Working Hard, Working Out

I am a freelance graphic artist, and I have been working my tail off since August. Which does not leave much time for working my literal tail off. Now that I'm somewhat caught up with work I decided to ramp up the workout schedule. The fact that I felt like I gained 10 pounds on my hips and I have a belt test coming up on the 11th may have been motivating factors as well.

Yesterday I went for a quick 2.5 mile run on the trails. In the evening I did 1/2 hour of Tai Chi, one hour of Kyuki-Do, and an 1 1/2 hours of judo. This was my second judo class. My teacher has been trying to get me to do judo for a while, but to be honest I was too scared to try it. First of all, everybody would tell me about the nasty injuries "Yeah, I snapped my ACL, my adams apple is completely detached, I'm missing half my spleen." etc., etc. Which is ALWAYS followed with an enthusiastic "You should try it, it's great!". Obviously some brain damage involved there. Well, the teacher finally made me an offer I couldn't refuse. If I came to class he would give me a free uniform. A bargain! I love a bargain! Who cares about grevious bodily injury when there is a free uniform on the line? Well, as of the second class I must say it's not that bad. We must have done 70 throws last night and I am quite pleased to report I still have all of my own body parts (and they are all still attached to my body). Walking breakfalls still scare me though - something about jumping and being upside down in midair doesn't seem right to me.

Went for an hour walk on the trails this morning and I encountered two dogs. The first was a very friendly yellow lab who practically leaped into my arms while yelling "I love you! I don't know who you are, but I love you!" The second was a huge german shephard that was straining on his leash so hard he was choking himself with his own collar. As I passed I could hear the lady holding him muttering, "No, she doesn't want to play with you." The look on the dog's face said "That's ok, I don't want to play with her, I want to bite her face off." I must say that's the first and only time I've ever been a little scared of a dog out on the trails.

Day 16 - Martial Arts + Running

Went out to the trails in the morning and ran and did some intervals. 2.67 miles, 35:12, 13:10 p/m pace.

3 hours Kyuki-Do class. Helped with the little kids class, worked out at the adult class and the advanced class later. Still running through stuff for the test.

Looking at myself in the mirror at class I just get disgusted with how huge my rear end is. Gotta get rid of that, it's in my way. On the plus side, I weighed this morning and I'm not as heavy as I thought I was. 136.6. If I try to get down to 115 that's 21.6 more pounds. I don't know, I'll see how I feel (and look) when I get down below 130. The only other time I was below that weight was last year after I had the flu for 5 days. It felt good to be that skinny -- except for the parts where I couldn't sit up or walk more that 10 feet at a time.

Using the pic of this chick for motivation:

Day 15 - Kyuki-Do

1/2 hour Tai-Chi (yang style long form). 1 hour Kyuki-Do class. We have a belt test coming up so we ran through the test. Pretty good workout. I worked on my bo form -- for some reason that is like sprinting for me. I don't know if I'm just swinging for all I'm worth or what, but when I've done it 4-5 times in a row I'm wiped out.

Days 6-14

Sick. Very frustrating. I always get sick right when I'm starting to get somewhere. I have to start eating better.

One day I did do some running on the treadmill. I ran 2 miles and walked 5 for a warmup and 1 after I finished running.

Day 5 - Easy Run

My hamstrings are still wound up tight, so I just went for an easy run/walk this morning. Up at 6:30 am and down the gravel road with the dogs. I just jogged about two 12:30 miles, stopping once to gawk at some birds and another time to take my jacket off. Pretty stiff when I got done, I might have to do some stretching later today. Ended with some walking. Total 43:42 for three miles.

Day 4 - Rest Day

Had to take a day off today. My hamstrings and shoulders were screaming. No sense popping something just for the sake of getting a workout in. I did go birding, walked maybe a mile or so. And I almost took part in an PBR event, when I stupidly walked through a bull pasture with my dogs. Luckily, I was close enough to a fence that I could make a get away. Okay, maybe I did get ONE sprint in today.

Day 3 - Sprint 8

Well, I kicked it up a little today. This morning I got up early and did some weight training. I acutally did part of a program that goes with the Jump Soles (training things you strap to your shoes to help you jump higher). I couldn't do everything because I don't have the proper equipment. My "gym" is the furnace room in the basement. I have a nice treadmill squeezed in there, but all I have for weights is 4 sets of dumbells (5 lb, 10 lb, 15 lb & 20 lb). So I had to just do the best I could, I did pretty much everything except the hamstring curls, just didn't use as much weight as I was supposed to. Kind of felt like Bette Midler in "Ruthless People", lifting paint cans and jumping rope with my chain. Except nobody's kidnapped me and I'm not really rich.

Then in the afternoon I went outside and did my first Sprint 8 workout. It's basically a high intensity, 20 minute interval work out. 3 minutes warmup, then 8 sets of 30 second sprints with 90 second recovery periods and a cooldown. I could only do about six sets before I felt like I was going to barf. I was surprised however, because even though I walked most of the rest periods I still ended up doing an 11:20 mile. I did a little more reading on it tonight and as usual I started too hard. Apparently you are supposed to work your way up to sprinting as hard as you can. Duh. I probably won't be able to walk for a week now. Luckily I didn't hurt myself.

Day 2 - Easy

Took it easy today. The only thing I did was some stationary tai'chi poses for about 10 minutes.

Had bad weather in the night and the power was on and off all night. Soooo, my alarm didn't go off and I overslept. If I don't work out first thing in the morning it seems like I never do it (unless it's martial arts classes -- makes it easier to get going when you have other people to motivate you.)

The Beginning

Purpose for this blog: to create an online training journal that's cheap and easy to update.

Goals:
1: (short term) Run Turkey Trot 5k in Pierre in November.
2: (long term) get in shape and lose 20 pounds so I can get my black belt in November '07

Day 1: April 18, 2006. Up at 6:30 am to run/walk on the treadmill. Walk 3:00/run 2:00 for 45 minutes, 3.4 something miles + 5:00 cooldown. For some reason that dang thing makes my knees ache. I was under the impression that treadmills were easier on your legs than the roads, but not in my case. Anyway, I don't have a choice because it's cold (37 degrees), and windy (40 mph). The cold I can handle, it's the wind that I hate. Maybe I'll do some tai'chi or weightlifting later this afternoon.

Leftover french toast casserole for breakfast. Way too good to waste. Darn you Paula Deen! Why do you have to use so much butter? And cream? And sugar?