Training Day 7-11

Despite the title, there are no Slurpees in this blog post. I'm just behind as usual.

Day 7
Mondays are yoga days. Afterwards I ran 1.10 miles in 15 minutes 30 seconds. I added an extra few minutes to my last running interval to push myself a bit further in my training after having taken so much time off.

Day 8
Back on the bike and in the pool today. 30 minutes on the bike at a steady pace. I went 5.44 miles, still short of the 6.2 miles of the 10K biking portion of the mini triathlon. Biking is so much easier with media attached to the handlebars. I guess an iPod will have to do during the actual event if I get separated from my friends. A 400 yd swim in 13 minutes followed my bike ride. I'm taking shorter breaks and doing longer intervals in my swim each progressive day.

Day 9
Back to the dread-mill on Wednesday. 2.13 miles in 30 minutes. I pushed my last running interval to 5 minutes on day 9, probably the longest I had ever run without stopping in my life as sad as that sounds. I struggled with asthma for a long time, especially exercise induced asthma. I haven't had a single attack since I moved to Oregon though, so allergies to something in Florida may have contributed to my trouble breathing.

I took Thursday and Friday off. My mom is in town, so I was busy with her. Not to mention sore sore sore.

Day 10
Saturdays are for early morning yoga. 7:30 AM. I need a long warm up when exercising that early. My regular instructor was out so there was a sub. I could tell that she was a classically trained instructor. She referred to the postures by their Sanskrit names and was really focused on the mind/body relationship of yoga. It wasn't nearly as challenging and fun as classes with my usual instructor. Swimming followed. 400 yds in about 15 minutes. It took me a bit longer today. I did longer intervals and longer breaks than my last swim. I also swam a bit slower to compensate for the longer intervals. (This was day 22 of the triathlon training plan I am loosely following.)

I intended to bike at home on Sunday afternoon, but my children were especially crazy all day, the little dude didn't nap and Dan left early in the day for a week long conference. All of those factors equaled me sitting on my butt watching Ghost with my mom after the kids finally went to bed at night.

Day 11
My regular yoga instructor was back today, much to my happiness. Yoga was great this morning. I followed it up with a run on the treadmill. 1.76 miles in 24 minutes. Having just completed an hour long yoga class, I shortened the warm up phase. I was also running out of daycare time, so I chopped a few minutes off of the cool down phase, too. This was day 28 of the triathlon training plan I mentioned earlier. After I ran for so long last week, I skipped ahead again. I probably shouldn't have done that. My knees are killing my today. I could hardly play chase with my kids this afternoon.

I took inventory of my body during my yoga class today and I have decided that I am in the best shape of my life. That's no easy feat at 27 after having 2 kids. I could still eat better and flatten my stomach a little more, I would like to have more upper body strengthen and I have a long way to go with my running, but the changes that I have made to my body over the past year are really great. I'm proud of myself and this mini triathlon, if I keep up with my training, will be a huge accomplishment for me.

Training Day 5 & 6

I did a little running and a lot of hiking on my vacation, but swimming was not going to happen in the Pacific Ocean. I am spoiled by my upbringing on the East Coast where it isn't unusual to swing in the Atlantic at Christmas time.

Getting back to my swimming was a little difficult.  After early morning yoga on Saturday, I skipped ahead to the end of the 3rd week of the triathlon training program that I am loosely following. I got a little mixed up with the intervals at the end, but was otherwise successful. I ccompleted my quarter mile swim in about 10 or 15 minutes. I should have updated my MapMyRun app right away because I have already forgotten how long it took me.

I biked at home tonight.  We have an inexpensive stationary bike that is sorely lacking an odometer,  so I have no idea how far I went in my half hour ride. We keep the bike in Dan's office so that we can watch NetFlix on his bigscreen monitor while we bike. I finshed an unremarkable documentary and sweat all over Dan's fancy headphones.  :)

Training Day 4

I'm either a masochist or a complete idiot.

Maybe a little bit of both.

I waited until late in the evening to run again. After dinner. Right after dinner. Right after a dinner of pizza and soda.

I seriously thought that I was going to throw up.

As a fortunate consequence, I was seriously motivated to just get through the run. I deviated from the training plan that I am using again. I ran a total of 5 minutes and walked 8 minutes of rest in between the minute long runs. I also ran a figure eight around my house to avoid going up and down the hill, in all 1.08 miles.

For those at home keeping score, that's a pathetic 12:02 pace.

On the other hand, it was a beautiful day. I had debated the night before whether or not I was going to go to the gym, something I would normally avoid on a Sunday in order to keep the Sabbath. It was an easy decision when I woke to gorgeous weather. It was dusk when I ran, slightly cloudy and slightly breezy. A picturesque Oregon evening.

I bet my Florida friends and family would be green with envy!

I'm off to Redwood National Park for a few days tomorrow. I figured out how to blog from my phone, but no promises. I'm going to try to keep exercising, that is to what I want you to hold me.

'Night!

Training Day 3

Another mostly successful day. I was regretting my late workout yesterday when I was back at the gym less than 12 hours after my run. Saturdays are usually my early days anyway,  but today was even earlier.

I biked 3.6 miles in 15 minutes before my yoga class started.  Yoga was wonderful, as always,  but a bit harder than usual. After class I swam 400 yards, including a 100 yard set. I was gone for about 2 hours in total, so I got big hugs from my kids when I got back. Then Rosie tried to do yoga on my mat.

It makes Rosie crazy when I do headstands, but she wants to do them.

I was supposed to walk for half an hour but I hiked Multnomah Falls instead. I will share pictures when I get them off of my real camera.

Training Day 2

Running. My Achilles heel. Except it's my knees and ankles. But I did it anyway. Barely.  I headed out to the gym at 7:30pm and the daycare closed at 8:30.

It was a short run anyway. Again,  I altered the training regimen. I walked 5 minutes to warm up. Then I ran 1 minute, followed by a 4 minute walk. I repeated the run/walk intervals 4 times. The total was 1.64 miles in 25 minutes. Pretty slow, but I made it.

I'm going to be feeling it during yoga and my training tomorrow.

Triathlon Training Day 1

(I'm not promising to be better at blogging. This has always been nothing more than a journal to me and I intend to keep it that way and use it however I want. It will be a good place to keep track of my training for the next few weeks though.)

I'm going to do a triathlon. A tiny one, mini sprint is the triathlon term for the distances. A quarter mile swim, 10k bike and 5k run/walk. Probably more walk than run in my case. The stake (a small region composed of about 10 LDS churches) women's organization puts it on every year. At least one of my friends is going to race with me and I'm trying to talk a few more into it. Race is probably the wrong term. They aren't even timing the triathlon and are emphasizing that it is just for fun. If you can think of a better term, let me know. 

From what I've read and heard, most people struggle with the swimming portion of a triathlon. Fortunately for me, swimming and rowing are my cardio exercises of choice, so I'm already a decent swimmer. Running has always been a struggle for me and my only biking experience is riding less than a quarter mile down the hill to my piano lesson every week. 

I found a nice beginner triathlon training plan that should have me ready in 10 weeks. Unfortunately I only have 9 weeks until the triathlon and next week is pretty much a bust while I'm on vacation. (I'm determined to run trails and kayak. I might get a swim in if the water is warm enough.) 

With all of that in mind, I'm modifying the training a little. Today I should have done a fairly easy 400 yard interval type swim (which is the same distance in the mini- tri) but it was a little too easy for me. Once I realized that I could do better, I took shorter breaks between the intervals. I also added a 2.2 mile bike ride. It was supposed to be an "easy" ride, but I live at the top of a hill- so the first part of any bike ride for me is easy and the 2nd leg is always hard! 

In the locker room at the gym after my swim

Wish me luck and dedication!

Dreaming of a White Christmas

A white Christmas isn't in the cards in Portland, but we did get our first little snow on Friday.

The view from my bedroom window first thing in the morning. 

It was really coming down for a while, but had lightened up by the time I got Rosie down for her nap and Liam bundled up to go outside to see it. He thought it was pretty cool. I was probably even more mesmerized than he was though.

Oregon is full of Christmas tree farms. We found one just a few miles away from our house. Dan and I picked the biggest tree that we thought would fit in our living room. We were a little off and had to chop a few inches off of the base of the tree.

Liam was just a tiny infant during his first Christmas. We spent his second Christmas in California, so we didn't put up a tree that year. Rosie is really breaking me in to having a baby and a Christmas tree. She cannot get enough of it! I finally put chairs up in the hallway to block her off.

We went to another tree farm today so that the kids could meet Santa without the crowds at a mall. Meeting Santa last year did not go over so well. Here's what it looked like:

He did so well this year! After watching a Charlie Brown holiday movie, he wanted to write a letter to Santa. This is what it "said."

Santa comes tomorrow. That lines says, “Don’t say anything until Santa comes, okay?”

A cement truck and a car, I want both of them.

I am a good boy. I’ll tell him if I want to go pee pee. This is Santa Claus’s potty.

We talk a lot about the potty, can you tell?

Anyway, Liam brought his letter to Santa with him to the tree farm and gave it to the Big Guy.  

2 happy kids?!?! A Christmas miracle!