Andy. Bad news...It is an hour drive from my work. Better news...the triangle driving is over.

I did manage to get a run in last night. I swore I would never let myself "lose fitness" again. What a wierd way to phrase it--but I swear that is what they call it in the magazines. Somehow I lost fitness. My run was alright but definetly not what I expected it to be. I ran 3 miles and had to stop a few times. Lame. I just ran 26.2 less than a month ago and now I can't hammer out 3 miles without stopping. Hoping that it improves this week.