I know how stupid it is

I just noticed on my blog stats Ive had a lot of hits for that phrase.  "I know how stupid it is"

To add fuel to the fire... Here's another one.


I know how stuipid it is, but I have about 13.5 weeks before Oct 21 which happens to be the date of a marathon Im about to sign up for. I hope I have enough time. Mr Higdon and I are going to be close friends for a while. Ill do my first ever Half Marathon 15 days before I do my first Full. Is that how your supposed to do it?


Half Marathon High Trestle Trail Half
Full Marathon DesMoines IMT

***UPDATE***
High Trestle Trail was cancelled.  So I wont be doing a half marathon this weekend.  

From Woodward City council Mayor Pro TempThank you for your interest in participating in the High Trestle Trail Marathon on October 6^th.  A third party company was responsible for the event’s organization, registration, and execution. This company is not affiliated with the Community of Woodward, Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation, or the High Trestle Trail Authority. Unfortunately, due to unforeseen circumstances, that company is no longer able to host the marathon, and the race has thus been cancelled.
 On behalf of the High Trestle Trail managers, I apologize for the event’s cancellation, and I want to assure you that you will be receiving a full refund of your entry fee via Active.com. Please allow 1 to 4 weeks for this refund to arrive.
 With that being said, the High Trestle Trail managers were excited about the idea of a trail marathon and even more thrilled by the response that it received. They are considering hosting a marathon in 2013 so please keep your eyes and ears open for future updates on that potential event.

Swimming refrence

Someone posted this a while back and I thought it would be good to share

http://www.chrissiewellington.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/220_Open_Water.pdf

An accomplishment a long time coming

Friday morning I ran 5k in Madison WI. inspired by all the collegiate cross country kids in my hotel. Friday night I did 2 miles of sprint intervals and felt pretty good about myself.  My whole body was sore with DOMS by Sat afternoon from the effort I put into the sprints.  

Sunday I decided that I would run long.  My goal was to do 10k which I have never done.  I mostly run 5k and have been focusing on speed.  So my runs are generally 3-3.6 miles always in that range and always in a 28-33 min time frame.

Lately I have felt like I haven't really been pushing myself to my absolute limit and I feel like I'm cheating myself by not making progress.  Why or how I got into this rut I don't know but I'm set on getting out of it.  The sprints were one way and me pushing to do faster and faster miles and faster 5K times is another.  Sunday I got this crazy Idea that I had the ability to do 10K so I did.

I felt pretty good starting out a little sluggish mostly from poor diet.  After the first mile I had settled into a pretty good rhythm and was keeping a careful eye on my pace to make sure I wasn't trying to go to fast my first time.

I did start out a little fast but managed to get things slowed back down to my "safe speed".  I brought a water bottle with me and was glad I had.  Running 5Ks without water is fine but I didn't want to run twice the distance without anything.

At the halfway I was feeling awesome which was good but I figured by mile 4.5 or 5 is where I would feel the hammer.    I just kept spinning my legs with keeping my head up and tried to focus on my form so I didnt get tired from running inefficiently.   Mile 4 came and went without even a twinge of fatigue.  As Mile 5 ticked by I felt invigorated by the distance and the thought that I was actually going to get this done.  I did catch my pace slowing but I think it was more from not being "aware" of my slow down more then anything else.


As mile 6 clicked by I was beaming.  My smile must have freaked people out who were driving.  I felt awesome and actually considered continuing just to see how far my body would let me go but decided since I normally only go half that distance I didnt want to strain anything. 

I ran a total of 6.4 miles in 1:10:08  Actual 10K time was 1:08:01

Swim, eat, swim, sleep, swim...

     Oh my gosh!  I have been swimming a lot.  I think my hair has gotten lighter.  I've really been hitting the pool hard More swimming then I have done in the past even when I was training before.  I guess part of it is that I know the swim is my weak spot and I know I can do the bike and run.  This week though I have come to a really cool revelation.  This week while training I realized that I can do this.  Not just complete.  I've known that I could complete, with the proper amount of training, but more importantly that I can progress and be successful at this.
     My swimming has really come a long way since February when I hurt my knee.  Funny thing is I haven't had more then 12 days of swimming practice.  I have progressed so much since February.  I was swimming 500m in about 17-19 min and barely making any progress.  I was struggling to breathe and just felt like I was flailing around while trying with everything I had to move my body from one end of the pool to the other.  Something has changed.  I dont know if its the push/drive because the race is 16 days away or if I just finally have got it tuned up to when I'm seeing results and I feel confident in my ability.  
     This week I did 2 things I had never done.  I swam my fastest 500m ever; 11 min 48 sec.   Woot!!  AND... I swam my furthest distance ever while training.  1600m   The best part about this is I really feel like I can make  more progress in the next 16 days I think I might be able to get close to a 10 min time on my swim.  I know where my flaws in my stroke are and I work on them everyday.  

16 miles out of 20 not bad

Last nights ride and Runkeeper map

This was my first real ride outside on highway that was greater then 10 miles. I did almost 20 miles last night. I know now what my tri is going to be like in 2 weeks. Im hoping for NO WIND! LOL the hills coming back last night were brutal with the wind. I need to get something to eat halfway through as I was starving. Plus I think I needed to drink more then I did. I was trying to time my ride so I didn't run out of daylight. I got very cold near the end. The road I was riding is not the safest road. Lots of curves and some blind hills. Traffic is always a little higher speed then what it should be. Started to cramp at the half way point. I stopped to get a drink and walked for a bout 20 sec and it eased up. Im hoping to ride the full course this weekend.

My iPhone battery died at the 16 mile mark and so runkeeper stopped recording my activity. Still i finished my ride and it was 19.7 I felt pretty good too.

Weekend Rides

This weekend I managed to get out on my new bike for not one but TWO bike rides. I have not gotten properly fitted yet so I I have tweaked the seat adjustment both days.

I am a little disappointed but I guess I have been unable to ride for more then 30 days. I was really hoping to be faster then what I ended up with. I know part of it is the knee and just making sure not to go to hard.

Saturdays Ride

Kind of cold and I felt sluggish and heavy

Sundays Ride
I felt better and faster. Kept getting slowed down by traffic and poor roads. I need to get out on a old highway

Broken scales and Deadwood, SD

This post has nothing to do with Deadwood, South Dakota. I just thought it made for a catchy title oh and I kind of feel like a piece of deadwood without cardio.

So because my knee is on restricted duty I have decided to attack strength training in hopes to build some lean muscle mass in th next 3-5 weeks. I know its a short amount of time but every little bit helps plus I think my fitness level is at just the right point where my body will respond positively to weight lifting.

Sunday I started with a pretty intense circuit. I wanted to get all cylinders firing. I did Arms, Shoulders, Chest. With and extra attention on Arms with dumbbells. When I was done my forearms were bulging It was the coolest thing ever! My body felt great and seems to really eat up the training. Last night I did Back and Core. Today forearms and biceps are still sore.

Oh and My stupid scale decides to quit working just when need to monitor my weight the hardest. Fine I just wont weigh in for 3 weeks.

The week in review

I feel great. This week has been awesome.

The introduction of swimming at a training level has been a boon to my metabolism. I have lost 3 lbs since Sunday. The best losses Ive had in a while! I know its because of the swimming. My muscles hurt all over. The kicking drills have really been putting it to me. My legs hurt in places Ive never had them hurt before. I know I'm burning fat and strangely I think the week before I was building muscle. I feel firmer just about everywhere.

This morning during my swim I could tell that my swimming has already improved. I'm faster and more fluid in just a weeks time. I didn't time myself but I can tell I'm getting to the end of the pool much quicker than before.

I lost 3 lbs this week so far. On top of that. The scale flickered back and forth between 199.8 and 200.0 ...It stopped on 200.0

Im almost under 200.

Swim Lesson #1

I am having a Great morning!

Thanks to my awesome swim coach Keegan!

I had a great session with my swim coach. HE really showed me a lot of things and did an incredible job of boosting my self confidence.
Apparently my stroke is a lot better than my kick. So I need to do a lot of kick drills. He was also thrilled that I wasnt a horrible swimmer and when I told him my goals he said "this is going to be easy".

Made me feel good at least someone has confidence in me.

I miss the Sun!

Oh my we are having some incredible weather. Its such a relief from this bitter winter ick! I miss the Sun so much my Heart is broken!

The last 2 days have been like a bright sunny day in the middle of winter. I suck at simile!

So yesterday it was like 50°F and sunny. I had to get out and run. It was perfect. I picked a route that had some hills long and steep. Normally I try to avoid hills but I wanted to push myself. I pushed myself alright. I felt like a million bucks

Check my run out here

1st Victory! This is the longest distance I have ever run. 4.2 miles.
2nd Victory! Fastest 5k time 32:07 I completely expect to be sub 30 min easily in a race Im hoping for 28 min in my first race :)
3rd Victory! I realized at about 3.5 miles how much further I had before I got back home and how good I actually felt that I needed to start looking at 10K races.

So about the run. Over all went very well. At about 1.75 I turned a corner and headed back south and right into a head wind. It really put it too me. It took me several minutes to kind of get my speed back up and push through through it I know I was pushing it harder caus eI could feel it physically taking it out of me. The last big hill wasa struggle for me. The head wind and the distance and the hill all coming together to defeat me almost worked. Around the 5k mark I think I hit a mental wall cause I really felt like I wanted to give up and walk the rest of the way home. I pushed through and Im so glad I did. I got past the hill and turned the corner again. Slowed my pace a little unknowingly. I was able to finish at a faster pace than I expected so that was great.


Plus I lost another pound. Woohoo!

Should I push it?

Ok I am sold! That HIIT is a really good workout. Im not sure I can do it again tonight I'm so sore.
Im really suprised this has carried over into a 3rd day. Im actually sore in new spots. Granted I rode the bike last night and did 5 sets of 1 minute sprints, but this is from the HIIT work out on tuesday.

The arch of my foot is even sore this morning. It's not injury just muscle soreness. Im definitely going to keep doing this. Any suggestions? Should I push it tonight or 1 more day of recovery?

The past week

Well I behaved all last week and did nicely with my diet. I do feel like my losses are becoming more stagnant. I'm not sure If I'm shorting my cals or if I'm just not bringing it. I do feel like I'm not feeling soreness anymore I guess I'm not pushing myself hard enough but I should still be burning calories

So this past week I found a friend who was telling me about HIIT workouts and after doing some reading I thought I could easily implement a HIIT type workout into my running days. In fact I thought you know this will probably help with my speed.

So last night I did my first HIIT workout before my 3 mile run. I did 20 sec full speed sprints followed by 1 min of fast walking. I did that for 6 sets. As this was my first one I will probably change things up a little. Rather than walk I will being jogging slowly on the cool downs and I will do a little longer 30-45 sec. Additionally I'm going to try to do 10 sets.

So how did I feel. Well for starters I haven't dont much if any full sprints for a long time. YOu would think that my previously spry 300 lbs body would easily be able to sprint around all over the place. You would be incorrect. Ive never felt agile enough until recently and when I have tried they hurt my shins severely. Its been several months since I last tried. Last night I got right up on the balls and was leaning forward into the run really driving with my quads I could feel it burning as I pushed off. It felt great!! After the 6th set I could feel muscle soreness SO I quit at 6 I dint want to injure or over do it. I walked a couple of laps and then set off to finish burning.

I finished up with a 28 min run for 2.25 miles. I gotta say my legs weren't used to the sprinting before hand. I'm sure this is going to help me!

I did my Hundred push ups sets (I'm up to 75)when I got home.

This morning my shoulders and legs Sore Good!

Cold weather run

Well last night it was 25°F when I finished my run. It was my first cold outdoor run. I did one in November but it was not this cold.

So I wore my UA gloves, a long sleeve tshirt, Columbia softshell, base layer bottoms, Starter slicks, and a Stocking cap. Overall I think I was dressed pretty close to what I should have My bottom half was perfect. My head was sweating like a pig. Which coincidently is a common misnomer as pigs dont sweat. I was afraid my soft shell jacket would be too hot but I think it was about perfect. you can see the garmin stats below and scroll down on the right hand side. Click on Jan 30- 5k.

I ended up running just a little over 5K for my first real run back after my accident. I have to say I felt great. Im pretty sure I could have kept going for at least another 15 minutes under current conditions. Next time Ill alot more time to see how far I can go. It felt great and I pulled a 10:54 avg. Which I was happy about considering the weather and my lack of real running since November.

Additionally I wanted to give props to my killer new lights I got at Christmas I used my Zéfal Blinking Red LED for my back. It seems to be a top quality piece of lighting and I'm sure if I got hit with it on it would be deliberate. Or it put the driver into a seizure. Ill do a full review with pics and description later.

swim lesson

Yes! I finally found a swim coach. I can start after February 7th. I cant wait for him to tell me how much Im doing wrong! LOL I know this is really going to help.

Shin Splints?

A friend just gave me this great tip.

CURE SHIN SPLINTS!!!!
Sit down, couch or desk ---> Point your toes out --> Write out the alphabet with your toes -->
Do this three times a day
You WILL BE HEALED ! I promise

About to get sick?

I hope I'm not about to get sick. The alarm went off at 4:30 AM and I was not having any of it. I felt like I slept good although I felt a bit dehydrated. Aside from sleeping good my body felt tired. I really hope I'm not about to get sick. So instead of getting up I succumbed and allowed my weak will to over power my drive.

No workout this morning and ate a bunch of chocolate last night I feel horrible. Now I gotta figure out a way to squeeze an evening workout in without irritating anyone.

Feel a bit grumpy :(

Workout Changes

So over the last year I did a few races and the biggest thing that I learned was that I struggle with hills and speed. Since the accident I have not done much running and have strictly focused on cycling alone. Sadly I haven't done any real distance running since probably November when I started that boot camp class. I was running on the off days and it was just too much stress. My shin splints started to come back so I had to quit the off day runs. Now I'm feeling very stressed about my Swimming abilities and I want to pick back up on running and I know that my running has suffered.

In the coming weeks I'm going to transition to a new workout routine.
M,W,F 5-5:30 Swim. I will be trying to work on my stroke to get more comfortable with it and my breathing. 5:30-6:15 I will be Picking back up on C25k at an advanced pace to get back where I was. Once I hit the 5k mark again Ill transition to Bridge to 10K program. Wednesdays I will be doing increased incline on my runs.

T,TH 5:30-6:30 Ill be doing Track runs with 2 sets of stairs every lap. At the bottom of each set of stairs I'm alternating Push ups, Jax, Mountain climbers, Wall sits etc... Ill do that for 20 min then finish with 40 min of cycling.

Also I went back and looked this morning. I've lost 8.4 pounds since the beginning of this year. I'm really feeling like I'm on track and could potentially hit 199 by Feb 1, 2011. Awesome!

Push up Challenge...85 baby!

I have a good friend on Myfitnesspal.com who challenged me to a Pushup challenge. To assist me in this challenge I acquired an app for my iPhone "Hundred Pushups" it helps you build up to 100 push ups in sets.

Anyway when I started this journey in Jan I was humiliated to realize that I could only do 1 single man push up. On top of only doing one I actually hurt myself doing it.

To get to the point last night I did a total of 85 push ups in 40 min and 55 of them were in a span of 10 min. All of them were full body Man push ups. Getting better at push ups has been one of my major goals ever since my first night. Night after night of girlie push ups just getting to the point where I could eek out 5 normal push ups took a long time.


Why push ups are important Make sure you check out the links within the article too.

Im feeling better!

I apologize for not updating this. I have been slammed with workouts. This whole week Ive been pulling double duty. That's right folks 5 AM swim or bike and than Bike or run in the PM on MWF. On T/Th I have Bootcamp which has been kicking my hiney.

I'm not sure if its the extra workouts or not but I'm making great progress on weight. Yesterday I was down to 215.6. I am up a little today but I think much of that is due to too much sodium before bed.

I have backed off C25k speed training as it and the Bootcamps were giving me a severe case of shin splints like I have not experienced in several months.

I am really getting worked up about a Bike. I believe I have convinced myself that buying one now before spring sales would be stupid and a waste of money. I really do like the looks of Giant Trinity series as well as some Quintana Roo bikes. I still want to give Mojo Cycle a chance and try out a Diamond Back podium but I think Im going to throw money away if I buy a new bike. I desperately need to get into a LBS and get measured and properly sized.

I have a couple of rough patches coming up and I need to stay focused as the holiday season approaches. I have 2 business trips coming up. Both will entail overnight stays and much eating out with no real ability to control food options. Additionally working out during these trips is extremely difficult if not impossible. Im going to have to make up the Bootcamp classes I'm going to miss too. I need a plan to keep me on track....

Any suggestions hit me up!

Still sick, bootcamp, and very discouraged

I think Im starting to get over this cold. Im not couging as much and Im not as congested. I started a bootcamp class at the YMCA on Tue & Thur nights. Tuesday night our instructor ruined my quads and glutes. We did a metric crap tonne of Squats and Lunges around the track with 10 lb dumbbells. That isn't much weight until She made us run around the track holding it over our head for 4 laps.

The next 2 days were torture. My legs were so sore I couldnt walk normal. Thurs nights class we did a bunch of circuit intervals Sprint to stations and do some form of calisthenics ie.. push ups sit ups, jacks, up downs, grasshoppers, lunges, squats and then sprint back. We did 3 sets of those each one lasting 15 min. Then finished the class with 15 min. of various crunches.

Despite all this working out Ive gained 2 lbs and I cant for the life of me make any progress on weight loss. My Holiday goal date is coming up and I'm still 15 lbs from it. I feel like I have made ZERO progress. I don't know what I'm doing wrong but I'm really getting down about it. No amount of working out is making me lose weight and I have been at this hard. My diet has been relatively solid with only a few minor Halloween candy mishaps. Ive stayed beneath my calorie goal every day or very close to it