Not much...

I haven't been doing much of anything, at least not anything different. I have managed to continue the weight training program, and we are now in week 12...I think.

Back while I was swimming, I started having some shoulder problems. I figured it was just from bad form. Once I started breathing on both sides, the pain got much better.

Well, fast forward to now, about a month and a half ago, I started having pain again. Certain things in my current program really bothered it. Me being me, pushed past the pain. No pain, no gain, right? I guess that's not how it's supposed to be once you get old.

Anyway, it's gotten to the point where I have HAD to lay off. I've modified and even eliminated certain exercises that we are doing. Last week, I was at the Dr. for a follow-up with Fibro.. She was testing my reflexes/strength and noticed me wince when she pulled on my arm. She asked if I had a problem with my shoulder. I explained, and she probed around. Yup. Rotator cuff.

So, I've been banned from anything that stresses my shoulder, put on an icing and anti-informatory regimen for the next two weeks. Luckily for me, I will be out of town for a week, and probably won't be working out then. :)

Back in the Saddle... again and again and again

Since my last disastrous race I've been reluctant to do anything. I've still been going to bootcamp and doing the bare minimum to make paying for training plans still worth it but I wouldn't say I'm an overachiever as of late. I canceled the rest of my races and have been doing more rock climbing just as a change of pace. I've decided to spend the winter getting healthy and we'll see what happens next year. No promises. I plan on doing tri's (and being active) for a long time, so I think it's better resist forcing it.

Happily, I'm finally one step closer to figuring out why I can't seem to lose weight! After a few trips to the chiropractor with seized up muscles, it's becoming clear that my body isn't metabolizing vitamins. My Dr. had to actually inject a B12, D, K cocktail directly into the muscle to get it to release. He said that my muscle is essentially starving, which explains why I have been training hard with no results, either muscle gain OR fat loss. I've been drinking one green and one fruit smoothie a day in the hopes of losing something. MAN it's frustrating to do all that work and not get the benefit of a really hot body to take clothes shopping. lol My only motivation is the intense desire I have to NOT turn into a giant blob. My family Doc is useless giving me lectures about proper eating and the importance of exercise. Even after I showed him my food journal his response was, "Well, sometimes we eat things and we're not really aware."

I could have pimp-slapped him. I'm doing a three day smoothie fast beginning Monday (something my chiro suggested) to see if a little shock to the system will help. We'll see. So far, in the last three months I've lost a total of 5lbs. Woopie. I'm pleased with any loss at this point but with all the weight I have to get rid of, it should be coming off a lot faster. I'm slightly concerned that it's muscle loss.

OK, that's all the whining I promise! School is starting and I'll have 2.5 blissful hours three days a week all alone to add to my current workouts! I am so excited I can hardly wait until Monday.

Nada.

Well, I was out of town for over a week. I took my workout stuff, but didn't do it once. That's usually how it goes.

I got back on Sunday night, and ended up leaving town super early Thursday morning to help a friend pack up her house. Therefore, I have yet to workout.

I got home yesterday evening, and was too worn out to get up this morning. So, the workouts begin again tomorrow.

It's going to kill me.

The Tri of Death and Carnage

I'm beginning to think that I just might be the recipient of some bad karma. With a race coming up this weekend, I was not overjoyed that I got really sick. Nausea, dizziness etc. but I was so excited about my little 'mom's getaway' that I was determined to go anyway.

My friend, Brittany and I went up the night before and had a lovely child-free evening reading magazines, flipping channels and laughing it up in the family suite of the Best Western. (only the best for me) I woke up this morning, with a pit in my stomach feeling like it was going to be a really rough day. Bootcamp on Thursday left my legs super sore (I had a hard time sleeping because my glutes/hamstrings were SO sore) and my upset stomach wasn't convincing me that I'd made the right decision.

The race started and I was actually feeling OK in the water. It was a much more comfortable temp this week (62°) and before I knew it, I was at the first buoy headed to the second. I was feeling a bit dizzy but stomach was steady when I felt a huge kick to my belly by a frog kicking swimmer. (I swear, it should be illegal) Feeling nauseous, I swam on and no more than two strokes later, she gave me another belly shot and an even harder one to my ribcage. It totally knocked the wind out of me and that's when my stomach decided to rebel. A reversal of fortune, I believe they call it. Where do you throw up in the water you might ask? Well, you don't. I'll leave that to your imagination, I'll just say that it wasn't the most pleasant thing I've ever forced down. Ugh. A kayaker saw me and before I knew it, I was in a boat trying desperately not to repeat. I've never been pulled from a swim before. I always imagined that I would feel like the biggest loser ever if it happened. I'm sad to report that it didn't bother me in the least. I'm not sure what that means, but there you have it. They were so nice to me and as we neared the shore, they even radioed ahead and let them know that I'd like to finish the race without the timing chip. Coming out of the water with the guys was so cool, even though I knew it was bogus. For a brief moment, I knew what it felt like to be up front. Brittany and a few of our other friends were so excited, I was sorry I'd have to explain the truth later.

The run to transition was slightly miserable in the gravel since someone snagged my flip flops on accident. Man, I'm bummed about that. It's hard to find sweet looking flip flops that are comfy too.

I was on my bike, and I have to say having the pressure off me was kind of nice. I was almost to the turn around when I saw a small group of cyclists gathered on the other side of the road around someone that crashed. It was one of my friends from bootcamp and after I saw her face covered in blood, I knew I had to turn around and help her. I figured I was DQ'd already so it didn't really matter a whole lot. She was really beat up. I swear she looked like a horror movie covered in blood. She had large gashes on her forehead, arm and knee that showed to the bone and even though she was relatively coherent, and other people were there, I really felt like I should stay with her. She had tons of road rash and for a minute we wondered if she'd lost a tooth. As it turned out, everyone else got back on their bikes to finish the race and the bike support that stopped to help, radioed for an ambulance and left. We were left there alone until the paramedics came about 20 minutes later. It was really strange. She's one tough chick. We just sat there on the side of the road and waited. We had a good laugh when I retrieved her helmet. It had a huge chunk taken out of the top and right above her eye where her gash was. The paramedic told her that if she hadn't worn a helmet, he would have been calling for a helicopter. Lucky girl. We went to see her in the ER and it looks like she's going to be fine, lots of stitches, but fine. She doesn't remember what happened, but from what a girl said that was there, it seems she hit a pothole and because she was in aero her weight was on the front tire. She lost control and went over her handle bars. A good reminder to pay attention! It's so easy to settle in and zone out.

After the ambulance came, the race director offered my bike and me a ride back. Since the bike leg was over now, I gladly accepted that my race was over. As I was telling him about the strange race-day I'd had, we ran over a poor little chipmunk in the road. I looked at him and we both started laughing uncontrollably. I told him there's a good chance he'd be safer with me out of his vehicle.

What did I learn from today?
1. Don't ever do bootcamp two days before a tri
2. Don't swim while sick
3. That 'froggy kick' thing sucks
4. You gotta know when to hold em, know when to fold em
5. If someone crashes, stay with them. Seriously, it's a freaking triathlon. It really doesn't matter as much as you think it does.
6. Pay attention!! Always!!
7. Things can always be worse. (poor chipmunk)

My next triathlon is in Aug. I'm ready for redemption. Well, I'm not like READY, ready (I'm still dizzy)... but I will be!

Smoothies

Beth was asking about my smoothies, so I thought I'd do a post. It looks like we use a lot of supplements but we've added to our collection over time so we're not buying them all at once. We picked the ones that were most important to us to start off with and added more with each paycheck. The important part to me is that we're getting all the fresh veggies and power-packed fruits we need. We make so many different kinds depending on what our needs are and what's on sale/in season so I'll just list a few recipes as well as a list of other ingredients that we use in them. With the kids, I find that I have to blend them with OJ to get them to drink them. It bothered me at first, but I figure it's a fair trade off for the good stuff they're getting. I've watered it down over time and always use fresh squeezed when I can. Preferably some that I've juiced myself.

This Morning's Breakfast Smoothie
(enough for 2 small kid glasses and two adult shakers. If Ryan isn't home, I use his for my 10am snack)

2 cups filled with raspberries, dark cherries, strawberries (buy in season and freeze in bags)
2 cubes coconut milk (anti-bacterial among other things, I freeze it in ice cube trays then bag it)
Large handful of spinach (frozen in bags, don't try to thaw, yuck.)
1 Cup Pomegranate Greek Yogurt (twice the protein and keeps you full)
Handful of cauliflower (frozen in bags, as long as you use it within a few weeks it's great)
2 or 3 spoonful's Chia Seeds (look this up, they're AMAZING little seeds!!)
1 packet Veggies to Go (You can get them at Costco)
Couple drops of local honey (for allergies)
2 cubes Cow colostrum (sounds really strange, but google it, it's gotten us through stomach bugs and bacterial infections in hours instead of weeks, athletes love it because of all the antibodies)

I blend with the OJ, pour for the kids, then re-blend for the adults adding:
Vanilla Whey Protein Isolate (I can't find anywhere where it says definitively that it's safe for kids, so we just leave it out of theirs)
2 tbs. Glutamine (to repair muscle tissue and aide in recovery)
Creatine (low dose)


After workouts, we drink Muscle Milk Light (Costco) if we're not going to be home within 20min or make a protein shake.

Protein Shake
1 banana
1 or 2 Cups raw milk
Chocolate Whey Protein Isolate
2 tbs. of Super food mix (organic lucuma powder, organic mesquite pod meal, organic cacao powder)
1 tbs Glutamine

Other things we add to smoothies:
Super Seed
Green Food Powder
Blueberries (and various other fruits/veggies)
CLA
Insulin Co-factor
Optygen (only when peaking for a race)

For my AM smoothie, I take my vitamins/other supplements with it to make a super power-packed start to the day. We try to have a big variety of smoothies so we don't get bored and I'm always on the lookout for something new to add flavor. That was probably way more info than you were asking for , but there you go!

Chin-ups

So, today was the day. We knew that we weren't doing chin-ups with the bands, since we actually never ordered the bands. (Lots of $ required to do that.) Anyway, we figured (after much debate) that the closest thing to doing a chin-up is the bent-arm hang. You know, the one we had to do in middle/high school PE, while the boys had to do pull-ups.

My first "hang" I lasted 8 seconds. I did it two more times during that set and made it 4 seconds the second time, and no seconds the third. Seriously, by the third try, I couldn't even jump high enough and hold on strong enough to keep my head above the bar. It was quite entertaining.

We actually had an audience. There was a man working out in the gym while we were there. He was a very nice x-marine that actually gave us some tips on things to help us. (He was actually the one to suggest the bent-arm-hang as an option.) A couple of times that I looked over at him, he was trying REALLY hard not to laugh. I'm glad he was able to control himself, at least until he left the room.

The other exercises weren't too bad. I think the next worse one was the plank. I've done planks before, and knew they were hard, but I was "hoping" that the work we'd done up until this point would prepare us to do the plank exercise. That didn't seem like the case. We were supposed to hold the plank for 60-90 seconds. Honestly I think we made it about 15 seconds before our knees started to drop for assistance. That was kind of depressing.

Anyway, an hour and a half later, we left the gym, exhausted, sweaty (more than you can probably imagine), and super sore. All in all, a great workout, right?

Your turn to laugh.

Since I got a good laugh out of the buoy floating off in Jen's triathlon, I decided I'd better fess-up on my little mistake after Friday's workout.

Starting tomorrow (Monday) we are in phase two of our program. Our exercises change as well as a slight change in diet. Anyway, starting this week, we're supposed to add chin-ups to our program. We read in the book that if necessary you should use an exercise band to help assist you with the chin-ups until you can do them on your own. So, we decided to try it out to see if it was going to be possible.

We got the largest, toughest band our gym had, and looped it around the bar. Pam (my workout partner) tried it first. She held onto the bar, I helped her loop the band around her leg, and she stepped off the chair, putting herself hanging from the bar. Well, nothing happened. She grunted, and moaned, and didn't move...no matter how hard she pushed against the band with her leg.

So, we decided I would try it next, since I had a little more arm strength than her (even though I weight a lot more!). I decided I'd step onto the band instead of use my knee, to see if I could get some additional assistance from the band.

I held onto the bar, stepped off the chair and maintained a wonderful bent-arm-hang for about 10 seconds before dropping down (due to lack of strength). I tried to extend my leg so the band would help me pull myself back up, and nothing happened...well, nothing happened except for the band snapping. Yup. Just a warning, when a band snaps that was stretched that much, it's pretty much like you'd imagine a giant rubber-band snapping. It did get a piece of my thigh, and I have a huge purple welt to prove it.

After reviewing the FAQ's on the web-site of the program we're following, and her YouTube video, it became apparent that there are SPECIAL bands you use for things like that. Our gym obviously doesn't have them, but they are available for purchase. They are much stronger, and meant to support the weight of a person's body.

A few (well, a lot) of laughs later, and $50, I have ordered the proper band, and sometime the middle of next week, hopefully we'll be able to do our chin-ups with proper assistance, and minimal damage.

Below is the description of the chin-ups with the band:

"Chin ups are a great full body, "bang for your buck" exercise in fact you'll even be sore in your abs after you do them...but I understand that they are also not always realistic for everyone to do right away. There a number of options you can do instead. Obviously doing the actual chin ups with the band is the first choice. Get yourself some bands from www.performbetter.com of all different widths and use the chin up bar in a squat rack and wheel a bench over to get up there. "

Here is the link to the video if you're interested in watching it. :)

Day of Reckoning

I got back form the tri a few hours ago. It was just as I feared. The upside is that I still had loads of fun while I added humiliation to my list of todays' accomplishments. First, the swim was moved farther away from transition because of debris being pushed onto the course from the river, making it so we would have to run for a bit on a dirt path to our bikes. Then they announced that the lake was a balmy 53°-55°. You can imagine how excited I was to put some of this well formed insulation to good use. I've been packing it on for months for just such an occasion. I got in the water with the olympic distance people so I could get used to the water and it's a dang good thing I did. It took me about 15 minutes to acclimate and get feeling back in my hands. My shoulder was hanging in there as I was headed for the first buoy but every time I looked up to spot, I swear it got farther away. I put my head down, gave myself a pep talk and kept going. The next time I looked up it wasn't any closer. I began making a mental list of tri gear to sell on e-bay, wondering how much I could sell my tri bike for etc. There was no way in hell I was ever making it to that stupid buoy. As it turned out, the buoy had broken loose from it's anchor and was drifting farther away. A boat eventually came by and informed us that we were now far off course. According to the race director, what started out as a 750, ended up being a 1500. -sigh- I wanted to cry. I tried to keep on truckin' and remind myself that it was all about fun today. By the time I got to the end of the swim, there were only 10 people or so left in the water. Pathetic! I did find out later that they had to pull 5 or 6 people from the cold water, so maybe I will get points for just staying in!

The ride was so hard with big hills and the heat of the day coming on. My shoulder was aching so I was glad I decided to race with my road bike instead of my tri, it would have been agony to sit in aero for that long.

By the time I got to the hilly trail run, I was spent. I expected as much since I hadn't been properly trained, so it wasn't really that disappointing. I was so relieved to finish! It was a really hard day for me and I'm glad I did it, I think. I'm still considering the e-bay option.It was a beautiful venue, even if it was hard, and it was good to see friends again. I will, however, make sure that I'm better trained before I get talked into this again!!

Race?!

I don't know WHAT I was thinking! I went to my tri class last night where we cycled down to Utah Lake, did a 6mile time trial, went for a swim in the lake and cycled back. I was dead last for the time trial since aero position hurts my shoulder so much. And, if I'm being really honest, because I'm overweight and out of shape. haha Anyway, I was loving the positive upbeat atmosphere and the chance to see friends again and I let them talk me into racing this weekend! Man, I'm so dumb. I even made a call right there at the lake and got myself a free entry so backing out isn't really possible, unless I can come up with a broken leg. So, I'm pretty much freaking out wondering if I can even swim a 750. The good news is, they're letting the olympic and sprint go at the same time, so just about the time when the olympic will be back, I should be finishing up my swim. Maybe no one will notice that I was in the sprint!

I'm feeling really stupid right now. Now I have to go see if I even fit in my tri suit. You can imagine how excited I am to find that out!

Cardio x 2

Well, today was our second day of cardio or circuit. It was just as brutal as last week. The difference is...I was already sore starting it today. This week we upped our rounds of exercises to two times, verses the one time through we were doing previously. My abs (yes they are in there somewhere...actually a nice confirmation that they do exist) are killing me. I actually like to be sore...at least a little bit. It lets me feel like my workouts are doing something.

Anyway, today was brutal, which means tomorrow's strength workout will also be brutal. Tomorrow completes week four. Week five starts a round of new exercises, plus an additional round of circuits. I'm looking forward to the change, but also nervous for the upped level. We'll see how it goes.

As for the diet...I am logging all my food. All of it. According to my BodyMedia (kind of like what the Biggest Loser contestants use...it measures calories burned, etc...) I'm staying within my calorie allotment, but I'm still having some sugar each day, which according to the book I'm supposed to be following, is what makes us store our fat. So...I still need to work on that with a bit more effort.

Wahoo! Bring on week 5!

New Goal

This weeks' goal is simple, but honestly still not sure I can do it. It's SLEEP!! My trainer sent out an e-mail about the importance of sleep/recovery and all the great hormones etc that are released while we're getting some shut-eye. The one I'm most concerned about is the HGH. Here's what she wrote:

"WHY it matters: HGH is a hormone that makes everything better! It BUILDS muscle by helping your body absorb amino acids (the basic building block of muscle), helps increase your metabolism (the result of increased muscle) and gives you more power (as a result of that muscle!) It also helps BURN fat as a result of fat cells having growth hormone receptors that trigger the breakdown of triglycerides. In addition, it helps our livers manage and control insulin."

"MESSED up Growth Hormone (or LACK therof) can contribute to accelerated aging, decline in bone mass, and decreased energy and strength (which includes, weight gain and overall feeling crappy!) Yes...we do experience a decline in our body's ability to create Growth Hormone after our thirties...but, we can do several things to help manage and even increase it's effectiveness no matter our age! *HOW to manage Growth Hormone*: SLEEP! One of the dumbest things we do to ourselves metabolically is to deprive ourselves of good quality sleep! Did you know that when we are sleeping is when our body releases Growth Hormone? A University of Chicago study found that when people are deprived of their stage 4 sleep (which happens about one hour after we first fall asleep), their daily growth hormone levels fell by 23 percent! That's a lot of potential muscle building, fat burning, energy creating, metabolism ramping growth hormone that is being missed out on! What a shame! "

Seems like a simple thing, but I'm terrible at getting to bed on time. It's just so nice to have a moment without the kids to get things (or nothing) done. This is why it's my goal this week. Saturday, I set my watch alarm to go off every night at the same time so I know it's time to get ready for bed. So far, so good.

At bootcamp this morning, I was really feeling my workouts from last week, but I did feel a lot less sleepy. I know it's only Tuesday but three days down!

The Challenge Concludes

Day 5

The workout today was a swim (300 warm up, 800 drills, 500 pull, 200 cool down), Bike 20 miles easy

I'm a little late posting this but day five of my little challenge was awesome! Sat. morning I was up bright and early to swim. My trainer doesn't usually have us do so many drills but we had a small class and she figured it was the perfect time to fix my stroke. The good news is, she said I really only needed a bit of tweaking and not a total make-over like I'd feared. I was determined to figure out why I am having trouble with my bilateral breathing. I seem to nearly drown when I breathe to the left. It turns out it's because of my bad shoulder dropping. I was feeling the stretch so I had no idea my arm was so low in the water. Guess I've lost more range of motion than I thought. I was relieved when she told me to let it go and just breathe to the right for now. One less thing to worry about I guess.

I love driving home from the pool as the sun is coming up and people are just getting moving. It's a gift to be there for the sun rising over the mountains. I try to convince myself that it's better than a few more hours sleep. I'll let you know when that works. haha

For my bike, I went with a few ladies in the ward for a nice easy ride up the canyon. It was SUPER slow but I wanted to hang out with them so it was totally worth it. I was reminded again what a difference a good bike makes. On the way back I think I coasted almost the whole way. I had to lay on the breaks a couple times just to keep from passing them.

I am grateful this week for a body that works, however broken it may be! Last week has taught me that I'm tougher than I knew. I guess I need to raise my own standard a bit.

Foam Rolling

So, my muscles have always hurt. They really hurt when they are touched or poked. Just pushing on them (whether they are sore or not) hurts me. Foam rolling really, really, really hurts. Poor Kale has to listen to me each night as I'm foam rolling. I moan, groan, grunt, and repeat "ow, ow, ow" several times.

Is that normal? Does it hurt anyone else? Am I doing it wrong, or it's just my over-sensitive nerves causing me problems again?

Week 3 Down

Well, I'm done with week three. Yesterday's cardio workout killed me! I woke up SUPER sore. Even with foam rolling (which SEVERELY hurts me by the way), my muscles were super tight.

Today's strength routine actually went pretty quickly, and we followed it with probably 45 minutes or so of stretching and foam rolling. It helped but not as much as I'd hoped. Once I got home I did take a nice long hot bath, followed by stretching. That helped the most. I've been able to walk around without wincing.

Next week is the last week in phase one, then we switch the workout up a level, and the diet changes a little bit. I'm looking forward to the change, and all the laughter it brings trying to do the new exercises.

On the diet end of things, I had been sugar free until dinner tonight. We had friends over, and they brought cinnamon rolls. They looked SO good! I was really depressed until I remembered that the rules for the plan I'm following include splurging (not binge) up to 10% of the time. I had my cinnamon roll, and it actually completely satisfied me! I stopped with one! That is something I usually do not do. I have no leftover cravings for anything else. It's such a great thing. Maybe my hourly prayers for strength and self-control are helping. :)

The Bonk

Day 4

5:00 am came a lot earlier than I planned. I slept terrible, I was up all night tossing and turning. When that alarm went off I thought I was going to die, but I was on such a roll, I didn't want to stop now. Bootcamp was exhausting. Really, it was about as hard as the first day I went about a year ago. I couldn't get my legs to do anything they were SO spent. I worked as hard as I could, it was pathetic by any measure and I was sincerely happy when it was over.

My second workout for the day was a run. 1 mile warm up, 4 miles at tempo, 1 mile cool down. As I got ready to go, I could hardly touch my toes I was so sore. There was no way I could physically finish this run. I layed on the floor and actually started to drift off. Then I remembered what an ultra-marathoner I interviewed told me, "Any fool can go all-out, the really hard thing is knowing when to hold back." I made the decision to skip the run. I focused on recovery. Had a lean protein filled dinner, a smoothie, stretched out, took a hot mud bath (that's a whole other subject haha) did some STM on my legs and went to bed early.

It wasn't what I planned for the day, but one more hard thing down!

Operation Swim

Day 3

Ok, so confession time. I haven't been swimming in over a year. I stopped at the request of my chiropractor to give him some time to fix my shoulder. I'm bad at taking professional advice but the part where he said, "Let me fix it now so you don't have to get a new one when you're 40" really got my attention. He worked on it, I did my exercises and it started feeling a lot better, I just never got back the motivation get back in the pool, I guess. Really, there was no reason to since I couldn't race with my ankle. All that aside... today's workout involved joining my coach's triathlon class.

1 hour group ride (with WICKED fast people on superior bikes) and a swim involving 300 warm up, 500 drills, 8 x 25 sprint/50 smooth focus on form, 300 pull, 300 cool down. Not a really hard swim workout but I knew my fitness level couldn't possibly be up to par. So here we go.

The group ride almost killed me. It was an easy 12 miles, but after my climb yesterday I was sucking wind trying to hold it at 24mph at the back of the pack. Focus went out the window and it was all about not being left behind. I think it's OK to experience a bit of panic now and then even if it's the fear of looking like a wuss. I hung in there and made it back to the pool for swimming. At this point, you're probably thinking that my hard thing for the day is getting back in the pool. Sadly, no. It was getting up the courage to cram my fat butt into a swim suit and walk from the locker room to the pool in front of 25 toned, well tanned triathletes who knew what I looked like two years ago. Deep breath and I did it. Thankfully, my trainer had the sense to throw me back in the slow lane (thank heaven) and I started swimming. I actually started smiling. It felt amazing. I wondered to myself what I was so worried about. Overall, the swim went well and thanks to my lack of fitness, I was a bit late finishing up so there were, like, two athletes left when I got out of the pool.

One more hard thing down!!

Intervals

Well, today was interval training/cardio day. It was actually really fun. Hard workout, but felt great in the end. Some of the exercises were really funny. Funny because we had a very hard time doing them. Here's a link to one of the exercises we really struggled with... picture me doing it. I'm still laughing about it. Below is the picture of what we attempted to do.

Anyway, all in all it was a fun morning. Tomorrow back to the strength training. Only one more week and we switch it up to the next stage of exercises. They look hard. :)

Update?

Well, thanks to Jen, hopefully this blog will become active again.

I've been kind of slacking off the last six months or so. After my feet/leg injuries, I gave up on running. I started doing other stuff but not enough.

I've had other health issues which now seem to be under control...at least as in control as can be. I was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia (which we've suspected I've had for years), but it has gotten so bad I'm actually on medication for it. I was using that as an excuse to not work as hard...and that has paid off in no weight loss (imagine that!) and no progress.

I've been doing "The Female Body Breakthrough" with a friend of mine. We've been doing the workouts regularly for three weeks now. This week we are adding a interval day. That is tomorrow. I'm not looking forward to that. The last time I tried intervals I ended up pushing myself too hard (something I tend to do) and had a MASSIVE asthma attack that took two days to recover from. (Woops.)

Anyway, tomorrow I'm going to try and find the balance between working hard and killing myself. (I really don't want to freak out my workout partner by having a major asthma attack.)

I like Jen's goal of doing something hard everyday. For me that is following a diet. I am a sugar addict. I know it, and honestly, I don't want to break the habit too terribly bad. (Pathetic, huh.) I know that to loose the fat I want/need to loose, I have to break the habit. So, that is my daily/hourly/minute "hard". Follow a healthy diet. I did manage to do it for one week. During that week, I lost nine pounds, and was able to make it through my workouts without too much of a struggle. It's amazing how much a healthy diet affects your body. Too bad I didn't stick to it.

That's my goal. Follow my diet. I have been logging my food (even the bad food I eat). My new goal is to continue logging and start eating correctly. I've made it through today with no refined sugars, and eating every 3-4 hours. Wahoo! One day down, the rest of my life to go!

Giving up is not an option, but I reserve the right to cry

Day 2

My alarm went off at 5:00 am for bootcamp. As far as I was concerned this morning, getting out of bed was hard enough to count for my one hard thing. We did a TON of lifting with barbells today (squats, walking lunges, sumo squats, dead lifts, clean and jerk etc) and cardio between sets. It was tough and I was convinced I was in the clear for the rest of the day. I got home, turned on cartoons for the kids and crashed for an hour. I'm not completely proud of this, but I did feel a lot better when I woke up.

Later, I realized that I still had another workout scheduled for the day and remembered my goal. "Do something hard every day"

Next workout was a 1:50 brick. I had a 1:20 bike and 30min run right after. I decided that biking up South Fork Canyon and running the trail would fit the 'hard' qualification. I decided to do it regardless of how long it took me. Taking it easy on the approach was just what I needed to get up the canyon. For my mental training, I only allowed myself positive thoughts. "You can do this. You've got it, Jen. etc" I also focused again on the task at hand ONLY. "The hill I'm climbing is the only one I need to think about." For my physical focus, I concentrated on smooth circles and relaxing any muscle that was not currently engaged. I also worked on getting used to sipping water more frequently (one of my issues). Before I knew it, I was at the top and fumbling to get my running shoes on. I could barely stand, my legs were shaking so bad. Tying my laces was hilarious. I had to concentrate to get my fingers to work, I'm glad no one was up there to see me. Once they were on, I started up the trail. Yes, UP the trail. It was brutal. It just kept climbing and climbing- it was insane. I kept up with the positive thoughts and concentrated again on letting my legs relax and swing from my hip. It was more of a slogging jog I'd say, but I finally reached a little meadow where it evened out, I felt like a champion. Going back down was even more of a challenge. My legs were wasted and non responsive. I'm lucky I didn't eat dirt. I got back to my bike and there were a few female cyclists resting. I sad "Hi." but only got blank stares as I put my cycling gear back on. I'm not really sure why, but cyclist are so strange anyway, as a rule I don't ponder too much on the subject.

Heading back was AMAZING!! Once I hit the lower canyon trail, I heard someone changing gears behind me and glanced back. I decided that if he was going to pass me it was going to be because I was too slow, not because I gave up. I put the pedal down and tried to hold it at 25mph. I kept waiting for him to pass but he stayed steady as I plowed through road crossings, over bridges, around longboarders etc. I'm not usually this reckless but I was sure he was going to pass me any second. When I got to the turn off for the parking lot, I turned around and he had stopped to get his car. He had a huge smile on his face and threw me a "hang loose" sign and yelled "See ya!" Success. I finished my ride home and collapsed on the living room floor. 30 miles. Not a whole lot of distance, but that was HARD. Mission accomplished. I'm pretty sure tomorrow's hard thing will be getting my body out of bed.

We're baaaaack

Ok, I've been in a terrible funk lately, so I'm hoping that this blog will give me some motivation! My trainer gave us a challenge this week to do something hard every day. I've taken the challenge and so far so good. Here's how it's going so far:

Day 1

My workout for tonight is a 15 min warm up, 3 x 1mile sprint with 1 min rest (walk) between, 1 x 1/2 mile sprint, 15 min cool down.

I finished reading "Born to Run" a few days ago and I have to say, I think it's a load of crap for the most part. While I do believe that there are those born with running in their DNA (the Tarahumara Indians for example), I think in reality I was born for hard labor NOT running. I'm cool with it, someone has to haul rocks out of the field and lift cars off small children. Sadly, there's not as much interest in finding a hidden tribe of rock haulers. That being said, I really don't like running. It hurts. I have found that trails seem to hold my interest a lot better than the endless pounding the road provides, but either way, I'm not fast by any stretch of the imagination. All of this rambling means that my workout tonight was REALLY hard for me. Once I set my mind to get it done though, I found great satisfaction in finishing.

Tonight, my mental focus was to concentrate on the set I'm currently doing. I wasn't going to think about how far I'd gone or how much more I had to do. The physical focus was to relax my legs and allow them to swivel at the hip. This really helped to conserve energy. I wasn't fast, but was able to increase my speed slightly with each set. I followed up the workout with a Muscle Milk Light and a great big smoothie. One hard thing down.