humor me

So, I've decided I really *need* to get internet at home. I miss out on so much without it! (If you've seen What About Bob, insert "I want, I want! I neeeed, I neeeeeeeeeeed!" mini-tantrum here).

If you haven't read my previous post, do. And get connect with Pioneer Woman. She's killin' me, in all the best senses.

What else is killin' me, you ask? (so you didn't, but i'm telling anyway) Snow. Snow is KILLING me. Wasn't it just two days ago I was gushing about seeing grass? Well those days apparently are over, because I woke up this morning to see snow on tree branches which means snow on the ground. No more green. No green here for St. Patty's Day. Just white on the ground, gray in the sky, and a very melancholy and slightly disturbing scene all around. AND... 2-5 more inches in the forecast. I'm done, people! Move me the heck outta this place!

Alright, hissy fit = over.

I got some work done on my thesis this weekend. For those of you who know the tantrum that has taken up residence in my spirit over writing a thesis, feel free to pause a moment, stand, and applaud. And if you didn't know I was pitching a fit about that too (along with the snow), feel free to join the small crowd currently cheering me on. I need every bit of encouragement I can get.

Todays activities got canceled, so I'm home for the day and free to write. And I am. I'm writing a blog. (See what I have to deal with?!?)

I'll keep this short, in the name of some resemblance of discipline (yes, I'll get back to the academic writing - I promise!) - but I wanted to share a couple of very fun things going on these days....

One: I've taken the leap and joined weight watchers. Yep, I did it. I actually did the WW (pronounced "Wuh-Wuh" in my head) a few years ago for about.... oh, ten days I think. Maybe not even that long. But I kicked and screamed in my spirit and was so ticked about somebody telling me what to eat, and finally (after 10 whole days, remember) I just quit. But I'm in a different space now, and much to my surprise, I like this!

Here's what I like:
First, I'm doing the online version which means I track all my food and activity there. I like having easy access to looking up the point value to foods, and I like having everything in one place rather than all these loose 7-day-food-tracker booklets floating around my house.

Second, when you record things online there's this feature where, as soon as you get all your water or fruits/veggies or activity (among other things) logged in, you get a smiley face! Call me 7, but I like me a little smiley face of encouragement. It helps!

Third, I'm actually drawn to the aspect of having parameters on my intake. I know, novel thought, eh? But I'm a late bloomer, so I'm taking it when I can get it.

Anyhow, last week was my first weigh-in, and dadgum it if I'm not down 4.2 lbs. Hooray for me! (btw - I'm in this phase where I'm really working on it being enough that I'M happy for me, regardless of whether or not anyone else is, so you might be hearing more of the "hooray for me" exaltations)

For those of you who might be interested in this journey, here are a few things I tried out at the gym this week...

Thanks to a dear friend, I got the idea to push myself on the treadmill and try to run for 5 minutes straight. Now, I don't know if any of you are bold enough to shoot down my 5 minute stint with a story of the last triathlon or marathon you ran, but if you are, please keep it to yourself for now. I'm baby-steppin', and I'm excited! Anyhow, so I gave it a whirl and pulled it off! For now I think I'm going to push myself to do this at least once a week for a couple of weeks, and add a bit more time as I get physically used to doing this.

Prior to this little "push", I had been doing a 30-45 minute stint on the treadmill, beginning with a 5-minute warm-up at a 2.0 incline and at a 3mph speed (this is not very fast, but it's how I started out). After 5 minutes I would change up my speed and/or my incline every two minutes. I did this for the first couple of weeks being back at the gym.

I think I must get bored easily, because I am always trying something new to change things up a bit. For instance, last week I happened to go in at a time when, right in front of me, there was a group of about 5 women being led by a trainer thru some sort of group workout. They were doing their warm-up on the treadmill, and I caught wind of some of his instruction, so I incorporated it into my own workout!

After my five-minute warm-up (which is now a 2.0 incline and 3.2-3.4 speed, depending on the day), as soon as I hit 5-minutes, I ramp up my incline to a 5.o. When I hit 6 minutes, I raise it to 6.0 incline. I keep doing that, every minute, until I hit 12 - - then I keep it at 12 for one minute, and when I hit the 13th minute, I bring the incline back down to 2.0 and let my heart rate go down a bit. If you try this, you might want to consider slowing your speed as your incline increases. Pay attention to your body. And remember, I am only sharing this as my personal experience - not as advice! Work with a professional (doctor, trainer - anyone but me) to determine what's best for you.

Once my heart rate is down a bit, I begin to kick up the speed for a run. I started out running at 4.5 mph, and would sometimes bump it up to 4.8 mph, depending on how my breathing was going. I started out running as long as I felt I could (less than one minute at the beginning!), and would resume walking when I felt I needed to. I would run like this a few times during my workout - intermingling the run with my walking.

This week I also added in some sprints, just to see what I could do. I got the idea from one of my favorite TV shows, and decided to give it a whirl! Based on what I saw on TV, I decided to just try each of these speeds for 10-seconds, and here's how I worked it into my workout:

I find that, at this point, I need to be pretty warmed up before I launch into sprints. So my workout goes: By 5-minutes in, I've warmed up; by 13-minutes in I've finished my incline increase and begun to cool it down a bit; by 15-minutes in I've begun running off and on, and do so for the next several minutes. So, by 22-25 minutes into my workout, I'm ready to do some sprinting.

For the sprinting, I first get myself back down to a lower heart rate (I have a very high heart rate when working out, so if I gave you a number, it would be so far above your own heart rate, you'd probably have a heart attack just thinking about "cooling down" to that rate!). I'm not "resting" by any means, but I'm also not panting ;)

In prep for the sprinting, I get off the treadmill and instead straddle it. Then I set the speed to the rate I'm "trying out", and then pay attention to the timer so I can keep track of how long I run at that pace. I use the arm-handles to lower myself onto the treadmill - this comes in handy at the higher speeds! Then I get on and run my little heart out!

At first, like I mentioned above, I just did each of these speeds for 10 seconds... but I found out I wasn't satisfied! But to stay on task to the description, I ended up doing 10-seconds at each of the following speeds: 5.0, 6.0, 7.0 and 8.0.

Like I said, I wasn't satisfied... and that was at the first try! So basically I went as long as I could at each speed that first time trying it, and I think I ended up doing 8.0 for 20 seconds. Not forever, but longer than 10 seconds! I also was very aware that if I was going to go any faster than 8.0 that first day, I needed to have a trainer or something beside me in case I fell and got my face rubbed off (ew).

So there's my sprinting story. And to be honest, by the end of the week I was bypassing 5.o, starting at 6.o, and eventually did try 8.5 AND 9.0! This was all only last week, so that's all I got to report on that! One thing I found, however, was that by the end of the week I had already pushed myself hard enough that when I did my final "normal" running stint toward the end of my workout, I did it at a 5.0 instead of a 4.5! Yippeeee!

One other thing I added to my workout this past week was weights (thanks to a good friend from home who came out for a visit and got me past my fear factor in exploring this part of the gym!), AND 10-minutes per workout on the Stair Master. Now THAT intimidated me! But I got a trainer to show me how it works (and yes, it felt great when she had to stumble thru getting it started), and now I'm a veteran on that machine. ;)


Okay, about 45 paragraphs ago I said there were a "couple" of very fun things going on this week. The WW and workouts were just one thing. The other thing is that an old friend from high school looked me up this past weekend and we got reconnected! He was the guy I went on my first real "the-guy-comes-to-your-house-and-picks-you-up" date in high school, so it has been totally fun to reconnect with him. That has led to a couple of other reconnections, and I'm looking forward to more!

So there's my good news for the week.

So much for going short today ;)