Lifting...

Well, at the start of the new year, actually on December 31, I made the 'resolution' to lift twice a week. I actually went to the gym that day and lifted! And since then I've actually done pretty well with that resolution! Well, except for THIS week. On Monday, which seems to be a lifting day if Sunday is not, I decided that getting my hair done took priority over lifting. A hair appointment was l-o-n-g overdue... Plus, my stylist had recently had a baby and I had not yet met him, so I got to play with baby while she did my hair. It was nice - babies are so warm and he slept a lot, it was so relaxing!

I actually took Monday off from training completely, since the day before I had swam for an hour, then spun for one and a half hours, then ran one little mile on the treadmill...I figured I could use a little break. Kind of felt guilty though!

Today after work I am headed back to my gym though for more lifting! Speaking of my gym...they are offering yoga classes, two different sessions. One started this week, on Monday. The next starts in early April. Since I'm doing the spinning on Tuesday nights I thought I'd wait and sign up for the second session starting in April. I've always wanted to do yoga and one of my MOTR friends (MOTR = Moms on the Run! There are six of us and we take fun MOTR trips and do fun MOTR things together! I'm counting down to two upcoming MOTR events: Grease at the National Theater on February 13, and starting March 3 the MOTRs are gonna Bust the Keys!) We even have matching shirts to wear in the Keys:


OK, back to blogging...one of my MOTR friends has been doing yoga and loves it, and she has totally inspired me to try it. So today when I go to the gym I am going to drop off my registration form! Yay!

Hmm, on my schedule I have 10 miles of running this weekend and will of course swim. I will fit a spin in there somewhere. Maybe I'll even stick one of my previously mentioned never-before-used Spinervals DVDs in and spin to it! What a concept!

Happy Training!

Spinning fun…

Last night was my first spin session at =PR= led by Margie Shapiro. Wow…was it ever hard! But I felt so good after! (Good that I finished, perhaps?) The class was to start at 6:00 and it was recommended to arrive 5 minutes early to set up. I left home about 5:20 and breezed over in about 15 minutes! The door was still locked but Margie showed up right after I did and other people started arriving shortly after.

There were 10 people in the room, including Margie. Her husband who is training for his first half Ironman was there on his brand new bike as well as her brother. There were two other new people (besides me) to the sessions, everyone else was quite familiar. We were arranged into an oval with everyone facing in, and there was loud music playing – it was fun!

Now, I’ve done spinning at home and even own a few Spinervals DVDs (though I’ve never actually used them (they were free) but I am now inspired to do so!) and have done some of the types of things we did last night. But I am pretty certain I’ve never worked quite that hard! It is pretty motivating to keep it up/keep trying when there are 9 other people in the room! I’ll be motivated in the future to do some of the Team Z spin classes once I’m officially back on the team!

After a 10 minute warm up we did 15 minutes of 1-legged drills of 45 seconds per leg alternating back and forth. Then we had 2 minutes of easy spinning before we moved on to the main set, which we did twice: 3 minutes of high cadence on an easy gear (trying to maintain an RPM of 120) followed by 1 minute easy then 3 minutes of low cadence on a hard gear (trying to maintain an RPM of 40-50 – each time working on a specific part of the pedal stroke) followed by another minute of easy. We then went on to 5 minutes of high cadence on a slightly harder gear than before, trying to get to 120 but as high as we could. Twice during this there were 5 second ‘bursts’ of speed. Holy cow! After this we had I think 3 sets of 30 second speed ups (or something where we increased cadence every 10 seconds) followed by 30 seconds of easy spin. After the final one (because I can’t remember how many we did…maybe it was 5 sets?) we had a warm down. Again…Wow!

I can’t wait till next Tuesday!

And going back to Sunday’s ride with Carol and Pam…it did NOT happen due to the drizzly and somewhat chilly weather. Carol and I were prepared with our EK jackets and everything! I spun at home for 1.5 hours followed by 1 whole mile on the treadmill. Carol and Pam were heading to a spin class and also were going to treadmill after. As Es --- IRONMAN said in her comment to my last post, I should just wear the damn jacket! (OK, I added ‘damn’…)

Happy Training!

PS – Here’s a link to a recent “Washington Post” article on =PR=!

Biking...

So, Carol and I were again discussing riding on Sunday. The temps were supposed to be about 50 degrees. Sounded great to me! Amazingly enough, I actually did some spinning last night at home on the trainer. About 45 minutes worth.

Today Carol tells me there is now rain in the forecast. Seriously?! Drat! I'm so annoyed. Granted last year I was riding in all kinds of cruddy weather...but I really don't want to do that again. But I do want it to be dry and chilly enough to wear our Evil Knievel jackets!!

Oh well, time to think positive. Maybe by Sunday there will not be rain in the forecast. Regardless, I did get on the trainer last night, which was long overdue. Spinning with Margie is now less than a week away. Yikes!!

Race calendar woes...

Well, I was updating more items in my race calendar today. Adding some events I would like to do and two that I am definitely doing. One is the Marine Corps Marathon - I had thought about it last year but decided I was not up for it and deferred to this year. I also signed up last year for the Reston Triathlon for this year. This morning I was looking at the Team Z 2010 race calendar and realized...sadly...that the Reston Tri is the SAME day as IM Moo. I am so sad these are on the same day because I had thought about doing that road trip this year. I guess I will be watching and tracking from home. But at least that is an option!

In my quest for a race a month I have quite a few team events marked down with a "?" after them. One I'm pretty certain I'll sign up for - the Rumpass in Bumpass. The name is great, and it will be a nice warm-up to Columbia. Same with the Kinetic Sprint, which would make two for May. I have marked the Bath County Sprint in June and July is covered in the next paragraph. The Luray weekend is marked for August and finally Beach 2 Battleship Half in November. Luray is highly possible - I can do the Oly with my son as a relay like last year then go back and do the sprint myself the next day. I have never done back to back races, well not since I did back to back 5K's in about 2001! So this would be a first for back to back tris. I will figure out B2B as I go along. And maybe I will just do a relay leg for that.

For July I have the ever popular yet relaxed kickASTtri which will either be on the 4th of July or possibly the 3rd or even the 5th. This is a low-key, free neighborhood event that is staged at the Annandale Swim and Tennis Club in (of course) Annandale, Virginia. We do about an 800 meter swim in the outdoor pool there followed by a leisurely transition to the bike. The bike is about a 14-ish mile through the neighborhood streets of Annandale and Springfield. Everyone starts and finishes the bike together where we move the the again leisurely transition to the run. From here everyone just goes at their own pace on about a 3 mile loop starting and ending at the pool. There is a shorter option for those so inclined. After everyone returns we generally have some post race snacks. And for the past couple years we've even looked 'official' with race numbers worn on the bike and run! Here is a link from 2008 with a group picture. I for some reason never loaded pictures from 2009. Guess I was kind of busy last year. So, if anyone is interested in a fun little tri on or around Independence Day just e-mail me as it gets closer!

Happy training!

January 5K...

Well, I have not completely decided but I think I will NOT do the 5K this Sunday. I can for sure meet a group and run 5 miles on Sunday morning, which is the amount on my training schedule. Or I can sleep in, go to swim practice, and drive to Fredericksburg for the 5K and do a 2 mile before/after.

As much as I wanted to have a race a month I guess I don't really need to do that. Besides, I might do two races in May - that can surely make up for it! Regardless, I will be doing the 5K in February! That one will be 5 weeks before the Shamrock Half. Then I guess 3 weeks after the half is the Cherry Blossom 10 Miler. I think my run training is in good shape.

However...I really need to get on the bike!! One week from today is the start of the 6-week spin class I'll be doing that will be led by Margie Shapiro of =PR=. I must say...I am a little nervous about it. I guess I feel like I will be way out of my league. Oh well, if I come out of it in better shape on the bike that's all that matters. Hopefully I will get a spin in this week and maybe I can fit an hour in on the bike on Saturday morning - before I go to Elvis is in the Building at the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery!

The Columbia Triathlon - which is to be my "A" race this Spring, is very hilly. Two years ago I prepared for this by one day a week bringing my bike to work and doing hill repeats during lunch time. That really helped me that year. I might just do that again this year. We'll see... If I don't get out on that bike though I might have to reclassify that race!!

Draft 2010 race calendar...

I'm glad my 2010 race calendar is a DRAFT at this point. I had plans to run a little 5K this weekend - on Saturday - and add mileage to make my long run. However...my son told me last night he had a track meet on Saturday morning AND I needed to drive him and one or two other kids. We need to be at the school at 6:45 AM. It is a 2-hour drive! The good news is that he is in the first event (4x800 relay) and we can leave shortly thereafter.

I again hoped to go on a bike ride with Carol on Sunday...but the weather is now looking rainy. Of course, it could change by then...so if that doesn't happen I will do my long run on Sunday, in the rain. (I'd much rather run in the rain than ride!) I can ride the trainer at some point over the weekend if I need to.

Decisions, decisions!

Anyway, now I need to find a January 5K!!

The t-shirt quilt...

OK, so over the weekend I finished cutting apart all of the 36 t-shirts I had decided on for my t-shirt quilt. Of all the shirts I had there were 45 that were 'usable' for the quilt. Even more for the quilt pillows. Here are pictures of the t-shirts prior to any cutting:

These are the 45 that I had to choose from:



And these are the 36 I picked for the quilt:

So...I think my next step is to dig out the ironing board to iron them out so I can then cut them down even further so I can attach the fusible interfacing...also done with the iron. Boy, my iron is going to get a work out!

I'm sure this will be a long process but it should be fun, once I get the hang of it. I'm sure the hardest part will be the bindings and the borders. But at least the sewing is a straight line. And speaking of sewing - I think I need to find my sewing machine!

Weekend update…

This weekend I caught up on a few things. First I *finally* took down the Christmas tree and decorations. Then yesterday afternoon I realized I still had one mini tree up. This is one of those fiber optic ones – it used to be my mom’s and I always loved it. However when I packed her stuff up I think I threw the power cord out. I had one that I used but it never really worked right so I did not use it much. Anyway, I need to put that away tonight.

Last week I was *supposed* to cut out 6 t-shirts a night for my T-Shirt Quilt. I did well for the first two nights then other things got in the way. On Saturday I got the remaining 24 cut. I also got other little useful ‘parts’ to use in the quilted pillow shams I hope to make after.

Saturday afternoon after taking down (almost) all of the holiday decorations I finally set out on my long run. I was aiming for 8 miles and did a combination of neighborhood streets and park trails. It was mostly the neighborhood streets though. I ran 4 miles out and turned around a came back. On my way back I deviated a little to avoid some of the hills I had hit on the way out and took the route that brought me through the school grounds where I made up a half mile on the track…nice and flat. From there I just had a mile left. All in all I had maybe a total of 2 miles of trail running. On the roads there were little bits of ice in places, but thankfully a lot of the snow and ice has cleared up. The trail was packed pretty solid though and had a few more icy spots. All in all it was a good run of 8.1 miles! Only 9 weeks and 6 days till the Shamrock Half Marathon!

Sunday morning I hit the water for my third swim of the New Year. It was good but tough! The main set was 5 x (100 kick, 100 pull, 100 swim). Total distance for me was 2,500 meters. I was pretty happy – especially at the end when I did NOT have to walk to the stairs to get out of the water. BONUS! After swim practice I lifted weights again. My legs were tired and I had a bit harder time with those machines. However, my planks are getting better - I'm holding them longer plus I'm doing the side planks now, too.

I opted not to ride on Sunday afternoon on the trainer. (I will get on the bike this week though.) I have book club tomorrow night and I had a book to finish! (And since the book is MY choice this time I figured I needed to finish it!) I read till about 10:15 last night but got it done. It was a very good book, “The Lovely Bones” also coming to the big screen this weekend. The book did not end quite the way I hoped but all in all I really liked it.

Next weekend – on Sunday – I am supposed to ride with Carol. But the 10-day weather forecast is calling for SNOW on Sunday. One of these days I’ll get to ride in my Evil Knievel jacket! I might just have to run in it at this rate!!

Happy Running!

2009 in review…

This was my 2009 race schedule:

02/15/09 - GW Birthday Marathon - did not participate
03/29/09 - Scope it Out 5K - I'm a Polyp! – check
04/05/09 - Cherry Blossom 10 Mile Run – check
04/18/09 - Rumpass in Bumpass Oly – check
04/24/09 - Colonies Zone Swim Meet - 1000 – check
05/02/09 - Arlington Science Focus 5K – check
05/09/09 - Kinetic Half - did not participate
05/10/09 - Virginia Run Sprint Tri - did not participate
05/17/09 - Columbia Triathlon – check
06/14/09 - Eagleman 70.3 Triathlon – check
06/28/09 - Montclair Tri (short Oly) – check
07/04/09 - kickASTtri – check
07/26/09 - Ironman USA Lake Placid – check
08/15/09 - Luray Tri Oly-Relay – check
09/13/09 - The Nation's Triathlon - did not participate
10/04/09 - Army Ten Miler – check
11/26/09 - Virginia Run Turkey Trot – check
12/13/09 - Blue & Gray 5K – check
12/31/09 - MADD Red Ribbon 5K - CANCELLED!

To do these, including all the races, I did the following:

Swam 88 miles in 3,210 minutes
Biked 1,544 in 6,424 minutes
Ran 563 in 6,004 minutes (this included some walking!)

To compare these with my 2008 totals:

Swim: 118 – I swam 30 miles less in 2009 (must be that 4 month hiatus I took!)
Bike: 1,321 – I biked 223 miles more in 2009 (all that Ironman training!)
Run: 691 – I ran 128 miles less in 2009 (guess I took a lot of time off there, too! )

For 2010 I don’t have any specific distance goals as I think it would be hard to compare since I am not training for Ironman this year. I'm just going for consistent training. But it will - of course - be fun to compare them all in another year…

And the verdict is...

The verdict is that last night a run won out over a spin. I actually ran 3 miles outside with Jeff followed by 2 more miles indoors on the treadmill. That means that tonight I *have* to put my tri bike on the trainer and start spinning again. I've got my old road bike on there not but it just does not fit the same. I'm spoiled with a better fitting bike, I guess.

And...last night I did it! I cut the first 6 of my 36 t-shirts for my quilt and even have a decent pair of scissors that cut material. Bonus! Six more for tonight. We're going to have a good pile of rags after. I guess I'll have no excuses for cleaning my bike now because I don't have any rags...

Two more days till I go swimming again. This time with Team Z... I checked my training log. My last recorded swim prior to Sunday was August 30! That was not a Z swim, but an outdoor swim with the JCCNV Masters (my Sunday group). But still - that was a l-o-n-g time ago! Anyway, I think I still have my basic morning swim bag packed and ready to go. It has been patiently waiting for me to use it again. I also have a barette in my bag that I've been holding for Holly forEVER it seems when she left it on the bench in the locker room at Providence!

Happy Monday...

Well, it is Monday, and I am happy, but I am freezing in my office!

I just took a short timeout for a short update:

I succeeded in finding the fusible interfacing for my T-Shirt Quilt! Before I can start ironing on the fusing I *first* need to cut off the backs, sleeves, collars, and hems of the shirts. I will try to do 6 of these a night - if I am successful I will be done by Saturday night.

Yesterday morning I did venture back to the pool. I was a bit nervous because four months is a long time. However, I survived! It was a small group - only three in my lane and eight folks total. My shoulders were screaming afterwards! And wow, for the first time in my life - I think - I did not have the strength to pull myself out of the water after the workout. I had to actually walk over to the stairs and climb out! Hopefully after a few more workouts and maybe a few lost pounds I will actually be able to do as I used to... And after the swim practice I lifted. Again. This time I did three sets of nine different machines. Between the pool and the weight room I ran into a lot of familiar faces. It was nice!

Tonight will be either a run or spin - I have not decided. I still need to switch out my bikes on the trainer. I just did not feel like doing that yesterday after my wonderful afternoon massage...but I did do planks last night!

Here's to a great week!

It's a new year...

It is a new year and I am pretty excited! There are a few things I decided to work on this year (in no particular order): organization (home and work), fitness, diet. I am a member of a secret online group to help with the health and fitness goals. For the organization goal I am on my own. Of course, this year I am not training for Ironman, so theoretically I should have a little more free time to use towards that.

Anyway, with my online group I posted the following goals for 2010:

1. healthier eating - make better food choices by consistent and honest journaling,
2. run faster - last year my focus was long distance; this year my focus is on short distances and I hope to consistently do speed work to improve my 5K and hopefully 10K times; I plan to sign up for a number of 5K races and some sprint and Olympic triathlons, possibly one 10K (Pikes Peek, which I've always wanted to do); will journal my training,
3. build muscle - requires actually getting to the gym and lifting or doing the work at home; aiming for 2x a week and plan to journal these workouts, too,
4. lose weight - if I accomplish 1-3 above hopefully this will fall into place - or fall off - I have maintained a certain weight over the past year or two, however in the past two months I've gained a significant-ish amount; the first step is getting back to where I was, after that I will reevaluate where I would like to go.

I have been journaling through December quite consistently, with the exception of Christmas weekend. I also got an iPhone this week and found a fun and free app called MyFitnessPal where I can take the journaling one step further. By entering my stats and along with my daily food and exercise the 'plan' calculates my net calories to help keep me in line for my daily calorie goal. So far I've done pretty good! {fingers crossed}

Another thing I will be working on is just a for fun project. I've got bags and bags of t-shirts (over 50 of them) from various races (run, tri, swim) and I've always wanted a "T-Shirt Quilt" - but I don't want to pay someone $300 or so to make it for me. Now, I have a sewing machine and I can sew a straight line...so I decided to make it myself. I found directions at Goose Tracks Quilts and will just take it one step at a time. Today I am going out to by the 'fusible interfacing' required for the backs of the t-shirt squares. Last week I picked out the 36 shirts required to make a Queen sized quilt. My goal is to first make one square a night. I have a few shirts that just have a small logo on the front. I may use those to make a quilt pillow to go with it. Hmm, maybe I should 'practice' with the pillow first? Nah...I am going for the real thing.

So, how am I doing with my goals (above) so far? Well, on New Years Eve I went to the gym where I did a 10 minute bike warm up and 35 minutes of circuit lifting (3 sets each of 7 different machines) followed by 3 sets of plank exercises and squats with a resistance ball against the wall. The plank exercises were in an article on Perfect Post Run Yoga in Women's Running and with the exception of yesterday have done them every day this week. I hope to incorporate the rest of the exercises in the upcoming weeks. Also, to ring in the new year I went on a 4 mile run outside. I am currently following a half marathon race plan for the March 21 Shamrock and so far so good! Yesterday I registered for the JFK 5K on January 16 and found the By George 5K on February 13 that I will sign up for as well. I will be building up my distances and work on speed and hills. I am really excited about this year!

Tomorrow will be my first day back in the pool! I am a bit nervous as I think it has been four months since I was in the water. That seems like forever. For at least the first quarter of 2010 I will be swimming most Sunday mornings with my old Masters team - JCCNV - and will start back swimming with Team Z on Thursday mornings. I guess January 7 will be my first day back with them. At the end of January I start a 6 week spin class at =PR= in Falls Church led by Margie Shapiro.

So...I am headed in the right direction, I think.