Weekly Rundown

A wonderful week gone by! I feel like I got a lot of things done last week, both exercise and just normal life items checked off, and, geez, am I tired now!

I did have a plan to work the horses and walk Daisy in the evening hours after work, but as usual, Mother Nature didn’t cooperate. We got a few spring rains, which cancelled most of my evening plans.

Monday:I got my Candlelite Yoga fully completed, which was a first in a while. I always forgot how long the series was, and never quite gave it the 40 minutes it needed. I did get Christopher Robin brushed that night, but I gave him the night off from actual work. He seemed happy enough with the loving.

Tuesday: I hopped on the treadmill first thing and ran 2 miles in 21 minutes. It was my first longer stretch and I felt pretty happy about it. I also went to work early so I could walk with Kate. We did 1.84 miles, lapping around the hospital in the brisk wind. Still warm, though 🙂

Wednesday: a day off

Thursday: another 2 mile run on the treadmill. My first mile seemed a bit slow-12 minutes–so I pushed it  to 5.5 MPH for the second mile and still managed to do the two in 22 minutes. I think I was focused on my Hulu program more than my speed! I followed up by stretching out with the first 15 minutes of my Giam yoga practice. My knee seems a bit tender, so I am avoiding Warrior poses, which the rest of the Giam practice is based on.

Friday: 20 minutes on the treadmill at 3.1 MPH, and then back to my weight training. I haven’t been making that a priority recently, and my core was showing the lack.  I do a lot of reps with low weights, as well as using my own body in resistance training.So 30 minutes of planks, leg lifts, biceps curls, etc.  And my body noticed the workout right away!

Saturday: another 2 miles on the treadmill. I did a “slow” version of HIIT with one mile at 5.2 MPH, then the second mile with 2 minutes at 4.0 MPH and 2 minutes at 5.0 MPH til I hit the mile mark.  I was uncertain about running, my knee was twinging a bit when I got up. I went to do errands in the morning before climbing on the treadmill, so I had a couple of hours of walking in to assess my knee before running. I was happy that my knee was fine for the run, and certainly didn’t hurt any worse when I was done.  Don’t know that it helped, but it wasn’t a bad idea.

Sunday: it was an unplanned day off. My husband and I had gotten a small greenhouse kit a while back and decided we finally had time to put it together. It seemed easy enough–but it wasn’t. Took us the whole day and we got nothing else done (and I would like to point out here that my husband is a building contractor, so he does know what he is doing. I didn’t have a clue, but he did). But now I have a greenhouse!

Monthly Stats

A bit late, but here are last month’s stats.

I was a bit depressed by the miles, until I realized that my tracker will track the time I am on the treadmill, but won’t calculate the miles while I am on there. So I went back and looked at my old-fashioned notebook.

Yes, I track everything. It’s my dad’s fault. As a farmer, he had notebooks upon 3-ring binders on what the weather was like, what he had in one field and what he moved to the next field and how well it all did, as well as how well it sold so he knew what to rotate, and what to grow again.

So it is not that surprising that I have my Misfit, which is on my arm to track my activity in general; my Endomondo app on my phone to specifically track when I ride, yoga, run, etc; and my notebook to track how far and how it felt when I exercise. Genetics!

Anyway, I found that I did 26.5 miles on the treadmill as well as the 9 miles outdoors. Not a bad month after all 🙂

Weekly Rundown

Another lovely spring week 🙂 I think it must be here to stay. And we have been well above normal temperatures, hitting 70 and even 80. I did a lot outside this week, enjoying the weather as much as possible. I even got the horses out in the back field now that the  snow is gone–finally.

I was more than a little afraid that someone would be bucking and snorting and not paying attention to holes buried in the snow. If they can see them, at least they have a chance.

Monday: once more I had the “day after” the busy weekend. I did do some yoga, about 25 minutes of primarily stretching. It felt pretty good to stretch out all my muscles after all the work they had been doing, but I will admit it kinda felt like a day off.

Tuesday: running on the treadmill–I bumped it up to 1.5 miles, and hit 5.4 MPH.  I ran early, so I could meet my friend Kate for our walk around the hospital–outside! The path around the hospital is .9 miles, and there are outbuildings that can extend the walk if you leave the circle around the hospital. We ended up doing 1.55 miles in about 39 minutes before heading in for our coffee.

Wednesday: my goal for the day–off. Well, that was easy!

Thursday: another 1.5 miles on the treadmill running. I had planned on doing weights as well, but my ears had a different idea. I woke up Sunday with my left ear completely clogged, which happens about once a decade. I tried the OTC ear cleaner for three days, but on Wednesday I admitted defeat. I looked up the Express Care hours and got there right as they opened, so I could just be slightly late to work. And, dang, the world was loud after they washed out my ears. Yes, ears, apparently the right ear was clogged too.

Friday: a walk on the treadmill, followed by weights. I admit to wanting to sleep in a bit, so I only got 17 minutes on the treadmill and 17 minutes of weight training.  I wasn’t trying to match times, sometimes things just sync up!

Saturday: a busy day! Holy cow. So I started early with Daisy, we did a mile walk out and then ran a mile back. I was pretty happy, as my time was 11:38, which is about the same as when I do it on the treadmill. This made me feel good, since the road is much more uneven and hilly than that treadmill. I then sat a bit (taxes needed to be finished), before heading out to walk the fence line to get the horses out back for the summer.  Then I came back in and did some spring cleaning in the house, as well as just a bit out in the garden. Yup, I slept very well.

Sunday: started the day with Daisy again, we did an easy 1.44 mile walk. I wanted to make sure she was stretched out from yesterday–that was her first mile run in forever. But she’s a bouncy little thing, never even knew I had asked something harder of her. Then I spent the bulk of the day helping my husband. He had brought home a wood chipper, and we put all the piles from our land clearing the weekend before through. It is amazing how fast that chipper eats a  pile. I took the time to do some groundwork with Charby in the afternoon, before falling into a puddle on the couch.

Outdoors, finally

I got my first outdoor run today!

Daisy and I walked out a mile, and ran back. We managed to run down a long, steep hill without incident (downhill is still harder than uphill), and Daisy managed to not stop suddenly in front of me with the result of me tripping over her. 

I did manage to pace myself better than she did, as she led me the first half  mile and I led her the last quarter-mile. All in all, an excellent start to our running season.

I expect this is a good point to announce that I am aiming for a 5k on Memorial day. I’d like to do a couple this summer, so that seems like a good starting point.  I know I did the obstacle course last fall, and it was fab (definitely going to try again this year); but I didn’t run it.  So I am pretty excited to get out and do a straight up road race.

Weekly Rundown

Another has flown by! And a nice warm week it was. Although, not as warm as this week promises to be. Yay, spring is finally here!

Monday: a day off with a bit of stretching. I find Monday is a good day off as I tend to overdo on the weekends and need a break before starting my week afresh. I know a lot of people hate to take Mondays off, they want to start their week fresh and strong.

Tuesday: a quick mile run on the treadmill, and then I was off to walk the hospital halls with my friend Kate. It was a rather slow mile, I am trying to work my leg back up to running, patiently. So I did 5.2 MPH for 11.43 minutes instead of the 6.0 MPH I’d prefer. Kate and I walked for 30 minutes up and down the halls til we had just enough time for a cup of coffee before I clocked in.

Wednesday: I hopped on the treadmill for a fast walk at 3.8 MPH for 30 minutes. After a short cooldown at 3.0, I decided to do some weight training. I did however, learn from my disastrous attempt at lunges last week. I pulled out my Fitness magazine and did 2 of the moves  which I thought my leg could handle, followed by my more normal moves of triceps, biceps, leg lifts and core. Took about 25 minutes, and then I was ready to start my day.

Thursday: another mile run (seeing a pattern? I am running every other day!). I did a slightly slower run, peaking at 5.1 MPH. I have to say, it felt incredibly awesome. I did roughly 21 minutes of stretch yoga afterwards, which felt great on my quads 🙂

Friday: weight training again. I did some straight lifting, leaving my Fitness magazine on the table. I only did 26 minutes, but felt pretty good afterwards.

Saturday: Started off the day with my run. One mile in 12:27 minutes. Then I did some errands in town, before coming home to get the horse’s feet done. I did some work around the barn and the fencing while I was waiting for my farrier. Then I took Daisy for a walk (2.10 miles in 39.17 minutes), and realized I might be having surprise company. So onto cleaning the house–deep cleaning, since I was doing it anyway.  And I had to get ready for the logging on Sunday, so I  moved some debris that was going to be in our way.  14,924 steps that day and I slept very well that night!

Sunday: Not quite as busy as Saturday, only 9,784 steps. But I did quite of bit of brush lugging first thing in the morning, and my version of caber tossing: 8+ foot trees, a couple of inches in diameter, tossed on the pile as well. Very good for my core! The bigger ones I left to my husband. In the afternoon I rearranged my tack room–the hi-fi I feed the horses has coated my bridles and saddles with a fine green dust, even after I cleaned them a week or so ago. So I moved the food away from the tack, into the other corner. Then I replaced the lunge pen fence; they had taken it down over the winter. I think they had an ulterior motive 😉 Especially as I made them do a bit of work in it after I was done!

Hard Lesson Learned

A couple of weeks ago we got about 8 inches of heavy wet snow. We had to clean the vehicles off, and plow the driveway so we could leave for work.
One of the better things that came out of my accident was my new car.

Now, its only new to me, not actually new. But it is a Subaru Tribeca and it KICKS ASS  in the snow. I have gone to work almost every snowstorm this winter and I had not even a slip in all my travels. It was the same on this particular morning, we plowed around it and it just dug itself the rest of the way out. Love it.

However, I learned the hard way that just ’cause you can do something, that doesn’t mean you should do something.

When I got to work, the employee parking lot was full as always. We have a huge lot out back. I never mind walking, but some days……

Except, wait, there was a space, only  four  spots deep in the very first section!

The spot was clearly left by the night crew, as the snow was flat and even and had no tire marks as yet. Remembering how easily my Tribeca dug itself out that morning, I said, “hey, I can do that!,”  while mocking all the wussies whose car wouldn’t drive in the heavy snow and had bypassed the prime parking space.

Now, it did take me three tries, mostly I was worried about going too fast and nailing the car in the front parking space.  I locked it up smugly and went into work.

On the way home I stopped for gas, went around the front end, and, damn! I had popped the (admittedly) plastic pins that held my front fender on the passenger side, and it was all out of whack. There seems to be a tray under my engine, about 6″ x 10″ on either side, and that was also hanging on the passenger side, bent back from being dragged on the road. It was quite heavy snow I had plowed through.

So I fit into the snow spot just fine–but some damage was done to my car.  My husband was able to repair it (although I still need some pins for the fender) when I got home, but it was a hard lesson learned.

I had a similar experience with my leg. I recently got this new treadmill that goes up to 10 MPH! The one I had previously was my mother’s, and primarily made for walking, so only went up to 6 MPH. I hadn’t really run faster than that, but I was anxious to start.

So I decided I was going to run a mile  a couple of times one week, and of course I wanted to see how fast I could go.  I made it up to 6.7, producing my first sub 10 minute mile since before the accident. I felt great.

So I did it again later in the week.

And by the end of the week I was sitting in my chair with ice on my knee for the first time in months.

Again, just because you can do something, doesn’t mean you should do something!

I have a new running plan, and it includes patience. Although, I still want to push it to just see how far I can go. But I don’t, because I want to run again and again, not fast one day and limp the next.

It helps if I keep telling myself that.

 

Weekly Rundown

I had a marvelous week–even with the snowstorm. Bleh. Wonder if spring will ever really arrive? We have a “wintry mix” forecast for tomorrow as well.  And the mud is already deep, I think I am going to have to drive somewhere to walk Daisy for the next month.

But its WARM! All complaints melt away in warmth. Hopefully the snow will melt away as well. I am sure the horses would like to get out into the back pasture–they are a bit frisky right now.

Monday: I ran. Such a simple thing, but so joyous. I increased on the mile I had been running and did a 1.5 at a slow 5 MPH. Took 18.30 minutes and I followed up with a .5 mile cooldown and some stretching.

Tuesday: a walk on the treadmill. I did 30 minutes, the first 20 at only 2.8 MPH until I realized how slow I was going, then I bumped it up to 3.0MPH for the last 10 minutes. Yup, that was faster! I did have the treadmill on an incline, although after the hills around here the incline does seem easy.

Wednesday: I had a plan for Wednesday, but I was trying to run every two days so my leg had time to recover. So I took the day off so I could run Thursday.

Thursday: I ran as planned.  It was odd, I was going the same speed as last time but whenever I took my hands off the rails, I went backward  ??  Eventually I shrugged and just held on as I ran. Some days are worse than others, right?  I was just about done a mile when it occurred to me that I had been walking at an incline on Tuesday. Oops. So I finished my 1.5 mile run at the incline. Go me!

Friday: a nice walk on the treadmill to stretch out my legs after my running.  I did 35 minutes at 3.0 MPH with a bit of stretching afterwards.

Saturday: good grief, it snowed again. Although, the afternoon snow more was like white rain rather than actual snow. Of course, by then we already had 6 slushy inches.  So no outdoors fun for me. I hopped on the treadmill for 30 minutes at 3.2 MPH, then I did weight training with Fitness magazine moves that used my own body weight as resistance (I’d post them, but they have taken them off the Fitness website, it’s been a couple of years–I still use my original copy of the magazine), plus my leg lifts, triceps, etc that I usually do with my lite weights. I did learn something: I might be able to run, and I might be able to climb/descend stairs easily, and I might be able sit in Butterfly with the soles of my feet touching, but I am NOT ready for lunges. Just about wrecked my knee before deciding I probably should stop trying. I finished up with 17 minutes of yoga to stretch it all back out.

Sunday: I did another run. I was worried it would difficult after the lunges, but it went remarkably well. My legs are definitely getting stronger. I also got some turmeric pills a couple of weeks ago. Tumeric is supposed be good for inflammation, and I figured it couldn’t hurt. Not sure if they are helping as much as I think, but my leg does seem to be able to bounce back better. Think I will keep taking them. I did do 16 minutes of a yoga dvd as well. I did the beginning of floor moves and stretches, but turned it off before they got into the slew of Warrior poses. Didn’t think my knee was up to that.

In the later morning we wandered down to our local flower show. It was beautiful and I love the smell of warm earth and flowers from a greenhouse 🙂 I could have spent hours in there….oh wait, I did!