Sunday

This weekend was mostly about productivity at home.  I pruned a few bushes, filled in a few holes in the back yard (created when the tree company took down 4 trees this summer), cooked (a yummy turkey chili with cornbread), did laundry, and scrubbed down the master bath.  I'm amazed at how relaxed I am after a three day weekend even though it was mostly spent either running errands, grocery shopping, doing yard work, cleaning house, oh yea, and studying for a mid-term exam.  Life is good.  The nice weather sure helps.

Saturday

I jogged around the lake (1.25 miles).  It felt good to back at the jogging.  I took most of the week off.  I was overly tired.  We had two evening events last week.  Monday night's wasn't mine but I ended up working the Friday before on it (funny how that happens).  Then Thursday was my event (which went very well).  I'm guessing that is why I was tired.  I'm also aware that I haven't been taking my vitamins...so I'm planning on taking them to work with me (so I can take them with lunch).  I spent last week sleeping as late as possible (6:30am) to be at work by 8:00am.  This week it is back to getting up at 5:00am to get a workout in before work. 

Mowed the lawn (and fertilized it)...it isn't exactly equivant to a 3 mile run...but I count everything I can.  I'm also counting vacuuming!

I had dinner with some friends on Saturday night.  As I was enjoying my second glass of wine (they live walking distance from me), I realized it has been while since I've enjoyed a evening out.  I slept the best I've slept in a month, not because of the alcohol; but having relaxed so much.  The good thing is that next Thursday is book club, so it will be another nice evening out. 

Friday

I took a comp day on Friday.  It was a great day to catch up on grocery shopping, a costco run, buying dog food, etc.  It is funny how I always end up doing my errands on a day off.  I think Thursday night would be a better time to do errands.  

Tired weekend

Monday
Today I got on the treadmill. I'm still feeling pretty tired. So I didn't work particularly hard. I jogged a bit and walked a bit. Total time was 25 minutes more than if Ihad slept in. I also, had to make a trip the grocery store this morning...since I didn't go grocery shopping this weekend. This week's lunch (same thing each day) is a chicken Ceasar Salald with fat free Ceasar dressing.

Saturday and Sunday
I took Saturday and Sunday off. I was just plain tired this weekend. The good news is that I didn't have much homework. I spent Saturday at Jan's house (checking out her sewing room) and Saturday night I moved a bookcase out of my sewing room/den (into my bedroom). This gave me a bit more room in the sewing area. I had a sewing table on order, and I cancelled it on Saturday. It was too much money for something that I didn't like that well. So I moved a desk from the spare bedroom into the den to use as a sewing table. It is not the optimal setup but it will work. Sunday I sorted through some books (to get rid of some) and put away the rest of the books on the bookcase in my bedroom. I still need to do some de-cluttering in the den/sewing space. But over all it will work fine. My biggest issue is that I have 2 printers (one photo and one laserjet) and one scanner which takes up a lot of surface space. I need to find a solution to this.

Friday
Friday was suppose to be a rest day, but I decided to ride with Julie in the evening. I had a tough time on the ride. I've not been riding, and I was very tired so I had trouble keeping up. My left leg cramped about half way (each direction). Also, my light didn't want to work right so I rode with my LED lights...which is barely better than no lights at all.

Friday, October 17th
Today is a rest day! I've been waking up between 3 and 4am all week (not on purpose) so I'm a little tired and the rest day couldn't have come at a better time.

Thursday, October 16th
I had a good spin this morning. My body is now official use to the spin bike and I'm getting a good workout. I have one spinnervals workout which is a good base builder (staying in arobic zone). I'd like to get a little more intensene spinnerval DVD ...just to mix it up a bit. I've not been on a real bike in a while. So, weather permitting, Julie and I are going to ride the SVT tonight. I even remembered to make sure my light is plugged in. I'm wanting to get on the road bike; so I might venture out this weekend for a nice ride around Lake Sammamish. I'm not Mountain Biking with the club because their rides are mostly in Black Diamond; thus a 2 hour ride takes closer to 5 hours and i just don't have that much time.

I'm a jogger

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

I'm official a jogger! I've been walking/jogging on the treadmill for a few weeks. Today I walked for 5 minutes (warm up); jogged for 30 minutes; walked for 5 minutes (cool down). I'm not jogging fast; but I'm jogging! In fact, I'm sure I can walk as fast as I'm jogging; but it is a great start. Originally I was going to make the transition from walking to jogging over about 6 weeks; but I decided that since I'm not recovering from any injuries and I'm staying on either the treadmill or soft surfaces (trails) I could move up the schedule a bit.

Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Today I had a great 30 minutes on the spin bike. It is really the first day on the spin bike that I felt I could push myself. It is interesting that, in the past, I've never been to spin class (or on a spin bike at home) more than once a week. I've never felt like I could really push myself hard. I think spinning 3 times a week has helped because my body is adjusting to the spin bike. So I had a great workout.

I still need to get out on the real bike at least a couple times a month. I'm also not swimming. I can only swim Thursday and Friday nights. So I'm trying to decide if I want to wait till spring to pick up swimming again. My Spring Quarter is over March 20th! So that may be the ticket...because I could swim 3 nights a week then. We will see, I still might try to get in the pool once a week just to start building a base. There use to be (and may still be) a masters group at the Pine Lake Club. That might be an option as well. Swim one day a week (in the morning) with them and then one evening at klahanie. Still figuring this out.

Today I did two sets of upper body weights. This has also been lacking!

Tricepts
Bicept curls
and Pec exercise.

Treadmill on Monday. I was on the treadmill for about 40 minutes. My stomach has been bothering me a bit...so I was on and off the treadmill...but total workout time was 40 minutes.

Saturday

Still wasn't back to full speed but decided to take Cosmos jogging.  we were out for about 45 minutes and did the loop around the lake.  I jogged some and walked some.  Just was feeling a little puny.  I'm psyched to get back on the treadmill on Monday.  With the cold setting in, I'm enjoying the morning workouts in the comfort of home!

Took Friday off as a rest day.  I wasn't feeling particularly well so a rest day made sense.

Thursday

spin day...

Wednesday

was on the treadmill on Wednesday.  I actually felt like a runner.  Well like a jogger!

Spinervals

Tuesday, October 8, 2008
Today was a spin day. I've lacked motivation on the spin bike; thus today I put in a Spineraval DVD. It gave me the motivation I needed. I spent 25 minutes on the spin bike. Average heartrate was about 75%. I'm getting up at 5am...but not getting into the gym till about 5:30am...thus, I need to shorten my morning routine a bit. I'm getting dressed, brushing teeth, feeding dog and letting him out. This shouldn't take a half an hour! Once I'm done with my workout...I'm moving much quicker.


Monday, October 7, 2008
Monday was a treadmill day. I'm spending more time jogging and less walking. I'm trying not to increase the amount I jog too soon. I still remember several months of frustration when I was recovering from stress fractures in both my legs. I'm hoping that staying on the treadmill/dirt will prevent that type of injury. Spent 30 minutes on the treadmill.

still going strong!

Sunday

I woke up at 8 am ready to go for a walk/jog.  This is somewhat of a miracle.  My body wants my morning workouts!  So I put on my sweats and my trail running shoes and Cosmos and I headed out for a walk/jog around the lake.  It is about a 1/4 of a mile to the trail and 1.25 miles around the lake and then 1/4 of a mile home.  So total distance is about 1.75 miles.  My hope on the trail is that my body can get use to being on dirt so that the transition from the treadmill isn't difficult and also to challenge myself a bit.  I've been on the flat on the treadmill and the lake trail is rolling terrain.  I jogged most of the trail with walking sections thrown in.  Mostly I jogged for about 5 minute intervals and then walked.  We also worked on Cosmos' obedience both on and off leash.  We don't get out much and he gets very excited when we go for walks and tends to pull which whacks my neck and back out; thus, I challenged him to be very good on leash and off and he did well.  I hope to get out on the trail one day each weekend.

Saturday rest-day

Saturday was a rest day.  I started the day off too early by going to Bellevue Square.  My wireless router (made by apple) quit several weeks ago.  So I make a 9am appointment at the Apple store.  They were terrific.  They checked it out and gave me a new one. I set it up in the store just incase (since I brought my lap top with me).  Then I did some research on external hard drives.  My laptop hard drive is full of movies and music; thus I'm looking for an eternal drive system that will let me move all the media off the laptop.  I'm feeling very motivated to figure this out because I want to load Boot camp (which is a product that will let me run windows on my mac).  The Polar software only works on windows!  I'm also thinking I might need to talk Seujan out of a copy of her homemade workout spreadsheet...which would do the same thing!  I just need to start keeping track (better track than my blog).  I then went to Nordstrom.  I'm trying to go shopping at least 2x a month.  I did this in my Boeing days and it paid off.  The gig is to hit all the sale racks in my favorite departments at the Bon and Nordstroms.  I'm also hoping to hit Nordstrom rack and Ross as well.  I lucked out!  I got one dress shirt for 40% off and another for about 45% off.  I bought some slacks (not as good of a deal) but I was feeling a bit desperate for work slacks (that are washable); they were about 35% off but were still too expensive.  I made several other errands while I was out.  I finished the day by hemming a pair of pants with the sewing machine (this was the first time I didn't have to look up how to do a blind hem).  I then tried to thread the serger so that I could hem a pair of sweatpants with a coverstich.  No luck...I need to take another threading lesson from the sewing machine store!  My point of all this is...Why are rest days not truly rest days?

Spin Friday

Friday was a tough day on the spin bike.  I stayed on it for about 30-40 minutes and didn't worry about getting my heart rate up.  I felt like it was a miracle that I was out of bed at 5 am.  I drove to work because I wanted to go to Pacific Fabrics at Northgate to get some fabric to make a dressy jacket for work.  I found a beautiful purple wool fabric that is going to make a beautiful jacket.  The lining is adeptly called plumb.  I wouldn't normally line with silk, but it was so gorgeous and I'm going to use some of it for part of the collar; thus having the lining match I decided would be cool.  It will be an expensive jacket; but will be less than half what I'd expect it to sell for in readymade.  I finished the day off with dinner with Katie, Ted and Shi.  

Thursday Treadmill

Thursday was back to the treadmill.  I like the treadmill better than the spin bike.  I'm getting comfortable with jogging and found myself jogging along watching TV not even thinking about how long I was jogging.  I'm not overly disciplined as far as deciding how many jogging sets I'll do or how long or how long the walking is in between.  Pretty much I'm just enjoying being on the treadmill and noticing that the jogging is getting easier.  Thursday I was jogging along and all of a sudden realized that I had been jogging for a while.  So my body is adapting.

Day Three...this hasn't happened before...or at least not in a long time!

The alarm rang at 5am and out of bed I jumped. As I stood standing next to the bed, I was so stunned that I wasn't snuggled in my warm sheets...not sure how I got there. And how was it that I was beginning my day without interior struggle. You know the conversation. "you need to get up!" "but I need my sleep, and that is important" "You will live, get out of bed" "ok, but 5 more minutes of sleep first"....

So today was the first day on the spin bike. I rode for 40 minutes. This wasn't one of those spectacular Tour de France type of rides. This was an"ok, lets get the heart rate up to 70% of MHR" type of rides. I was surprised at my quads complaining. If felt good to be on the spin bike and I had to remind myself that it is a new bike with a new position. Not that the spin bike is new...it has been around for a year...but it is the first time I've been on it since spring. Also, since I mostly mountain biked this summer, I'm use to standing and coasting a bit; thus the constant pedaling was a challenge. I like my new routine! So far I'm only getting about 7 hours of sleep...so I need to work on the bedtime.

I was thinking this morning that I'm pretty content with my life and I have some good routines going.
1) I'm reading a novel before I go to sleep (about 30 minutes).
2) I'm taking a sewing class on Tuesday nights and enjoying the sewing and the company. I'm also getting pretty good at it.
3) I'm taking two MBA classes a) strategy b) Realestate law. And both of my professors are really good, and have a good sense of humor.
4) I'm workin out before work.
5) I'm taking the bus to work 3 days a week and enjoying the time to read (it accomplishes 3 hours of homework reading)
6) My job is good. I have some good possibilities this year...and I'm not working much overtime...so I have a bit of a life.
7) I've been enjoying happyhour most Thursdays...just a nice time to catch up with friends.
8) I love fall, it might be my favorite time of the year. I'm looking forward to road riding on the weekends this fall and winter.
9) I'm cooking on Sundays (which is normal for me in the fall and winter). I'm really enjoying looking for good recipes that I can make that will feed me all week. I'm doing one hearty dish and one salad. This week it was Beef stew with lots of mushroom and Caesar salad.

Life is good!