October 2007 archives

I went to Las Vegas for work for several days. I wasn't a fan of Vegas whatsoever, but I did something cool and ran a good portion of The Strip one morning. It's still in the 80s there, which means the mornings are in the 60s, which made it almost perfect running weather. Except for all of the dryness. My body is still recovering from all of that.

But I'd have to say that running The Strip (Scott calculated that I ran 3.4 miles on it) was one of my highlights as a runner. One of those fun runner things to do.

I've been kickboxing regularly at work and man is that a workout. Honestly, I don't do anything too fancy and my arms and my butt are always sore afterwards. I've also been trying to get some weight-lifting activity worked into my regular routine, as always. I've been doing my own form of circuit training, which goes something like this:

4 minutes of kickboxing, breaking down to two minutes per side. (One set will be a jab/cross/front kick combo, once on the left side, another on the right.)
2 minutes sprinting on the treadmill.
1 set of squats with the medicine ball (I toss a 4-lb. medicine ball up in the air and squat as I catch it)
20 sit ups on the balance ball

Rinse, repeat, using different kickboxing combinations and weight-lifting moves. I rest maybe for a minute total with each circuit. The idea is keep my heart rate up pretty high. I probably do this for 45 minutes and then I have to get in the shower and head back upstairs to work. Other days I just run, or even use the elliptical. I haven't been doing anything too amazing, just plugging along.

I see and read all sorts of things I want to write about but I just haven't gotten around to it. Things such as this week's Us Weekly cover article on Trista Sutter's (that's her name, right?) struggle - it is taking everything in me not to slap quotation marks around the word struggle right now - to go from an obese size 4 to a more acceptable size 2. I read that she doesn't feel comfortable or confident around her husband of four years because of these 10 pounds she wants to lose and then?

My head exploded.

I take serious, HUGE issue with those people who even bother to have an opinion on whether or not a woman chooses to lose weight. Everyone has their comfort zone - I'm perfectly happy carrying around an extra 10 pounds where others think I should lose more - and not everyone who watches his or her diet, and works out, is a nervous, vapid little sheep buying into the beauty myth. However? The answers Trista purportedly gave to Us Weekly make it seem as though she not only has some body image issues, but also a somewhat curious relationship with her husband if after having their baby and being wed for several years she's not comfortable around him because of the baby weight she inevitably had to gain to make the aforementioned birth happen. Plus we've got a nationwide magazine showcasing these answers as the mark of a woman taking charge of her life, and then, of course, providing diet tips.

Sigh.

Posted by Erin at 08:24 AM | | filed under: Random

So I know it won't be the same thing, but today when I took a tour of the gym facilities at work, I learned they have a kickboxing bag! How cool is that?

Of course there aren't kickboxing classes, but that doesn't mean I can't do simple series of punches and kicks on the bag. I wanted to find something instructional to give me a guide tomorrow afternoon when I go in there to work on the bag - In the afternoon! When I want! I can totally do that at my job! - and God bless the Internet. Seriously.

I found these videos and boy howdy do I think they rock.

First off, the fact that every move is shown step-by-step is fantastic, but also that the quality is good and done by professionals. Plus, there are a couple of instructors from which to choose, if you like one more than the other. I would mostly only recommend these videos if you've taken a class, but these aren't bad for the basics and tooling around a bag.

So, I'm excited.

Plus today when I got home I had a big ol' package waiting for me from the fine folks at Glamour magazine - Core Secrets. I'm about to go pump up the balance ball now. It was a nice surprise to come home to and I'll report back tomorrow and let you know how the workout was. I'm going to try it out in the morning.

Thanks, Glamour!

Finally, I weighed in this morning to learn that after all of that eating and drinking last week, I gained ... not a single pound. The body works in mysterious ways.

Posted by Erin at 10:44 PM | | filed under: Training

So here's a tip from me to you: don't run outside when you've got horrible allergies and haven't done much to curb them.

Yesterday afternoon was the Pumpkins in the Park 5K and it was one of the worst races I've run in eons. I'm embarrassed by how horrible my performance was. Egads. I just checked the results - 11:54 minute miles, for a total of 36:57. Actually, looking at it - maybe that isn't so bad considering we had to stop TWICE. Once for all the damn baby strollers clogging up the course - Can we please stop allowing these things during races? I've yet to run a race where the course is big enough to accommodate thousands of runners AND a ton of these big-ass running strollers. - and another because I got a stomach cramp so bad I thought I was going to lose it. It wasn't a side stitch but rather felt as though I'd pulled a muscle.

Then you consider that my ears plugged up. As though I had swimmer's ear. Ever since the weather shifted, my ears have been plugging up. I know it's all allergy related, and I took my Flonase-type stuff before I left but it didn't do me a bit of good. It was just awful. I couldn't regulate my breathing well because with each breath my ears plugged more. I couldn't talk or hear anything ... miserable.

I bought some homeopathic medicine after the race which cleared things up. Too little, too late for the race, unfortunately. By the time Scott and I headed out to dinner, though, I was fine.

I love running with my friend, Shelane, though. We've got a similar pace and since she's one of my very best friends, we don't run out of things to talk about. And it's a nice way for she and I to spend time together sans cocktails, which we really, really enjoy, too.

My vacation is over, unfortunately. I had a nice week, although it was tripped up a bit by how sore I was as a result of the kickboxing. Plus, my diet could have been a wee bit better, but nothing I'm wrestling with as a result. If I'm looking forward to nothing else, it's normalcy in my life again, with a regular meal- and workout-schedule. It makes all the difference in the world.

Posted by Erin at 08:50 PM | | filed under: Training

OK, the only reason I'm calling this "Apple Pie Oatmeal" is because of the cheese but whatever. I made this for breakfast this week and can't get enough.

Take:

1 serving steel-cut oatmeal
1/2 cup soy milk
1 Granny Smith apple, chopped
1 tsp of cinnamon
1 tsp of brown sugar
1/2 Tblsp of Splenda
1 slice of fat-free sharp cheddar cheese

Microwave the chopped apple and spices for about 2 minutes. Mix with prepared oatmeal. Place slice of cheese over oatmeal till it melts. Makes about three cups.

The recipe is a slight tweak from one I saw in some random fitness magazine this month. Obviously you prepare the oatmeal with the soy milk - makes it creamier than water. I had the fat-free cheese and thought I'd try it out. Very glad I did. A nice Fall breakfast - hearty and healthy. I split it up and spread it out over a few breakfasts because there is only so much oatmeal I can take.

Posted by Erin at 11:02 AM | | filed under: Recipes

I'm still hobbling around from kickboxing the other night. This morning when my alarm went off, I couldn't even put pressure on my right foot without hobbling.

So, obviously I'm not spinning today.

I am going to do some yoga, however, just to stretch my muscles out a bit. Probably at home, though, and just some simple stuff from Namaste while my lasagna is cooking. I have the 5K on Saturday and I don't want to screw that up. Scott commented on how it shouldn't be all that shocking that I'm this sore, seeing as how I haven't done any real kickboxing in about two years. I guess I thought that I was in good enough shape that it wouldn't matter.

Obviously, I was way, way wrong. I mean DAMN.

Speaking of kickboxing, I looked into the studio here in town and it's *gulp* $125 a month. And the classes didn't get the best reviews on Yelp.com, and I'm just not inclined to ever spend that much money on a monthly gym membership, unless my salary was to triple. And it's not just yet. I'm not going to make any decisions about gyms just yet, not when I'll have one at my disposal. The kickboxing class made me wistful. Perhaps the smell of a heavy bag is just too intoxicating for me.

I bought a new dress at H&M yesterday. And it was a small. As in a size small. It's still taking some effort on my behalf to grab the smaller sizes but I'm doing it. I've thus far purchased three long-sleeved t-shirts in size small, and I've stopped grabbing size 12s off of the rack and stuck with the 10s. It's not a denial thing as much as it is that I need to start wearing clothes that fit and flatter me. I'm so accustomed to wearing things with some extra blouse and bag.

A few more days left of vacation. It's been nice.

Posted by Erin at 11:48 AM | | filed under: Ouch

In truth, I never actually went anywhere. I didn't fall off any wagon, though I'm not sure I've been on or off any proverbial moving device for some time now, and I'm not going through any huge, life-altering event.

Well, I did quit my job so I suppose that's something.

I'm going to miss my job at the Sun-Times, but admittedly not the hours (Wednesday through Sunday, 3 - 11 p.m., though always later, sometimes-till-2 a.m.-type later.). The job kept me away from everything in my life that I love, with the only holdout on that list being my job and that wasn't enough to sustain me. So I'm now working as a Web editor somewhere else, with Monday - Friday, 9-5-type hours. I've taken some time off in between jobs which is good because so far every day I've woken up thinking about my job at the Sun-Times and some mythical thing I didn't do the night before, which, of course, is impossible, hence the mythical, since my last day there was Friday.

It's still in my system is my point.

This week is my week to detox and return to a normal schedule. As I mentioned, I'm still on stress mode, so I've been trying to relax and chill out as much as possible. No sleeping in for me, either. I've already been doing all sorts of fun things, and necessary things, to get myself ready for the new job. Mostly it's just been nice to spend real quality time with the people I love, as opposed to fitting them in where I could. That kind of life was having a really poor effect on my overall health and I've come waaaay too far to take steps back.

I really enjoy taking care of myself. My job wasn't allowing me to do that properly. I'm proud of myself for acknowledging that and taking the steps to change it.

So what have I been up to? Well, I've gained - gasp - two pounds. During the big transition, I did little to no exercise and there were some wretched food choices made. I mean, I don't even like Arby's and yet? I ate Arby's. I didn't go out on a two-week binge or anything, just that if I felt like fried food, or sandwiches, or, whatever, I ate it. It was all fine while it lasted, I didn't flip out or worry, but, you know, moving on.

I went to a kickboxing class yesterday and as a result I am very, very sore. Gosh I forgot how much I missed doing this. I really, really loved it. I sweat my ass off and it was an awesome stress reliever to just run around, punching and kicking a big bag. My new job is going to give me a gym at my disposal (which solves some of my problems as to how I'm going to find the motivation to work out during the thick of winter) but I'm also hugely considering reviewing my funds to join this kickboxing gym in town. I'd join the gym I took the kickboxing class at but there is only one class within the entire network of gyms and I really don't feel like paying for all of the extras for one class. We'll see.

I've been running like a woman possessed when I'm out on the road. As in, fast. I'm not sure what accounts for this, but I'm running a 5K on Saturday so I'm hoping I can translate all of this speed work I've been doing into a faster run time when it's all over this weekend. If nothing else, it's come in handy when running with my dog. Keeping up with a hyperactive Golden Retriever is tough!

Today I'm taking the day off to let myself heal from all of the kickboxing of yesterday. Tomorrow I'm going to take a spinning class then an Astanga yoga class right after. Friday I'm planning on more yoga and then the 5K on Saturday. After the 5K we're going for steaks and martinis, and I'm fully planning on eating lobster as well. It's our celebratory dinner and I figure a 5K is just thing to get my metabolism ready to burn off at least the drawn butter from the lobster.

I'm looking forward to posting here with some regularity again. I don't have anything new or big or different planned - just happy to know I'll have some more time to write again.

Posted by Erin at 08:45 AM | | filed under: Random