WEEK THIRTEEN, Herpreet

Yesterday I got back to it. I'm mostly over this miserable sinus infection I've had, and also beginning to feel panicked about my event in May.

We started the week with a swim benchmark. When I heard we were doing that, I was a little freaked out because benchmarks mean we just swim and swim endlessly while she times us. In the past we have done 400 meter benchmarks, but yesterday was an 800 meter benchmark - the distance of the swim for my event.

I was last to finish. Slow, determined, not the greatest swimmer, but on the other hand, improving in some ways. I could not swim free style the whole way. I alternated between free style and back stroke. I have really REALLY got to learn another stroke, because back stroke, while it helps me recover my breath, SLOWS ME DOWN. I don't want to be the last finisher in the swim in May. There. I said it. I do not want to be last.

Week 12, Days 2 and on. Herpreet

These days did not happen for me. After a great Day 1 Swim, I got SICK. I was practically immobile and more than practically grumpy!

Week 12 Day 3 Natalie

Yesterday evening I attended a Kick & Sculpt class, which consisted of 30 minutes of kick boxing (which unfortunately involved coordination), 15 minutes of resistance training, and 15 minutes of stretching. I recommend the instructor, too. I think what I like most about this instructor and yesterday's instructor is that they walked around checking to make sure that people were doing things properly rather than just let everyone possibly do everything wrong. So. There ends my exercise week, because the exercise I'm going to get today involves the dictation I just finished and the hour or so on my ass driving down to New Orleans. The End!

Week 12 Day 2 Natalie

I was about to just not do anything today because it was such a gray day and I was nursing my wounds following my rejection (see post below)... but I decided to attend a PiYo class, which is part pilates, part yoga. It was okay, it did not put me to sleep, which yoga tends to do. There was a lot of leg and stomach work, so I might even try it again sometime, plus the teacher was really nice. The End!

REJECTION!

Dear Natalie,

On behalf of Baton Rouge Gallery, I regret to inform you that your application was NOT selected to be part of Venus Envy 2009 Exhibition. This decision was based on the following criteria: conceptual and aesthetic diversity, feasibility of proposal, overall artistic merit and relevance to the Venus Envy mission statement. Thank you for your time and we encourage you to reapply next year.

AS IF!!!!

Week 12, Days 3, 4 and 5, Cristin

Day 3- 20 minute lunchtime workout. I decided to try those 90-second sprints. My verdict? Super hard.

Day 4- Hour long class called FITsport. Basically, it is an hour of sheer torture. We did several two-minute stations in a circuit (i.e. - jump rope, tricep dips, shuttle runs, squats with a kettle ball and many, many, many more) and in between each, we all faced the center and did one minute of a different cardio/strength move. Then we ran sprints and other drills, and then we did the circuits once more but only for one minute each. BRUTAL.

I treated myself to pizza for lunch and dinner on day 4.

Day 5- 25 minutes on the elliptical at lunch with the newest US magazine.

Yes. I am already on day 5. I work in a cubicle all day and will do ANYTHING to leave the building at lunch but not spend money. Also, James picks me up and drives me to the gym. 5 workouts in 5 days would never happen if it weren’t for these things. Trust me.

Week 12 Day 1 Natalie

I skipped ballet last night because I had a paper to write. Boooooo! But today I went to a NEW! class (new for me...) the 30-20-10 class, where you do 30 minutes of cardio, 20 minutes of resistance training, and 10 minutes of stretching and stuff. It was a good workout, but I am terribly uncoordinated and wasn't able to follow a lot of the cardio work. But someone was kind enough to tell me that it gets easier the more you do it, so I may try it again. Now I'm watching my neighbors climb up a ladder onto(?) their roof. I heard a loud crash earlier, I wonder if a mountain goat fell to its death. I'm gonna check it out.

Week 11 Arm Workout days 2 &3

So I continued to paint Saturday morning for about 4 hours, and then spent all day Sunday painting. ladder climbing, brush painting, a little roller painting, and moving furniture and appliances around. The end. I felt chintzy counting it as exercise, but then my ipod lose it! app told me that 4 hours of painting burns like 450 calories. but wait, that's not that much considering it was 4 hours. I have no idea what is a lot of calories.

Week 12, Day 2, Cristin

Went to the gym during lunch and did my Monday circuit. Only this time, instead of the jump squats I did this sort of skip jump thing. Why? Because I saw it in a magazine of course.

I also added some handstands and cartwheels just for the fun of it.

Yay! 3 months!

Week 12, Day 1, Herpreet

Hooray!!!!! We are at the THREE MONTH Mark girls 'n boys!

Today I swam, swam, swam! I was so worried that I would not do a good job today after the week of Spring Break. BUT. It was like the fish in me came out to play for the first time! Amazing. I realized that I am so mentally tired usually, and today I had no mental exhaustion coming into the water with me.

This has renewed my confidence for the event. I have a solid 2 weeks of summer break prior to the event. So I'm going to use those 2 weeks to REALLY focus on improving my swimming.

Week 12, Day 1, Cristin

Hurray! Sunday start again. I always think the rest of the week will come easy if I start on Sunday.

James and I went out for a workout in our neighborhood park since it was so nice outside. We walked, jogged, ran sprints, jump roped and did step ups. It was about 35 minutes and intense. I have to say that having a husband who wants to work out a lot too really helps me with my goals. I worked a lot harder yesterday than I would have without him.

Thanks, James!

Week 11, Days 2 and 3 (and maybe 4)

Day 2: Friday lunch time Pilates class.

Day 3: I read in one of my magazines that some star ran 90 second sprints to get in shape for a movie. So of course, I decided to do that too. Well, it turns out 90 seconds is a long time for a sprint (I imagine she had some crazy trainer pushing her through. I do not) so I modified it a bit. There are light posts lining the lakefront so I ran the distance between them as a sprint and then walked the next one. I don’t know how many I did but when I got inside and checked the time I had been out for an hour. Then I decided to do weights. I don’t know why but I still felt like working out so I went with it since those days do not come around very often. Overall, I worked out for an hour and a half. I felt very productive.

I didn’t technically make my goal of 4 days in the week. I did take two brisk 25-minute walks on Tuesday but it was to and from a concert and alcohol was involved. I wasn’t going to count it but then I read Herpreet’s post about SXSW and I think I’ll count it.

Week 11, SXSW, Herpreet

So there is this little festival in Austin called South by Southwest. And I guess it has been my workout for the last week. It did not involve any running or cycling or swimming. It did involve listening to music, booze, and A LOT of walking around. And standing. A LOT. At first I felt guilty for not doing anything, but when I realized how much walking I've been doing, I decided this was exercise in and of itself for week 11.

Arm Workout, Day 1

Was going to go do something this afternoon, but got very wrapped up in painting the kitchen. It was actually pretty strenuous work. Painting a ceiling is always a good arm workout, and I had to go over everything with a brush afterwards to get into all of the crevices and stuff. Hope to finish up tomorrow or Sunday, it's going to be a loooooooong weekend!

Yesterday I was going to do something, but then remembered that I wanted to enter a painting into BR Gallery's Venus Envy show. It was due yesterday evening at 6:00, and I got it in. Now we just have to wait and see if it got into the show. I'm not holding my breath!

Kevin---I got 'er done

Not only did I get 'er done, but I finished it up on a FRIDAY MORNING!

Not only did I finish up my successful week on a Friday morning, but on M, W, and F I did abs, weights, AND cardio. It was grueling. No shortcuts. In fact, when I felt like my ab stuff was getting easier, I even added more stuff today. No half-steppin' 'cause I'm not a half-steppa!

Somebody give me some props!

30 Minute Pilates Class, take one

I went to a short pilates class this afternoon when I got finished with class. It was okay. I'll probably go to another one if I am in class until 3:30 again (it starts at 3:50), but I will probably NOT wait around if I get out of class early (like today and every day this semester). I might try out a 30/20/10 class tomorrow afternoon, or I might go for a run. I guess we will see when we see! Oh, and Kevin, I have a beginning pilates dvd if you would like to borrow it!

Week 11 Day 1, Natalie

Another week, ANOTHER BALLET CLASS!!! Love it, loved it, will love it some more next week. I might try out another class tomorrow afternoon when I get out of class. This weekend I felt like I might be coming down with something so I relaxed and read a lot. No exercise, but at the same time, no marathon drinking events either. hmmmm.

Week 11, Day 1, Cristin

Another Monday trip to the gym during lunch. I ended up doing the same thing I did last Monday since it was so effective:

15 pushups, 15 jump squats (with a 10 lb weight this time) 3 different ab exercises, one minute of jump rope.

I did one set through of each in a circuit and repeated 3 times.

I’m going to go ahead and say that this is a pretty good work out if you are short on time. It makes me sweat hard and it’s only 20 minutes or so with a warm up. All you need is a jump rope and a hand weight if you have one. Even if you don’t you can just do the jump squats without it-they are hard enough. You don’t even have to go to the gym.

Sometimes I feel like I never work out for long enough since I’m always trying to fit it in between things so I like finding stuff like this that make me feel like I really used my 20 minutes wisely.

I’m sure I stole it from a magazine or something. But I like to pretend I made it up.

In other news, it’s going to be 70 degrees here today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Week 10, the rest of the days

Work was super busy so I wasn’t able to report last week.

Day 2 was on Monday and I went to the gym during lunch and did a short, intense workout. I warmed up a bit on the elliptical and then did 3 sets of 15 pushups, 15 jump squats with a 12 pound weight (I thought I grabbed a 10 lb weight and will do so next time since 12 was nearly impossible), 3 different types of ab exercises and then one minute of jump rope. Overall, an exhausting workout left me sore the next day so I was proud of that since it was only about 25 minutes.

So proud, I took Tuesday and Wednesday off.

Day 3 (Thursday) was another short workout during lunch-20 minutes on the elliptical. Lately my gym has had no good magazines. The only one there is Fit Pregnancy or something. I am sure I will be addicted to this magazine when I am pregnant but right now, I just want the latest US please.

Day 4 was my Friday Pilates class. I keep waiting for it to get easier but it does not. I was pleased to see some new girls in there making faces because it hurt so much so that was good. I am no longer the newest person in the class.

On Saturday, I decided to go for a run since it was 50 degrees and sunny here. I had trouble getting myself in the groove so I ran for a song, walked for a song for about 40 minutes. Truth be told there was a lot more walking than running going on.

Week 10, Days 1 and 2

Ahh!! I got behind on my reporting-in! Let's see.

First, Natalie, ballet sounds SO FUN! I love that you are taking an adult ballet class all by yourself. This sounds to me like the effect of yoga, but also like it's easier to find your peaceful, happy center with all that soft, girly pink. I know. I have clearly got an image in my head. Let's not burst it.

Kevin. I really like the idea of Ab-fab March, and I may jump on the bandwagon. In theory. I was planning to go to an ab class on Saturday. And I thought a lot about it, but I never made it there. Is this the kind of experience you are having?

Cristin, it is relieving, to me at least, that some weeks are off weeks for you. Otherwise, you'd be like the Schwarzenegger of this blog, and that would really intimidate me. On the other hand, I hope that this week (11), goes really well for you. And well, for ALL OF US!

On to Week 10 recap. You'll notice thee is no "day 3" in my heading. Because my day 3 was about listening to my body. My body said, on Friday: Do ABbsolutely nothing. My own kind of Ab workout. It was quite nice. Monday, I swam again, and survived it. Wednesday, I ran, and I was very pleased with the run. We did another workout where we ran a 1/4 mile, did some crunches, super mans, push ups, lunges and squats and we repeated that 4 times total, plus we did a cool down and for our warm up, we did some running drills.

Week 10 Day 2 Natalie

Let me tell you, that ballet can wreak some havoc on the old muscles. Yowza! I'm still sore today! But I went for a run this afternoon, and it's definitely time for me to relocate for my runs. I'm just sick of my routes! So maybe next week I'll try the lakes or even try to do more at the rec center. I suppose we'll see when we see. I'm off to New Orleans this weekend for the St. Patty's Day parade down there, so this may be it for me as far as exercise goes, but I think that the ballet class was a goal in itself and I reached it, so I'm okay with just 2 days this week. Happy weekend everyone!

Week 10 Day 1 Natalie

I went to the ballet class at the rec center today, and it was fun. Mainly fun because I am able to laugh at myself, but I felt really good afterwards. Maybe because I got over my fear of doing something new BY MYSELF. I mean, I didn't get over it, but I was able to overcome it and get my ass in there. It was about an hour long and included stretching, jumping, and what may have been a little pilates. All around a good little workout I think! Also at the beginning, the instructor made some announcements- such as what days you can come in for free fitness and nutrition evaluations, which I think I'm going to need to check out. So as I've grown a little bit bored with running, I might just cut that down to once a week and keep doing new stuff. Then I'll have a whole arsenal of activities to choose from. Exciting! So Kevin, for me we have:

Running/Elliptical = Out
Trying out various classes = In

Have a great week 10 guys!

Kevin--Ab Fab March

Okay--as I reported, last month I didn't meet my lofty goals of ellipticizing 4 times a week, but doing it 3 times a week really helped. Now though, I seem to be eating to catch up with the calories I'm burning, in addition to the cramping and dreams of desert thirst. I was burning flab and increasing lung capacity & energy, but my posture and build wasn't really improving. Plus, I seemed to be burning everything except for the fat that lives in my belly, which is refusing to budge, like a bad tenant who's fighting their eviction in a long, drawn out court battle.

Sooo, I'm switching gears and putting my abs through boot camp. And I'm hitting the weights again, after a month off. Last night, I did this for the first time. I thought I was good and broken in by the intense cardio of last month, but after my leg raises, crunches, and a couple of sets on the rowing machine, I felt like I was going to meet an unspectacular death right there on the floor of Anytime Fitness. I forgot how much the heavy exertion of working with weights taxes the body.

So today, I'm feeling good. I'm a little sore, but it feels like (and I hope) I'm going to be mega-sore tonight. I have to get to where it hurts to laugh (but not so much that I avoid laughter). I need to feel this way all March long, at least to where I feel like if my abs aren't sore, then something's missing.

I just read an article about how you need to change up your routine every so often to keep challenging your body, and keep from exercising the same areas to the point of diminished results. So I'm going to do this for about 3 weeks, then replace the weights with the elliptical. I usually always have 2 things going out of abs, cardio, and weights, and just rotate one out when it gets old. I was also going to start running the lakes, but I sprained my ankle during the Spanish Town parades (for trying to walk while drunk), and it's not healing right.

I'd also like to time it to where I get back on the elliptical during the height of March Madness. So I guess, more like two weeks. I just like to watch basketball while I do cardio, b/c I think, "those guys are still running up and down the court, and they've got to be exhausted. If they can do it, I can!" Which of course, is not based on any real world logic, but it works as a motivator.

To recap--week of 4 4o's=out
Ab Fab March=in

Wish me luck!

Week 10, Day 1, Cristin

Eh, yeah, so last week wasn't the greatest. Oh well. I started this week off with a 20 minute run outside. It was kind of rainy and kind of cold but it felt good.

I'm hoping that getting back to my Sunday start will make this week more productive.

Week 9 Days 4 & 5 Natalie

That's right! 5 days! Friday I did a short run but ran hard, followed by some yard work that involved using a rake AND a shovel. Yesterday was Race for the Cure, but I didn't think I wanted to run, so I rode my bike over there so that I could walk it without feeling guilty. Then I ran the fun run and part of the 5k. Then I rode my bike home. Today was a day of pure lazy and relaxation. Slept past noon, had lunch with JK, then snacks and a visit with the neighbors. ah!

Week 9, Day 3 Herpreet

SWIMMING. Is. My. FRIEND. This is the mantra I am trying to teach myself. On Friday, for my traith. class we cleaned our bikes and then watched some videos on how to transition between events on race day and also on open water swimming and swimming in general. That evening, I forced myself to go to the Y and swim. I ended up doing: kickboard (100 yards), pulls (100 yards), side kick (100 yards - this drill is damn hard btw), and then I swam 100 yards freestyle. I ended with a 50 yard kickboard cool down. So, 450 yards all together - mostly of drills.

I was feeling lame about doing all these drills with so little swimming, but once I got home I was famished, so I figured I did get a work out in. Also, I'd been writing for 4 hours before I swam - and I get moody when I write. I end up sort of adopting the attitude and psychology of the characters, and that can make for a manic-me. The swimming really helped kick those angry adolescent boys out of my psyche. I decided I always need to exercise after long stretches of writing. For my mental health.

I am awfully terrified of the swim portion of the race. 800 yards. 1/2 mile. This feels like an impossible feat to me - no end of the pool to stop and take a breath at before I continue on. Just a big, deep lake. I'm trying not to be scared and trying to remember that I've still got 2 1/2 months to train and work up to the proper endurance. And also reminding myself that 1/2 the battle is being psychologically prepared. The mantra. SWIMMING. Is. My. FRIEND.

Kevin--I have neither been to the gym, nor exercised at home one time this week.

Just thought I'd share that with you guys.

I hadn't posted last month, because I kept setting my goal to do 4 40 minute sessions on the ellip each week. For the last few weeks, I've only been able to do 3. Which isn't bad, but it's also short of my goal.

So this week, I thought I'd go back to the weights, but I think there's a mental block here as I shift gears back into that mode. I don't know exactly what the block is--maybe I'm still dehydrated from the month of the endless elliptical.

Seriously though, I'd wake up after an elliptical session in the middle of the night, with my throat sore and cracking. I could've sworn I had some dreams where I was wandering in the desert, dying of thirst (or something right out of The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly).

Also--I was waking up with mini-charley horses, which is probably due to poor stretching, but it was enough to make me feel like I deserved a week off.

This morning, I did some weird crunches that my coworker taught me. She said she learned them from a Pilates instructor. So at least I went through 10 minutes of pain this week. Olympics, here I come.

Week 9, Days 1 and 2, Cristin, TGIF!!!!

Oops. It’s Friday and I only have two days in so far. 25 minutes on the elliptical on Wednesday and my Pilates class today. I did walk around a lot yesterday since I could because it was 60 degrees! And is again today. It will get cold again and possibly snow too but for right now, I love it. It is amazing what nice weather can do for your soul. I do not even hate myself for not working out very much this week. Yay!

And, Natalie just told me she knows my sister, Shannon. And that makes me happy!

Week 9 Day 3 Natalie?

This afternoon I decided to do yard work for my exercise. I raked and bagged, and then began the long and tedious job of digging a winter's worth of leaves out of the flower beds. Then I started pulling up the stuff I don't want in there. There's a lot of stuff I don't want in there! There are these thick viney things that are hard to pull out of the ground, so I figure those are worth at least a mild muscle workout. I'm going to do something mild again tomorrow, and Saturday morning is race for the cure. I'm enjoying working other activities into my routine rather than just running. I need to come up with some new routes for runs, because I think I dread it because I'm sick of running the same route forwards and backwards and with a little variation here and there. I need to start running in the other direction or something. Humph. So, count it if you want to, deny me if you'd rather. I was NOT watching tv, which is what I usually do in the afternoons... so that's something, right?

Week 9 Day 2 Natalie

I had big plans, BIG PLANS, to go to the ballet class offered at the rec center yesterday afternoon. But I couldn't find my ID, so I wasn't able to go. I spent the time furiously cleaning out my purse and my coffee table. It took about a half hour, and finally found my ID on the coffee table. Does that count as exercise?

This afternoon I went by with my freshly found ID and did the elliptical for 35 minutes. I did the cross training workout, and maybe it is way harder than the others... or maybe there was something wrong with the machine... but it was ridiculously hard. Like almost impossible resistance. So I messed with the resistance to levels that I could handle, but regardless, I can still feel the burn in my calves. Yowza! When I got home, I did a little bit of work and then went outside and raked and bagged leaves for about 45 minutes. I consider raking and bagging to be exercise. So there you have it, Week 9, Day 2. And a solemn vow to do all that I can to make it to the ballet class next Tuesday. Amen.

PS: Mardi Gras is over Lesley!

Week 9, Days 1 & 2, Herpreet

On Monday, our class did a swim. We always swim on Mondays. Last week I was in the depths of despair. Missing my friends. Missing familiar places. Familiar plants. Familiar food. Everything. I had also been working on a story ALL WEEKEND. And that does not make for a healthy-minded-herpreet. In fact, when I hole up and write like that for days without stopping to see the sun, I turn into a low, low creature. So that Monday, I was not in a good place. And I couldn't finish our swim. And that made me feel even lower.

BUT. This past Monday, we swam a total of....1400 yards!!!!! Amazing. Last week I couldn't even do the 600 we did, and this week I pushed through a whole 1400!!! (1600 yards is a mile! -So think about swimming the mile you run. Not bad, right?). Just to be clear, this was not 1400 strait swimming. We did a lot of endurance building exercises. For instance, we swam 100, did a 20 second rest and then repeated for a total of 400 yards. Then we did a longer rest. Then we broke it down into doing 50 yards with 10 second rests in between, etc.

Today, we are running at Barton Springs. I am happy about this because a) I'm starting to really love running, and b) it's nice outside - yesterday I noticed wisteria growing and it made me feel incredibly happy!

Week 8, Day 3, Herpreet

Hello ladies!!! And Kevin, if you're out there!

My day 3 last week was an excellent boost. My triathlon class did a 6 mile bike ride over hilly terrain, and then we got off and ran 1/2 mile. I know that's not a lot of running, but your legs feel like led none-the-less after a bike ride.

I was especially pleased because I have FINALLY figured out the gears on my bike after all these years, and doubly pleased because I made it up some not-so-fun hills without dying or having to hop off my bike to walk it up-hill.

Week 8, Day 4, Cristin

So I did mange to get in one more week 8 workout. I did the Jillian Michaels 30 day shred Level 2. Wow. There is a reason it is level 2. I may have been a little quick to judge those Biggest Loser cry babies. It was only a 30 minute workout and I wanted to cry. And puke.

Nothing to report for week 9 yet.

Is it Week 9 Already?

Holy Guacamole! Week 9 starts off with a bang. I didn't especially feel like running this afternoon, but I did it anyway. I'm seriously considering trying to make the ballet class at the rec center tomorrow evening. The prospect of spring and warmer weather has me overjoyed!