Week 14!!! Herpreet

Today was a run. We have a new triathlon coach, and I sort of miss our former coach. It takes a while to get used to someone new, and I was finally used to Shellie O, and sort of loved her. But she had to leave us for a 9-5 office kind of job. Which, I know she's lucky to have landed, given the economy, so I wish her well.

I also know that I'll come to love our new coach. She is a grandmother. She is in her early 60s, and she started doing triathlons a few years ago. She's been training with Shellie O. ever since. She just got her USA Tri certification. When she first started training, she did not know how to swim at all.

So, clearly, there are already a lot of reasons to admire her. And I do. But she's definitely a quieter sort of person than the former kick-ass coach, who had competed, not one, but TWO iron mans. And she'd competed in three of them. She's also been doing these events for years and years.

Okay, I guess I need to move on. I just needed to mourn a bit.

Like I said, today we ran. I did just fine. I am a fine runner. I have no fears about running, pacing, endurance, etc. (Now if I was doing more than a 5K, I'd have a different story to tell.

On Friday, we bike. One good thing about my new coach is that I think, since she could not swim when she began, that she'll pay extra attention to my swimming (which I told her I am scared about).

Week 13, Days 3 and 4, Cristin

Day 3 was my Friday lunch time Pilates class which I skipped last week so it felt even harder this time around. I wonder if it will ever get easier. A couple moves in particular are nearly impossible in my opinion. One is where are in bridge position and then lift one leg up and do all these exercises while keeping the bridge up. It hurts so much and yet when I look around these girls are doing it as if they could do it in their sleep!

Day 4 was a quick Saturday workout of some cardio and some weights. It was only about 30 minutes but I hit most of the major muscle groups and felt sufficiently sore the next day.

Week 13 Days 3 & 4, Natalie

Okay, so day 3 probably shouldn't count, but I'll do it anyway. When I got home from school Thursday, the options were to go to a class or to borrow a ladder and climb up on the roof and throw limbs down. I'm afraid of heights, but for some reason really wanted to get up there. I feel like I should be on my roof at least once if I'm able, right? SO I borrowed the neighbors ladder and had them watch me as I climbed up and then launched huge limbs off the roof. It was more an exercise of fears than it was physical exercise, but I'll count it anyway. Day 4 was yesterday. I worked in the yard, and was feeling like it wasn't really technically work, but I can feel some aching in my legs and gut from all of the squatting and pulling I did. I yanked up a good number of cast iron plants, which were not really wanting to come up. If my neighbors were home, I'm sure they were curious as to what was going on in my back yard.

I said that I wasn't going to let the teacher from that resistance class affect me, but clearly it has. I haven't been back to the rec center since then. Ballet is still on for Tuesday though, so hopefully it will give me the guts to continue.

Week 13, Day 2, Cristin

I walked home from the bus stop (aka Midway Airport) yesterday for my exercise. I was really hungry and I knew that once I got home I would only want to eat and not work out.

It seemed kind of warm outside but in reality it was cold and windy. I had to wrap my scarf around my head since I didn’t have a hat or gloves. It is April.

The whole walk took about 30 minutes including the walking against the wind and the stopping for lights. James read somewhere that you should walk at least 100 steps a minute for fitness purposes. So I did that.

Week 13, Day 1

Last week I decided to take Friday off since I’d done so much already. Friday turned into Saturday, Sunday, Monday AND Tuesday! Ugh. One thing I have realized is that I get crabby if I don’t exercise. Another thing I realized is the less I work out, the easier it is to continue not working out. I knew both of these things were true to a degree but they both came on strong over those 5 days. In my defense, there was a snowstorm over the weekend (in March!) and I had to work late on Monday and Tuesday. It’s the end of Q1 people!

I finally dragged myself to the gym (with the help of James) during lunch on Wednesday and did 25 minutes on the elliptical. It was amazing! I immediately felt like a normal person again and better about life in general.

Endorphins work.

I was going to try to get up this morning and exercise before work but for some reason it is simply impossible for me to get up early. Always has been. It's frustrating. I want to be a morning person! Oh well. I'm hoping I will do an Exercise TV workout when I get home from work today.

Week Thirteen, Day 2, Herpreet

Yesterday I ran my ass off, figuratively. In my triath class, we did an entire 5K to benchmark our time. I had to stop and walk toward the end. I think I walked about 1/4 miles or a little less, and then I finished out the run and managed to catch up to the girl I'd been running with up until I had to stop and walk. When I caught up to her, I said, "Let's go in really fast," and she and I picked up our pace and pushed to the end as fast as we could.

We ran on a hilly trail (my instructor's words). And I finished in 32 minutes. I'm happy with that time. It would be awesome if ever I could break a ten-mile minute, but you know what? I'll take what I can get. I felt good about it yesterday, and today, my body feels not so good.

I am considering doing a really short event on April 28 to warm up for the real thing on May 17. The reason is that the April 28 one has a 200m swim in open water. 200 meters does not scare or intimidate me in the least, so I feel like it could be a really great pre-event practice to get me comfortable doing the 800m in open water.

Week 13 Days 1 & 2, Natalie

Tuesday I returned to ballet. It was a very small class, so we were able to do some work at the barre... which I had been missing. So it was a good class with some heavy-duty leg stretching. Today I went to my first resistance training class, and I'm not sure if I'll be going back. The girl seemed kind of put-out that I didn't know how to do everything, but she also seemed a little put-out by the fact that the door was locked and she had to go get a key to get in, so maybe it really didn't have anything to do with the door OR with me. I need to stop being so self centered and realize that I'm really not that important to total strangers... it's usually something else. Besides, even if I was annoyed by someone who was lost, I'd admire their stickwithitness if they stuck with it until they got things down. So we'll see. But I did wish I had done the pilates class instead. So what is tomorrow... was it PiYo? hmmmm, that was Friday.... NO Friday was kick & sculpt, so PiYo it is! I think I might try something new again Friday if I can squeeze it in. I also need to try to squeeze a running day in soon too, it's been so long! surely I won't still be bored with it, right?