The Lowdown

I literally sighed before I started writing this.  I feel like so much has been happening, but it's all been the same boring stuff and I just didn't feel like writing about it.  So, to recap, I've still been watching what I eat and trying to work out more than I was before.  Last week was a bit of a slip-up, but that was mostly due to work factors beyond my control than anything else and this week I'm back on the bandwagon.  See? 

That's a screen shot of my Daily Burn calendar listing my exercise calories (calories out) and eating calories (calories in).  I've still been losing weight and I've got less than 10 pounds to go now until I reach my "goal weight".  It seems to be a slow, but steady, process, but I'm thrilled to see the scale keep going in the right direction.

So, if you look closely at Monday, February 7, you'll see that I only burned 36 calories.  That's because I've started something new!  A Hundred Push-Up plan!  Which is crazy to me.  In the initial test, I did 10 push-ups.  Drew estimated that I'd be able to get 4 and when I got to 6, he announced that he was officially surprised.  I kind-of wanted to die after those first 10 and it made me think that there is no way that I'll be able to do 100 all in one sitting.  However, I know that every time I've ever followed a plan, I've made it to the finish line, so I'm hoping that this will be just like that.  I even downloaded the fancy iPhone app to record my progress.  Yesterday I did 35 push-ups (in 5 sets), so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I'll get there.

I also found out on Monday that I got a spot to the NYC Half-Marathon on March 20!  Which is soon, but I'm not too worried.  Somehow all these races seem a lot less daunting now that I've done them once already.  I've figured out a fairly loose training plan that will ensure that I get my long runs in and I'll sort-of wing the rest of it.  I'm not an injury-prone runner, so I don't forsee any issues with upping my mileage although now I can really see a new pair of shoes in my future.

Last Saturday Drew and I did a challenge that his trainer, Billy, gave to him.  It was to run one mile on the treadmill at an incline of 10.  Which doesn't sound too hard until you're actually doing it.  Drew finished his mile in about 10:30 and I finished mine in 12:57.  I did a mix of jogging and walking because I knew that there was no way I'd ever be able to run the whole thing and stay on the treadmill, so I alternated back and forth.  I was a sweaty disaster by the time I finished.  I'm hopeful that the next time I try it that I can get a little bit faster.

I've also been going to Pilates on Thursdays with Nicole.  I decided this morning that it's getting easier and harder at the same time.  Harder in the sense that I feel like Nicole keeps pushing me to do more difficult exercises, but easier because I'm getting the hang of things now.  I'm also 100% sure that the Pilates that I've been doing helped me with my push-up quest.  So, in that regard, I don't imagine giving up on Pilates any time soon!

I know I've been a bad blogger recently.  I'm struggling with the monotony of going to the gym all the time.  I either need to toughen up and get outside or the weather needs to get better.  Or maybe both would be ideal.  I just haven't felt like writing about going to the gym.  I think it's boring.  Mostly because it seems like when I'm outside, I notice something interesting to mention or have a conversation with a stranger.  I've realized that no one talks at the gym.  Ever.  It's a world of headphones, which is sort-of sad, in a way.  The weather is looking up for weekend, so I'm hoping that means that I can get outside again!

You Make It Look Easy

This morning I met Nicole for our regularly-scheduled pilates session.  Luckily, this week wasn't nearly as crowded as last week, which made it a little easier for teaching, I think. Nicole had me start off on the foam roller again, which isn't all that easy to balance on it while doing different exercises.  Of course, Nicole had to say that since I wasn't moving all over (I take that as a sign that my core muscles are actually in decent shape) that I was making it look easy! 

Ha!  That was the first 10 minutes or so of our session.  It only gets more difficult from there.  I think if I only had to do 10 minutes of pilates, I could be a rock start.  It's doing all that core work for 55 minutes that's really the killer!  Of course, I'm still loving it.  It's a nice change from the gym once a week and knowing that I have to meet Nicole and that I paid for these sessions is a huge motivator in keeping me going! 

7 Days

Today marks one week of counting calories and starting to be more regular in my workouts.  I have to come clean and say that today's blog post title was brought to you by this video:

I don't know if I've seen any difference on the scale yet.  I'm waiting until tomorrow to weigh myself.  I'm feeling more in the groove, so even if there isn't any loss, I'm just going to keep going with everything as I have been. 

Yesterday after work I headed to the gym to do some more cardio.  My left calf was still a little iffy from last weekend (I think that today it finally feels back to 100%), so I decided to skip running again and just go for the "other" types of cardio.  I ended up doing a half an hour on the stair mill and a half an hour on the elliptical.  I definitely burn more calories on the stair mill, but I'm not sure I could stand doing that for more than 30 minutes. 

I ended up going to the gym on the ground floor of the building that I work in.  The gym I belong to has branches all over the city and with the membership that I have, I can go to all of them.  I'm pretty sure my membership is up in March and I've really been toying with the idea of switching gyms.  And then something like yesterday happens and I remember how nice it is to be able to go to the gym anywhere I want.  It's really something to consider.  It's just so gosh-darn expensive!  Being healthy should be cheaper! 

This morning I had pilates with Nicole. Pilates is not a huge calorie burner (not shocking), but I really like it.  A lot.  It is sort-of fun because I never really know what Nicole will throw at me on any given day.  This morning we sort-of had to shuffle around the studio because there was a very full house, but it worked out just fine. 

We started out on the reformer using a foam roller, but not in the typical way. I was laying on top of the foam roller and then had to balance on that while doing some other exercises.  There was a moment where I was sure I was going to roll off the reformer, but I guess my ab muscles caught me, because I was fine! 

We ended up working on the tower and I realized today that Nicole has a thing for my hamstrings.  As in, she likes to torture them.  Or maybe she's trying to make up for the fact that I tortured them myself while marathon training.  Either way, they definitely get a lot more (and better) stretching on these pilates days than they do on a regular day.  It's both good and ouchy at the same time. 

I've got one more day of waking up early before work and then three days in a row when I can get up as I please!  Hooray for long weekends!  I'm just a little too excited about this one coming up.  I'm planning on trying out running again tomorrow and also doing some more weight lifting.  Last Saturday when I did some weight lifting, I had to use the plate-loaded machines instead of free weights and I was doing the chest press at 80 or 90 pounds.  I really don't think I could do that on the bench press, but I might want to test it out just to see if I could do it once (or maybe even twice!).

Stair Mill & Elliptical
Time: 1:00:42
SM Distance: 2.80 miles
Elliptical Distance: 2.50 miles
Calories: 500
Max HR: 176 (83%)
Average HR: 158 (75%)

Pilates
Time: 54:00
Calories: 115
Max HR: 118 (56%)
Average HR: 90 (42%)

Christmas, Yoga & An Extended Holiday Break

So, as I did last year, I traveled to Wisconsin on December 18-19 to make cookies with Drew's family.  I'm pretty sure we made even more cookies than we did last year, including mixing in our new Star Wars Cookie Cutters to make some non-Christmas themed cookies!  Somehow we were much more efficient this year, even given the additional cookies made, that we made it to yoga class on December 19 and after baking for a few more hours that day, I even helped Drew's parents decorate their tree! 

It must have been the season for yoga, because I ended up going back to yoga on Christmas Eve Day and the day after Christmas!  And then there was a blizzard in New York City.  Which meant that instead of flying home on December 26, we were going to be extending our vacation by a few days!  So, I made the most of it by enjoying hanging out with Drew's parents and living the retired lifestyle.  This entails having fancy lunches, getting mani/pedis, knitting, and more yoga!  I'm happy to say that I made it to yoga a total of 5 times when we were "stuck" there over the Christmas holiday.  And I even went to the local Y with Drew one morning, too! 

The only downside to being in Wisconsin longer than planned was that it was sort-of like doing the Wardrobe Challenge all over again!  Having so few outfits that you have to then spread out over 10 days is a little interesting, but I managed to make it work with some help from Drew's sister!  We spent the New Year in Chicago, which was always the plan and managed to make it home on January 2. 

It's been great to be home, but other than doing Pilates with Nicole yesterday, I'm totally slacking in the workout department.  I didn't even take my running shoes with me to Wisconsin, which meant that doing a marathon tomorrow is totally out of the question.  So, I'm bowing out of that one.  Which is probably okay since I got an e-mail today saying that the trail is a little iffy due to all the snow we got before and the snow that we got today! 

Now that it's 2011 and I've read blog post after blog post about resolutions or goals for the New Year, I figure I should take a long look at my own fitness (or lack thereof, currently) and get back on the wagon.  I'm feeling like I'm in a bit of a slump and I need to get over this in order to get back to the shape I'd like to be in.  Which also means that I need to pay a bit more attention to what I'm eating, too.  I don't know that I have the discipline to take a photo of everything I eat (and, frankly, I eat a lot of boring stuff, so I don't think you'll want me to anyway), but I do think that I might post some sort-of progress along the way so that I can keep myself more accountable. 

In terms of racing goals for the new year, I still want to have a speedy 5K race in March.  I even printed out a plan on how to get there.  I think that for the rest of this month, I need to work out some sort of a "plan".  I think it might look something like running 3 days a week, pilates 1 day a week, strength + other cardio 2 days and resting 1 day.  Or something sort-of similar to that.  The biggest goal for 2011 is the NYC Marathon.  I've got no triathlons on tap as of right now, but I think that'll change eventually.  I just need to get my act together and really look at the calendar before I make any decisions. 

I'm going to be posting more regularly once I get back to it.  Drew and I are going to San Francisco in April and our goal is to be "hardcore" until then.  Just to see what kind of shape we can get ourselves into in the next three months.  Should be a fun ride! 

Merry Christmas To Me!

On Monday I had the first part of my Christmas present to myself.  My friend Nicole became a Certified Pilates Instructor last year.  I took lots of other pilates classes with her when she was going through her certification.  I was really nervous to start again since I've been neglecting my core so well during marathon training.  However, I had really enjoyed pilates when I did it before, so I'm starting up again.  For now, I'm doing 5 classes, but I have a sneaking suspicion that will turn into more!

When I got there and Nicole asked if there was anything specific I wanted to work on, I just laughed and said my stomach since it hasn't been doing much work.  I figured that it wouldn't be a problem.  I mean, after only like three or four exercises, I was already shaking.  It was really nice to be back and I'm glad that I signed up for classes with Nicole.  Having one-on-one attention is nice so that she can make sure I'm keeping my form up while doing all the exercises! 


Tuesday Laura and I had made plans to meet in the morning before work, except that it didn't work out and we ended up not meeting.  So, I headed to the gym after work instead.  I started coming down with a bit of a cold and I knew that it probably wasn't going to be my best effort ever.  Plus, the small gym by our house was pretty much jam-packed. 


I got the very last treadmill available and the whole time I was running there was a bit of a line forming, so I felt like I really had to adhere to the 30-minute time limit that our gym has.  So, I ran three miles in just over 30 minutes and called that good.  I followed it up with 15 minutes on the stair mill, something I haven't done in a while.  Boy oh boy, did I forget how sweaty that machine is! 


After all that, I spent a lot of time stretching.  I know that I need to be doing this every time and there's no time like the present to start.  My legs were a little tired from pilates on Monday and some of the stretches that Nicole had me do then, so I figured that more stretching was probably a good thing. 


Today I'm taking a rest day.  From work and working out.  I woke up feeling even more congested and with a sorer throat than earlier this week, so I knew that if I wanted to feel better sooner, resting would be the best thing for me.  I'm flying for the next three weekend and that never helps me feel any better, so I thought this would be the best opportunity.  I've been planted on the couch sleeping and drinking lots of fluids and taking lots of Vitamin-C to try to nip this cold in the bud! 


Running
Time: 31:27
Distance: 3.00 miles
Pace: 10:28/mile

Stair Mill
Time: 15:00
Distance: 1.25 miles
Pace: 12:00/mile

Need A Routine

Yesterday Drew and I were signed up to do a duathlon in Central Park. He woke up still feeling under the weather, so he wasn't going to do it. I, however, was thinking that it would be fun and just was going to go and have a nice workout. I definitely wasn't in it for a win.

We woke up early and I got all ready to go. As we were walking to the park, We walked by a Dunkin Donuts and Drew said he'd like to stop and get a coffee and that he'd meet me there.

So, I decided to ride my bike the rest of the way there instead of walking. I changed into my bike shoes and hopped on my bike. I didn't get very far. I barely went one block before realizing that my back bike brake wasn't working quite right and that it was probably a very bad idea to go and try and do a race without properly functioning brakes.

So, we turned around and went home. I really only have myself to blame. If I had ridden since the triathlon, I would have known something was wrong and could have gotten it looked at before yesterday's race. I'm mostly upset that I paid for a race I didn't participate in. We ended up going to Toga in the afternoon and now the bike is all fixed and safe again. Apparently I need to become a better braker (although I really think it wasn't me and instead something caught on the brake cable on our way home from Westchester).

After I didn't do the duathlon, I thought about going to the Terrier swim practice, but I just happened to be napping when I would had to leave for practice, so I ended up not doing anything yesterday. I think I'm okay with that. I am a little worried that since I don't need to be training for anything specific right now that I'll just slowly stop going to the gym, but I'm really going to try to keep myself motivated.

This morning I met Nicole for pilates at 8 instead of our usual 7 a.m. timeslot. As weird as it is for me to say this, I think I actually prefer the 7 meeting time more. It lets me go home after and get ready for work instead of just quickly changing at the studio and then heading to work. Nicole is just about done with her pilates apprenticeship, so I'm going to have to decide what to do about continuing my pilates practice.

Our session was good. Nicole let me do side splits (my favorite pilates exercise) again. I tried to go down further, but she explained that the more you do the splits, the worse your form becomes and you could hurt your back. It is still just really fun anyway. What is not fun, however, is the chair. Ugh. She had me do the ab series on the chair and it's just a lot harder that way. Probably because you're forced to keep your head, neck and shoulders rolled up and you can't cheat because there isn't anything underneath you.

I am getting worried about not having to be in shape for anything until March and the half-marathon. I'm having trouble self-motivating and I'm hoping that it won't be a slippery slope. I even tried making a schedule for myself and I'm already having trouble sticking to it. Work is also ridiculously busy this time of year, so I'm hoping that once it calms down next week, I can really get back into working out more regularly and just establish an off-season routine.