Workout FAIL, and Shopping in My Own Closet.

Workouts this week have been a big fat fail. I ran Saturday, and Sunday woke up feeling sick so I decided to rest. I've been sick a lot this year, and when I try to run anyway it's made it a whole lot worse, so I finally decided that all the people who told me not to run when I'm sick were right. We also had parent/teacher conferences all week, which means I've been getting home really late and haven't had any time to even think about exercise.

Food has been going better though and my clothes are fitting a lot better. I'm currently at the point where my "big" pants are too big but my "small" (non-stretchy) pants are a bit too tight but wearable. My favorite jeans are close to fitting but not quite there yet, and my second favorite jeans now fit and I've been wearing them a lot. I wore two of my favorite jackets this week that I haven't been able to wear in a few years. I LOVE shopping in my own closet!

Developing Habits

I think I had a good workout week last week and I seem to be getting into a good rhythm. Crossfit Tuesday and Thursday, running Monday, Saturday, and Sunday.

This week, so far, isn't going as well. Yesterday (Monday) I did nothing, and today I was supposed to do crossfit and really wanted to, but I ended up going to watch my students in the spelling bee instead. Tomorrow I'll go run at the gym, and my workout clothes are already in the car ready to go. Crossfit is Thursday, and I'll run Saturday and Sunday again. Not as good as last week, but not terrible.

The bad bad news is next week. Next week will be a DISASTER as far as workouts go. It's conference week, which means I have parent teacher conferences Monday and Wednesday until 5:30 and Tuesday and Thursday until 8! Obviously T and Th are out, I'll run Sat and Sun but I really need to go do something Wednesday after conferences. My #1 goal for next week will be to get my butt to the rec center Wednesday after my conferences. I just can't take the whole stinking week off.

My reading goal is going well too. I finished my 3rd book of the year and am about 2/3 of the way through #4. Here's a link to my 2010 reading list at Goodreads:
http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/2596746-kirsten?shelf=2010-books

Finding Balance

Lately I've been struggling to find the right balance between challenging myself but still enjoying my workouts. I decided to really push myself to try to run faster, but it ended up being a very frustrating experience. I felt like a failure, and after one particularly bad 2-mile run that ended with me in tears about how much I sucked, I decided maybe I was trying to improve too quickly and I decided to scale back a bit. I'm still doing the same workouts and following the Nike+ 5k training program and everything, but I'm going to let myself increase my speed slowly.

Yesterday I had a 3 mile run and it went really well! I stuck with a slower but steady speed which was still 1/2 mph faster than I was running a few weeks ago and was able to run the whole time plus some! It felt AMAZING and I felt successful again. My next run is 4 miles. I was looking forward to trying it tomorrow but I have to get home early for a delivery so it's looking like I'll probably need to put it off until Friday or Saturday.

Today's crossfit felt great too! It was AMRAP (as many rounds as possible), for 20 minutes, of 6 knees to elbows (which I still suck at but I'm really trying to get my knees up higher), 3 pull ups with the bands, run 1 lap, then 9 step ups. I did 10 rounds and it felt great! I had to do the last 9 step ups after the time was up, but I wanted to get in all 10 rounds. The craziest thing to me is that the first couple rounds are so hard and slow, but then you can speed up sooo much as you go along. Seems like it would be the opposite, but it's kind of neat how it works. One of these days I'm going to need to figure out how to jump up instead of doing step ups.

Things are going well and I'm feeling good! :)

Nike+

I got the Nike+ system up and running and I'm really liking it! I did my first run with it a couple days ago.

Here are the stats for run 1:

I set the program to run 5k, and according to Nike+ it took me 34 minutes. I'm not sure how accurate that is but that's what it said. I was absolutely dripping in sweat and it was not easy, but I was running faster than last week so that's something. I still have a very long way to go in increasing my speed. I'm going to do the 5k run a few more times then start a program with Nike+ that trains you to go from 5k to 10k. Honestly I can't imagine running 6 miles, but a year ago (heck, 6 months ago) I couldn't imagine running 3 miles and I can do that now so who knows??

I also made a goal of running 50k in 4 weeks. 5k down, 45 to go!

iPod Nano

I decided to get the iPod Nano and the Nike+ sensor. I have a bunch of money in Target gift cards burning a hole in my pocket as it is, so I'm going to spend it on the nano. It'll be so much more convenient to run with a player that's so much smaller and lighter than the iphone, and I'm super excited about all the options and training programs with Nike+. The video camera will be fun to have too. As soon as I get my new debit card (lost my purse, found it, cards had already been cancelled, it's a long stupid story) I'm going to go get it. I'm so excited!

Since I still have a cough, it's freezing out and there's snow all over the place, I'm still not running outside and don't think I'm going to until the cough is completely gone. I have the elliptical at home so I hopped on that for 45 minutes last night and worked up quite a sweat. Tonight I'll either head to the gym to use the treadmill or do elliptical again. Santa gave me a jump rope so maybe I'll break that in.

One other little bit of good news.... I've finally lost 20 pounds! YAY!

Here's a pic of the running gloves I got for Christmas, which I greatly look forward to wearing once I'm actually running outside again.

The Germ Factory Factor

The fact that I apparently work in a germ factory is killing my workouts! I'm so mad that I keep getting sick that I could scream. I still have a persistent cough but am feeling about 80% better, so yesterday I started running again. It was inside on a treadmill, which was a bit strange because I've never run on a treadmill before. Yesterday I ran 32 minutes, walked for 10, but I only ended up going 2.8 miles. Today I ran 30 minutes (barely... I thought I was going to die) and walked 10 and again only went 2.8 miles. Before this last round of sickness I was up to 40 minutes of running and I hope I can get back up there again quickly.

Running on the treadmill, where I can see distance, really showed me that I'm running waaaay too slow! I'm looking for a way to encourage myself to go faster by tracking my distance and time, and I'm thinking the Nike+ system might be the way to go. It looks like it would be similar to the pedometer I have from work but that ped is meant to track all your steps and I hate transferring the stupid (big) thing from my work shoes to my running shoes etc. Honestly I don't really care how many steps I take during the day... I'm more concerned with improving my running and want a system designed for that.

I would need a sportband and sensor, which would be $59. I wouldn't need the sportband if my iphone was compatible but it isn't. I'd really like an ipod nano, which would be easier for running because it's a whole lot smaller and lighter than the iphone and it comes with Nike+ so I wouldn't need the sportband. But that isn't really in the budget right now. I could get it with one of the gift cards from my class but I really want to save that for something else.

Here's the sportband. I really hate wearing anything on my wrists so I'm not sure if this is the way to go. Hmmm.OR an iPod Nano??

Exercise and Cheesecake

First the exercise... for the last couple of weeks I've gotten 4 workouts in per week, but this week will be 5 if I work out tomorrow. 2 days of crossfit, 2 days of running, and tomorrow will probably be elliptical.

My winter weather outdoor running limit seems to be around 30-35 degrees. At that temp, I go with long pants, long sleeve shirt, wonderful lulu jacket, and headband that covers the ears (no hat because the jacket has a great hood). The only thing missing is running gloves, which I desperately need. Cookie has a little coat I put on her. She doesn't mind it at all and it seems to keep her warm. I'm just not quite crazy enough to go running when the temperature is in the single digits or teens. Can't do it. There are plenty of great indoor workouts that will kick your ass without freezing it off! Here's one of them:

1 minute jump rope
1 minute sit ups
1 minute good mornings
1 minute jumping squats
1 minute push ups
1 minute break
x3

Each time you need to try to increase your reps. If you can talk or if it seems "easy" then you need to speed up. The first time through I could only do about 40 jump ropes, second time it was 95, 3rd it was 98. Jumping squats was 30, 31, 32. I didn't count sit ups but I'm sure my form was good so I'm cool with that. I still suck at push ups and have decided to no longer count how many I do and just try to do decent ones. My upper body strength sucks. Out of all that, it was the stupid good mornings that made me sore! Those things feel so good at the time, but they always make me sore the next day. So strange.

And now on to the cheesecake! Here's a pic:

It's a pumpkin cheesecake with sour cream topping and is DELISH!!! You can find the recipe here: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Spiderweb-Pumpkin-Cheesecake/Detail.aspx

It was my first ever cheesecake and it was soooo good! It did crack, but the topping covered it. It's definitely an easy recipe for first-time cheesecake makers.