Last week was really horrible in terms of working out :( I only biked once and never ran. Boo.
Today we had our second broomball game and it was a pretty good game overall. We lost 1 to 0. We played a team that has jerseys and full equipment...all supposedly paid for by the company they work at. Fine fine, that doesn't make you a great team, fancy-pants.
Physically, it was a brutal game–they were really rough. And they cheated. For a few face-offs, they'd start a person on our side. Really? That small of a rink and you think that's necessary...and not obvious? When confronted about it, the girl just giggled. Dumb. Aside from that, the girls on the team were pretty physical. Ada got creamed in the beginning. Sarah was tangled up with a girl and after the girl fell, she grabbed Sarah's foot. ?! I got checked into the wall so hard I had to come off the ice. Really, people, this isn't hockey. We aren't in full gear. Checking wasn't allowed in CBA so I'm sure it isn't allowed in this league. My chest/rib pain was so bad by the time I got home, I decided I should go to the doctor to make sure I can still run, etc. I know that if you break a rib, there's really nothing to do about it except wait, but I just wanted to make sure I could still do things. After being poked and prodded, the doc found the painful spots and determined I have fractured the cartilage where the ribs connect to the sternum. It's cartilage there, while the ends of your ribs are calcium. Soooo... the loosey-goosey diagnosis is take a lot of Advil and don't do anything until I feel better.
Poop.
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
HMTD5: Slow Biking
I rode for 42 minutes this morning while watching another episode of 30 Days. I can't ride to music until the new receiver comes. The current receiver, from the 70s, seems to be pushing a lot of bad noise through any speakers we have hooked up. Even when everything is just on and nothing is playing, crackles and static comes through randomly. Last week I thought for sure the speakers I was using were blown...the tell-tale blaatt! came out during a song that had bass. But upon further testing (hooking those speakers up to the good receiver in the living room), Greg thinks the old receiver is the culprit. SO that's good: speakers are fine. While all this was developing, Greg also found a new receiver he wants. He's been wanting a new one for quite some time. It's ordered. Convenient timing. Soon I will be able to listen to music again, as we'll replace the old 70s receiver with the living room receiver. I think I've said receiver way too many times.
So anyway, 42 minutes of Morgan Spurlock in a coal mine. It was interesting. I kept the biking easy. My heart rate was up but I wasn't breathing hard. My legs hurt. Not sure if it was the last of the broomball soreness escaping or what. And climbing the steps to my studio this morning hurt too.
I really need to look at my bike. I am pretty certain my chain is too dry. Last night I was hoping to go to a free bike clinic that Cycle Sport is putting on. Tuesdays at 6 they have a different subject they cover for different levels. Last night was general bike maintenance. It got canceled because of the weather, unfortunately, but supposedly will be rescheduled. Next week is how to fix a flat, which I can also very much benefit from since I suck/fail at that. Then the following week is chain maintenance - how to recognize chain wear, how to clean and lube, what products to use, how to use a chain tool, etc. Sounds awesome, but I think I'll lube up my chain prior, the way I've been doing it. I don't think it can go 2 more weeks.
So anyway, 42 minutes of Morgan Spurlock in a coal mine. It was interesting. I kept the biking easy. My heart rate was up but I wasn't breathing hard. My legs hurt. Not sure if it was the last of the broomball soreness escaping or what. And climbing the steps to my studio this morning hurt too.
I really need to look at my bike. I am pretty certain my chain is too dry. Last night I was hoping to go to a free bike clinic that Cycle Sport is putting on. Tuesdays at 6 they have a different subject they cover for different levels. Last night was general bike maintenance. It got canceled because of the weather, unfortunately, but supposedly will be rescheduled. Next week is how to fix a flat, which I can also very much benefit from since I suck/fail at that. Then the following week is chain maintenance - how to recognize chain wear, how to clean and lube, what products to use, how to use a chain tool, etc. Sounds awesome, but I think I'll lube up my chain prior, the way I've been doing it. I don't think it can go 2 more weeks.
Sunday, January 9, 2011
HMTD4: Does Broomball Count?
Friday was a crazy day for my schedule. I didn't get to run as I had hoped. But Saturday morning was our first broomball game...so that counts for something, right?
Well it must count for something because I am ridiculously sore. With only 4 girls, I played nearly the entire time. But our games are only like two 10 or 12 minute halves. I guess it was 20 minutes of sprinting off and on, but damn. I feel like I fell out of the back of a truck.
Starting with the most sore to least sore: legs, butt (especially the right glute which I find interesting - I didn't know my butt cheeks worked so independently of one another), left shoulder, back, forearms, abs, elbows (from falling), palms of my hands, neck, ankles.
Pathetic!!
It was 5º when I got up today. I will see about getting on the bike and riding easy while watching something tonight. Hopefully that will help with the hurt!
Well it must count for something because I am ridiculously sore. With only 4 girls, I played nearly the entire time. But our games are only like two 10 or 12 minute halves. I guess it was 20 minutes of sprinting off and on, but damn. I feel like I fell out of the back of a truck.
Starting with the most sore to least sore: legs, butt (especially the right glute which I find interesting - I didn't know my butt cheeks worked so independently of one another), left shoulder, back, forearms, abs, elbows (from falling), palms of my hands, neck, ankles.
Pathetic!!
It was 5º when I got up today. I will see about getting on the bike and riding easy while watching something tonight. Hopefully that will help with the hurt!
Thursday, January 6, 2011
HMTD3: Running with Dead Legs
I took Wednesday off completely. It wasn't exactly intentional, but I knew I'd take either Wednesday or Thursday off. So today, I had to get back out there and decided to do a run.
At first I thought I'd do 4 miles since I had so much time in the morning. I had a 10:00 meeting and nothing to do prior, so that gave me a good amount of relaxing time to fill. I think most of my days are going to be like that coming up soon while I'm at Givaudan (which will be awesome as long as work loads allow for it!) Then I decided maybe I should just do 3. I'm a little paranoid about my IT band flaring up as I'm getting back into the distances.
Three it was, and it was cold. My face was freezing, the rest of me was fine. I saw two women running in my neighborhood as they turned up Townsley right before me - ah! running friends, wait! They were going my pace exactly, but I couldn't catch up to them. I was bummed, it would have been nice to chat with them a bit.
Soon after I turned on Montgomery, my legs stopped working. They were absolutely dead, it was pretty funny. I thought to myself: oh well, this is good practice for pushing at the end of a race! Because that's how I felt. It was bad. I guess the spinning session took a lot more out of me than I thought. I wasn't sore, but just had no power at all. Meh - to be expected as I get back into the swing of things I suppose.
Other than my dead legs, the other notable thing is my abdomen. Wow is it sore. I can't remember if I wrote about it after Tuesday's run, but I have a really bad pain deep in my lower left side - it feels like ripping. Sneezing and coughing (which I tend to do a good amount of) is awful. I can't seem to find it or rub it, but it's there. I'm not sure what I did - maybe breathed too hard or something? It's odd. I hope it goes away soon.
A very hot shower felt very good after that run. I'm glad I got out there despite the unwelcoming temperatures. Having something to train for is definitely helping a little bit with the motivation. And now, I've done three activities this week already which makes me very happy.
At first I thought I'd do 4 miles since I had so much time in the morning. I had a 10:00 meeting and nothing to do prior, so that gave me a good amount of relaxing time to fill. I think most of my days are going to be like that coming up soon while I'm at Givaudan (which will be awesome as long as work loads allow for it!) Then I decided maybe I should just do 3. I'm a little paranoid about my IT band flaring up as I'm getting back into the distances.
Three it was, and it was cold. My face was freezing, the rest of me was fine. I saw two women running in my neighborhood as they turned up Townsley right before me - ah! running friends, wait! They were going my pace exactly, but I couldn't catch up to them. I was bummed, it would have been nice to chat with them a bit.
Soon after I turned on Montgomery, my legs stopped working. They were absolutely dead, it was pretty funny. I thought to myself: oh well, this is good practice for pushing at the end of a race! Because that's how I felt. It was bad. I guess the spinning session took a lot more out of me than I thought. I wasn't sore, but just had no power at all. Meh - to be expected as I get back into the swing of things I suppose.
Other than my dead legs, the other notable thing is my abdomen. Wow is it sore. I can't remember if I wrote about it after Tuesday's run, but I have a really bad pain deep in my lower left side - it feels like ripping. Sneezing and coughing (which I tend to do a good amount of) is awful. I can't seem to find it or rub it, but it's there. I'm not sure what I did - maybe breathed too hard or something? It's odd. I hope it goes away soon.
A very hot shower felt very good after that run. I'm glad I got out there despite the unwelcoming temperatures. Having something to train for is definitely helping a little bit with the motivation. And now, I've done three activities this week already which makes me very happy.
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
HMTD2: Trainer
Last night I spent a lot of time picking out songs to make a playlist on YouTube so I could have good music and videos to watch while I rode on the trainer. MTV music just isn't cutting it. I got the playlist to 23 songs, which is longer than I'm riding right now. I will probably go back in and edit the playlist into a second one later. And I also think that I should make a Foo Fighters playlist...I'm kind of seeing that their stuff works really well for spinning–at least for me it does.
Here is what I rode to:
Brandi Carlisle: The Story - 3:58
A favorite warm-up for me
Muse: Uprising - 4:32
Easing into things...
Airborn Toxic Event: Sometime Around Midnight - 5:03
This is an awesome building song. I started out spinning easy at a normal cadence, then just upped either the speed a little or the resistance during the entire song. It was pretty fun.
Queens of the Stone Age: No One Knows - 4:18
I've never seen this video. QOTS wasn't how I had them pictured, especially the lead singer. I have to admit I love love love watching Dave Grohl drum. I just rode steady during this song, gawking at the screen.
Black Eyed Peas: I've Got A Feeling - 4:52
I thought this song might be a little cooler to spin to than it was. It was ok. I picked up the pace during it.
MIA - Paper Planes - 3:25
I most likely had a puzzled look on my face during this song, as I just couldn't stop looking at MIA with her blue eyeshadow and really weird 80s outfits. She still makes me think about the performance she did on some music awards show while she was pregnant... days before her due date. It was so funny seeing someone rap with a belly.
Killswitch Engage: My Curse - 4:04
Nothing notable during this song...thing I must have just ridden with the pace upped a bit.
Foo Fighters: DOA - 4:29
This is my benchmark song for how in/out of shape I am :) During the chorus I stand up and run to the beat with heavy resistance. The first time I did this, I pooped out in the second one. I'm happy to say I made it through all of them this time, though I was taking it pretty easy in the middle. Ah to think about being strong again... sheesh.
System of A Down: Chop Suey - 3:27
Love the song, but there was something really interesting about spinning to it. I think it was because the chorus is slow and melodic while the other parts of the song are the crazy fast aggressive parts. So it was almost opposite of how most songs work. Ride during the build up and then, bam, do something hard or fast when the chorus hits. Interesting.
Queens of the Stone Age: Go With the Flow - 3:11
Just rode steady to this as a cool down of sorts since I was approaching 9:00 and had to get ready for a 10:00 meeting at Lux.
Overall it was very fun! Adding up the times it was about 41 minutes. I think I'm going to have to move songs around and play a bit before I get a really tight session in. That is a lot of work trying to pick songs: deciding if they'd work, thinking about what the song would drive you to do, trying to make a good mix of everything you want to do... more difficult than I thought it would be. I think I need more songs too. I've gone online to spin instructor sites to see if I could find any easy "set lists" out there. I haven't been able to find anything that isn't all about unknown upbeat music or mixups. License blah blah. I have 13 more I picked out that I'll try next time and see how those rate.
I hope I'm sore from this. I should be if I did it right. I was certainly breathing hard for most of it.
Here is what I rode to:
Brandi Carlisle: The Story - 3:58
A favorite warm-up for me
Muse: Uprising - 4:32
Easing into things...
Airborn Toxic Event: Sometime Around Midnight - 5:03
This is an awesome building song. I started out spinning easy at a normal cadence, then just upped either the speed a little or the resistance during the entire song. It was pretty fun.
Queens of the Stone Age: No One Knows - 4:18
I've never seen this video. QOTS wasn't how I had them pictured, especially the lead singer. I have to admit I love love love watching Dave Grohl drum. I just rode steady during this song, gawking at the screen.
Black Eyed Peas: I've Got A Feeling - 4:52
I thought this song might be a little cooler to spin to than it was. It was ok. I picked up the pace during it.
MIA - Paper Planes - 3:25
I most likely had a puzzled look on my face during this song, as I just couldn't stop looking at MIA with her blue eyeshadow and really weird 80s outfits. She still makes me think about the performance she did on some music awards show while she was pregnant... days before her due date. It was so funny seeing someone rap with a belly.
Killswitch Engage: My Curse - 4:04
Nothing notable during this song...thing I must have just ridden with the pace upped a bit.
Foo Fighters: DOA - 4:29
This is my benchmark song for how in/out of shape I am :) During the chorus I stand up and run to the beat with heavy resistance. The first time I did this, I pooped out in the second one. I'm happy to say I made it through all of them this time, though I was taking it pretty easy in the middle. Ah to think about being strong again... sheesh.
System of A Down: Chop Suey - 3:27
Love the song, but there was something really interesting about spinning to it. I think it was because the chorus is slow and melodic while the other parts of the song are the crazy fast aggressive parts. So it was almost opposite of how most songs work. Ride during the build up and then, bam, do something hard or fast when the chorus hits. Interesting.
Queens of the Stone Age: Go With the Flow - 3:11
Just rode steady to this as a cool down of sorts since I was approaching 9:00 and had to get ready for a 10:00 meeting at Lux.
Overall it was very fun! Adding up the times it was about 41 minutes. I think I'm going to have to move songs around and play a bit before I get a really tight session in. That is a lot of work trying to pick songs: deciding if they'd work, thinking about what the song would drive you to do, trying to make a good mix of everything you want to do... more difficult than I thought it would be. I think I need more songs too. I've gone online to spin instructor sites to see if I could find any easy "set lists" out there. I haven't been able to find anything that isn't all about unknown upbeat music or mixups. License blah blah. I have 13 more I picked out that I'll try next time and see how those rate.
I hope I'm sore from this. I should be if I did it right. I was certainly breathing hard for most of it.
Monday, January 3, 2011
First Run of the New Year. Or Heart Mini Training Day #1. Or HMTD1.
Today was supposed to be warm...42 or something like that. Maybe it was the 60º on New Year's Eve, but it didn't feel nearly that warm outside. Alas, it was sunny, and I opted for an afternoon run in the 30/40s rather than the morning teens.
It was a nice run through Landen. I started slow and fell into a pace around 10:11. Breathing was easy, but I was tired. I felt the very little hills on the way back. To be expected right now.
I am super happy I did 4 miles with such ease. I have been trying to run more than 3 for a couple of months now... this is the farthest I've ran since the half in October. What a great way to kick off the new year and Heart Mini training.
It was a nice run through Landen. I started slow and fell into a pace around 10:11. Breathing was easy, but I was tired. I felt the very little hills on the way back. To be expected right now.
I am super happy I did 4 miles with such ease. I have been trying to run more than 3 for a couple of months now... this is the farthest I've ran since the half in October. What a great way to kick off the new year and Heart Mini training.
Sunday, January 2, 2011
Happy New Year
It's a new year! Which means new plans and new goals- yay! A clean slate to start training is refreshing.
I have never really been a New Year Resolution maker, but I do like it in the running context. I get a kick out of making plans for running, which I suppose aren't really resolutions. I simply like to think about what's coming up in the next year - what fun things lie ahead to look forward to as well as what I hope for.
First up is the Heart Mini Marathon March 20th.
From now until then I'd like to:
- get a good base on the bike trainer
- get my running mileage back up
- lose some weight
- get into a strength training routine
Then, May 1st is the Flying Pig Half Marathon.
I'm really excited about this race because Daryl and Jessica are going to come down to run it and that means it's going to be a very fun weekend running with friends! I very much enjoy doing races with other people. I want to do well at this race and take my time down from October's half as well. That is my only goal. Well, not so secretly I'd like to not be last among the friends. Oh so sick of being a turtle... We'll see what can be done about that in the next months.
As for the rest of spring and summer, I'm not sure what I want to do. Maybe there will be more biking, or maybe more duathlons. When it was 60º on New Year's Eve, I felt the urge to get outside for a ride. I can't wait to ride on the road again. This year I am definitely going to try to immerse myself more in biking groups. The Monday night rides were really fun, pushing me way more than I push myself. Plus it's just way better to ride with someone. In the fall, I think I would like to do the Columbus marathon again. That was such an amazing experience. We shall see... For now I'm just going to think about the Heart Mini and getting my routine down!
And now a toast...
Here's to a fantastic year ahead. May it be filled with a lot of fun experiences, happy happy smiles, and good times! (pun intended, haha)
I have never really been a New Year Resolution maker, but I do like it in the running context. I get a kick out of making plans for running, which I suppose aren't really resolutions. I simply like to think about what's coming up in the next year - what fun things lie ahead to look forward to as well as what I hope for.
First up is the Heart Mini Marathon March 20th.
From now until then I'd like to:
- get a good base on the bike trainer
- get my running mileage back up
- lose some weight
- get into a strength training routine
Then, May 1st is the Flying Pig Half Marathon.
I'm really excited about this race because Daryl and Jessica are going to come down to run it and that means it's going to be a very fun weekend running with friends! I very much enjoy doing races with other people. I want to do well at this race and take my time down from October's half as well. That is my only goal. Well, not so secretly I'd like to not be last among the friends. Oh so sick of being a turtle... We'll see what can be done about that in the next months.
As for the rest of spring and summer, I'm not sure what I want to do. Maybe there will be more biking, or maybe more duathlons. When it was 60º on New Year's Eve, I felt the urge to get outside for a ride. I can't wait to ride on the road again. This year I am definitely going to try to immerse myself more in biking groups. The Monday night rides were really fun, pushing me way more than I push myself. Plus it's just way better to ride with someone. In the fall, I think I would like to do the Columbus marathon again. That was such an amazing experience. We shall see... For now I'm just going to think about the Heart Mini and getting my routine down!
And now a toast...
Here's to a fantastic year ahead. May it be filled with a lot of fun experiences, happy happy smiles, and good times! (pun intended, haha)
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