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! 

The Weekend Update

Saturday started out my birthday with a great yoga class in Wisconsin at the Yoga One studio in Cedarburg. I was a little unsure of how I would do with my left arm in class, but I also knew that I wasn't going to be ashamed or embarrassed if I couldn't do everything. I definitely noticed after about 5 minutes that keeping my elbow straight for such a long time was making it a little bit sore. And once we started the vinyasas, I definitely noticed that putting lots of body weight on my straight arm wasn't the best.

I did the best I could and hung in there for most of the class. I couldn't do a couple of things and I chose not to do some other poses (like crow, for instance), but I was really glad that I went. Overall, I felt a lot better after class, even if I did leave with a sore elbow. It reminded me that I wish I was going more in my regular life and that perhaps after the NYC Triathlon training is done and over with, maybe I should incorporate more yoga in my life. I'll have no excuse not to!
The rest of Saturday was spent eating and shopping and getting a mani/pedi and eating some more. Not the worst way to spend a birthday! We got to bed at a reasonable time on Saturday night because there was a very big race to race on Sunday morning! Drew's sister, Kara, had mentioned a few months ago that she wanted to start running. I had e-mailed her some tips and things and she had started a run/walk plan. I suggested that she might enjoy having a goal in mind and I found the Dennis Krzykowski Memorial 5K which was taking place on July 4, when I knew we'd be in town. I thought it would be fun for all of us to run together.

It ended up that Kara's friend, Mara, and our friend, Eric, also decided to do the race, so there was a team of 5 of us participating. Drew's parents came out to cheer for us. Kara had come up with the great team name of "Mom's French Toast Brigade". Drew's mom makes the best French toast and we were all looking forward to breakfast after the race! Drew's mom is also an expert seamstress and made all of us some very fancy shirts to wear with our team name:


Drew & I pre-race:


We all walked over to the race start together to pick our packets and t-shirts and pinned our numbers on:


Pretty soon, it was time for the race to start. I figured that I'd carry my camera along with us for the race. Kara kept saying over and over again that this was a "fun run", so I thought that it'd be pretty fun to have some photos during the race! Here we are starting out:


And then Drew took the camera so that I could be in a shot:


These were both taken in the first mile. There were water stations at both the first and second mile marker, which was nice. I actually didn't look at my watch when we got to the first mile marker, so I don't know how long it was taking us, but I will say that I was having fun, so maybe that was the point!

Drew also took this video of us running towards him on our way to the first mile marker:



Somewhere between the first and second miles, we split off into two groups. Eric needed a bit of a walking break, so Kara, Mara and I ended up running ahead of Drew and Eric. We ended up running all the way to the second mile marker, but from there we ended up taking two short walking breaks along the way. The course itself was actually pretty challenging. There were definitely some good-sized hills that we had to run up, but it seemed to me like we never really got to run down any hills. I'm convinced that race directors do this on purpose.

It was pretty hot the whole time we were running and I was a sweaty mess after not too long. Luckily, a couple of really nice people had their sprinklers out so that runners could run through them if they chose. I definitely made that choice the two times it was an option! Funnily enough, one of the people who had their sprinkler out for the racers was an overweight man who was standing there smoking a cigarette while watching all the runners come by. To each his own, I suppose.

After Kara, Mara and I crossed the finish line, I had a couple sips of water and then ran back to look for Drew and Eric. I was able to snap this photo as they were heading towards the finish line:


I was so proud of Kara for saying that she wanted to start running then actually waking up early to go running before work and then doing and finishing the race! It even seemed to me that she sort-of likes running and that she might stick with it now that the race is over. I'm hoping that we can make this race a 4th of July tradition as I really did have fun!

Here's our whole group post race (this is a test -- these pictures are actually different. How many differences can you see?)


I thought that this was a great way to start the 4th of July and of course, after showering and cleaning ourselves up, we all had a wonderful breakfast of French Toast! I can't find any "official" results on the internet quite yet and I'm not really sure they'll ever appear, so I'll be fine going with my watch time! Drew and Eric finished a couple of minutes after the girls. I hope that everyone had as much fun as I did during the "fun run!"

Running
Time: 34:39
Distance: 3.10 miles
Pace: 11:10/mile
Calories: 338
Maximum HR: 191 (90%)
Average HR: 175 (83%)

Oh, Yoga...Why Did I Forsake You?

This morning Drew and I did something that we haven't done in months ... yoga! His sister is visiting us for a long weekend and she practices yoga several times a week. This was a good reason for us to pull out our Yoga Passbooks and find a studio where all three of us could go and use a coupon.

I thought that we should try Laughing Lotus. We went to the Sun Celebrations class that was taught by Deborah. She had a fantastic accent that none of us could quite place, but from her bio, it turns out that she's South African. It definitely made it easier to listen to her for an hour and a half.

She spent the very first part of class talking to us about how we are mirrors for the people around us and we reflect back the good qualities and they do the same for us. And when our friends are struggling to find their purpose in life, we can help remind them of their good qualities. Sometimes I think all of this stuff is a little too new-agey for me, but this was actually presented in a way that seemed really practical.

Once we actually started the class, it was a really quick pace that she had us moving to. It was a vinyasa class and I thought I was going to die in some of the vinyasas - particularly those that were downward dog, plank, cobra/upward facing dog, downward dog. Every time she said "plank position" I think that my stomach quietly revolted a little bit from the stress on my abs. It's now been a week since I did whatever I did to them and they're still quite tired. But, I fought through it and was able to do most of the vinyasas, although sometimes I just had to stay in downward dog.

I definitely got in quite a good workout during the class if sweating is any indication. I've definitely lost a lot of flexibility in the last year, but I'm hoping that I can figure out a way to work yoga back into my workout routine. Even if it's just one night a week. Clearly, from my HR stats below, at some point I was working really hard for my heart rate to be 205! I am 99% certain that is my highest (recorded) heart rate ever. And it was quite surprising to see at the end of class. I only recorded the time where we were actually doing poses. I stopped timing for the shavasana.

Time: 1:17:36
Calories: 396
Maximum HR: 205
Average HR: 109