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?