Fear of a Female Planet

Reading: Happy Money: The Science of Smarter Spending for book club. A very approachable and interesting combination of psychology and business expertise on what really makes us happy. Some of it is very unsurprising (spend money on experiences, not things), but some of it is counterintuitive (that spending money on time-saving devices or services may not actually give you more time or happiness).



Wearing: My new favorite bright pink pants, a white button down top, white converse low tops, and my favorite pair of sunglasses - found in a restroom at the Great Dane after a frisbee game.



Planning: It's Nick's birthday today, although he skipped playing golf to celebrate because he hurt his ribs last night playing Ultimate. Since I have the Half Marathon tomorrow he is going out with friends and I'm calling it an early night (the race starts at 7AM). Next weekend we will celebrate with a trip to Arches and Canyonlands - first camping trip of the year!

I'm almost halfway through my third half marathon training and I am really happy with the results. Since this time my goal isn't just to finish, it is really interesting to see how specific kinds of training can actually produce results (for me, increasing pace).

In addition to being increasingly confident that I'll be able to do the half-marathon in under 2 hours, I have seen my body change in ways that exercise has never done before.

My body is actually stronger - stronger legs produce faster paces, better aerobic capacity helps endurance, and eating the right fuel gives you the energy you need to do the things you want to.

I haven't really lost any weight (that's not a goal), but things that used to jiggle are now firm. Jumping up and down in cardio class this week I thought as I looked in the mirror, "huh, my thighs are staying right where they were." In fact, I'm not just stronger, I have actual defined muscles.

So, thank you Hal Higdon and lean protein!

Reading:

A friend recommended this book when we found out we would be moving to Utah. I'm sure some of you have read Desert Solitaire? Reading it as a historical document (it was published in 1968, when Utah's National Parks were new and didn't even have paved roads) helps to put his extreme libertarian elitism in perspective. His descriptions of the environment and people are fascinating and well written, his politics are deeply, deeply flawed.



Wearing: My batik Mountain Sun Brewery "Kind Ale" t-shirt (oh, Colorado... oh Boulder...), some jeans that haven't fit in a few years, warm socks, and a handmade bracelet from my best friend Kelly's daughter (kids these days and Justice, wtf?).



Planning: Nick is working late tonight (he found out his time slot for the upcoming big tropical cyclone conference and he got the prime evening spot on a panel about Hurricane Sandy with several big wigs - as one of his labmates said in response to finding out "wow, that could make your career if you give a good talk." So, you know, no pressure...) so I'm going to finish up the last season of Dr. Who so we have room on the DVR for the Olympics!

We really want to get out for a hike this weekend, but the inversion has been pretty bad this week (from "unhealthy to sensitive" to just plain "unhealthy") so we're afraid of both exerting ourselves too much in it (they advise against being outside more than hour a day) and if we could even see anything from a peak. A little bit of wind and some fresh snow in the mountains has made it slightly better though, so we're hopeful.

All this means a lot of running on an indoor track for half-marathon training.

I finally got to the doctor over some injuries I got falling down some stairs back in August. My insurance had to be changed since I moved and whoever coded the application did it wrong and it took two months to get my insurance done.

Anyway, I was bringing laundry down to the basement and combination of new staircase, poor visibility, forgotten turn in the steps = ouchie. I came down hard on one knee on the cement floor and the other shin scraped down the steps. It hurt like hell for a few days but after that it was fine (obviously, I've been running just fine), except it continued to "tingle" - like my knee and shin were "asleep."

My Sports Med doctors tells me this is all fine and normal. My knee has a bursa (a fluid sack) on it (and not a floating bone chip, like I feared) and my shin suffered nerve damage, but not of any major nerves. He said both may disappear within 6 months, or they may be there forever. Either way, they are harmless, as long as the bursa doesn't become red and feel hot (meaning it got infected) and the nerve pain changes to going transversely across my shin, instead of up and down it (meaning major nerves are effected - he said right now it's just segments of minor ones and that in fact, I'll know they are healing when they start hurting again instead of just tingling).

They did x-rays of my lower legs to be sure and I was told I have the knees of a 20 year old as far as arthritis wear is concerned and gave me some tips on preventing future running problems (my right leg naturally turns in and they told me that yoga, especially poses that exercise the abductor muscles like warrior 3, will be essential to being able to keep that leg in running shape).

I do love sports med doctors.

I have finally gotten somewhat used to the altitude here (read: my lungs don't burn when I exercise) and have actually been really happy with the home workout I've been doing - I'm seeing better results with everything (except upper body strength) than I ever did with gym classes.

My workouts are here, but basically I've been increasing repetitions of these three workouts.

( Read more... )

I am now up to 4 repetitions of the leg workout, 3 of the ab workout, and 35 pushups. It takes about an hour, but doesn't require any special equipment (heck, I even usually do it barefoot), but it works up a good sweat and I'm loving how my ass and stomach are looking.

I'm also going to start training for another half marathon and this one looks like an awesome goal - both location and timing wise:



It's a steady uphill, but only a 466 ft total gain (or comparison, in my four mile run yesterday I gained 391 ft at over 1,000 ft higher elevation than Zion). I'm sure by the end of training I will agree that "downhill courses are for wimps," as they state:

Running: Week three of the half-marathon training finished with a 6 mile run on Sunday. The program is going much smoother this time around, even with the extra day of running and attempts at pace setting. I find myself halfway through my long run before I think to look at the clock.

Climbing: Well, my climbing partner and I started the "Climb a Mile" in February challenge just for fun, openly saying "there is no way we will finish this, but let's see how far we can get for fun," and gosh darn it - we're both going to finish! Dianna will be done tonight because she had a stronger start than me, but I'll be done on Wednesday! We went from an average of 7 climbs a night, two nights a week to 28 climbs a night, three times a week! We are looking forward to incorporating more laps into our climbs, but also to adding in new routes - this challenge does not incentivize trying anything new or very hard, it's more about stamina.

Strength-Training: I am really happy with the benefits I am seeing by just doing this class once a week. It's has increased my core strength exponentially more than yoga ever did - greatly helping in climbing, as well as yoga. Most of all - squats and lunges? They make your ass look amazing!

Yoga: I need to get back to Kristin's low key but intense class for the spiritual well being (stupidly stayed out too late partying on Friday night and missed the class I wanted to go to with purplemb13), but the strength training class has definitely helped in the power yoga class I like to do Monday and Friday morning - those crazy push-ups and sit-ups don't seem so bad anymore. Actually, I should probably try head stands again...

Diet: I've plateaued a little again at 145, but with less variance on a day-to-day basis, so I'm very happy with that. I'm back in my skinny jeans and things just fit better. Mostly though, I'm seeing a real effect on my running by adjusting my diet to my training. That was one element I didn't incorporate last time, but by being more careful about the carbs, protein, and fat that I eat, I definitely have more energy on my runs and I am more efficiently building more muscle (I was surprised last year that I didn't seem to build more muscle, but now I see I wasn't eating what my body needed to do that). It's also helped me save money because you really have to plan out your week, especially breakfast and snack wise, if you want to have good fuel and muscle building options available.

One thing that has definitely returned from training last year - the need for more sleep than I am used to - I have to start adjusting for that because it makes getting up for 6AM yoga hard when I used to be able to go to bed at 11 and still get up for that.

Back in May purplemb13, our friend Brian, and I ran the Monona 5K



Best 5K finish so far for me



Some more Union South rock climbing

Yesterday I...

Had a great run, ending the last mile with...



Made this for dinner...



and watched this (zombie attacks shark, conquistador zombies, and the slowest eyeball skewering ever. Brilliant!)



Nick is back home for his grandmother's open heart surgery - which went well!

Who would have thought, back in 2008, when I started to do Couch-to-5K with antarcticlust that I would be considering a half marathon? OK, maybe you guys did, but I didn't.

Much like my climbing and yoga practice, I've realized what it's like to plateau and that if you want more out of it you have to put more in. Going climbing two times a week has done wonders for my skills - last night (and alexeye, you'll get this) I had one of those moments where I'd done a route almost a dozen times and always thought one part seemed harder than it should be and last night put my foot in a counter-intuitive position and was like "OH! It's so *easy* now!"

So, I'm doing this program, which comes highly recommended and looks very manageable, especially because I can already run 10K. My goal will be the Madison (half) Marathon, which, according to the website is 110 days away! I'm not going to worry too much about the cross and strength training, considering I do climbing and yoga both twice a week. I've even convinced Nick to do CrazyLegs with me the month before (it's only 8K and ends with beer - SO Wisconsin).