Fit(ter) in 15: Week 10

March is speedwork month!

I need one speed workout (track, intervals, fartlek, or hill repeats) each week. And... not incidentally, I should keep up with the strength training I started over the last two months.

How did I do this week?

• Monday:
• 6 x 400s! (And that's the day after running 8.5 miles. Boom!)
• Tuesday: 
• 
  
• Wednesday:
• 
  
• Thursday: Does shoveling count as a workout?
• snow day
• Friday:
• snow day
• Saturday:
• 5 mile run trying to avoid patches of icy sidewalk where the snow melt refroze overnight
• Sunday: The weather is finally nice again!
• long walk
• another long walk
• and another long walk

How did I do for the week?
Despite the snow and ice, I managed to get my speed work in!

For more posts in this series see Fitter in 15.

Fit(ter) in 15: Week 7

February's focus is arm strength:

• Monday/Thursday: 100 tricep dips
• Tuesday/Friday: 100 walk-down push-ups
• Wednesday/Saturday: 1 minute plank

How did I do?

• Monday:
• 100 tricep dips
• 80 squats
• Tuesday:
• 10 walk-down-push ups... No. I didn't forget a 0. I had shooting pain in my hand and decided to try again tomorrow.
• Wednesday:
• 4 plank variations (total 2 min)
• 60 push ups before the hand hurt again...
• 2.5 mile run (20 minutes! Does this count as speed work?)
• Thursday:
• 100 dips
• Friday:
• Self-declared rest day...
• Saturday:
• 5.65 miles in 47:45!!!!!
• Sunday:
• Ate lots of King Cake and danced to zydeco and Dixieland jazz in honor of Mardi Gras.

For more posts in this series see Fitter in 15.

Fit(ter) in 15: Week 6 - February's arm challenge

February's focus is arm strength:

• Monday/Thursday: 100 tricep dips
• Tuesday/Friday: 100 walk-down push-ups
• Wednesday/Saturday: 1 minute plank

How did I do?

• Monday:
• 100 tricep dips
• 80 squat-to-leg-lift (Trying to keep the momentum from January...)
• Core strength "yoga" (Ouch! Even after a month of 200 crunches a week, this was tough!)


• Tuesday:
• Crazy day at work. Feverish, teething child... read Wednesday
• Wednesday CATCH UP DAY
• 100 push-ups (40 as walk-down)
• 1 minute plank
• Thursday:
• 100 tricep dips
• 100 squats
• Friday:
• 80 push ups...I think... a curious toddler distracted me and I lost count
• Saturday:
• 1 min plank - at the playground!
• Sunday:
• 4.8 mile run (43 minutes)

For more posts in this series see Fitter in 15.

Fit(ter) in 15: February Challenge

I liked the principles behind January's cross training challenge, so February's fitness challenge follows a similar concept:
3 exercises per week
1 exercise per day
2 times through the routine each week
1 rest day
0 equipment needed

It was easy to remember. Most of the time I could do the exercises in my pajamas or at my desk at work. (A challenge should be hard, but you should also set yourself up for success, right?)

By popular demand, February's focus will be arm strength:

• Monday/Thursday: 100 tricep dips
• Tuesday/Friday: 100 walk-down push-ups
• Wednesday/Saturday: 1 minute plank

Stay tuned...

For more posts in this series see Fitter in 15.

Fit(ter) in 15: Week 5

January's challenge is complete!

The goal was to do 6 days of exercise each week, including the following:

• Monday/Thursday: 100 push-ups
• Tuesday/Friday: 100 squats
• Wednesday/Saturday: 100 crunches

How did I do this week?

• Monday: Oops... Getting back to the normal routine of daycare/work/cooking I sort of forgot the push-ups.
• 2 mile run
• Tuesday:
• 100 push ups
• 100 squat-to-leg-lift
• Wednesday:
• 4.25 mile run
• Thursday:
• 100 push-ups (including 10 walk-down push-ups... Getting ready for the February challenge!)
• Friday:
• 100 squat-to-leg-lift
• Saturday:
• 100 crunches (20 with a toddler bouncing on my belly. Ouch!)
• Sunday:
• 4 mile run while pushing 50 pounds of toddler-in-jogging-stroller

So, this week was a roaring success, but how did I do for the month?

During the stomach bug week from hell, I fell behind on my workouts. I wrapped up the week with 200 push ups and 200 squats, but I completely skipped any additional core work. (I didn't eat solid food for 3 days, so I'm not even going to pretend I feel guilty about taking a few days to rest and recover!)

Otherwise I hit every workout as planned, for a total of (drumroll please!):

• 900 squats
• 900 push-ups
• 700 crunches
• 31 miles run

Next month's focus: ARMS!

For more posts in this series see Fitter in 15.

Fit(ter) in 15: Week 3

January's challenge is this full-body strength training I nearly forgot the push ups. Hubby reminded me just as we were about to head to bed.


hallenge:

• Monday/Thursday: 100 push-ups
• Tuesday/Friday: 100 squats
• Wednesday/Saturday: 100 crunches

How did I do?

• Monday:
• 100 push ups (And I gritted my teeth through every single one of them. Why, oh why, is it so easy some days and so very hard on others?)
• Tuesday:
• 100 squat-to-leg-lift
• 2.5 mile run
• 20 minutes yoga
• Wednesday:
• 100 crunches
• Thursday:
• 100 push ups (Seriously, are these getting harder instead of easier?!? I  nearly forgot the push ups, but Hubby reminded me just before bed. Phew!)
• 1.25 mile run
• Friday:
• squats
• office yoga (thanks to Yoga with Adriene)
• Saturday:
• 100 crunches
• Playground  time! 
• Sunday:
• Baby threw up every hour last night and Mama got zero sleep. Which means mama ain't doing a damned thing today besides resting and taking care of the pint-sized patient. 

Fit(ter) in 15: Week 2

January's challenge is this full-body strength training challenge:

• Monday/Thursday: 100 push-ups
• Tuesday/Friday: 100 squats
• Wednesday/Saturday: 100 crunches

How did I do this week?

• Monday:
• 100 (modified) push-ups
• Tuesday:
• 100 squats (50-with leg lift)
• Wednesday:
• 180 cruches (100 regular, 40 bicycle, 40 reverse-crunches) + 30-second plank... and a massive round of muscle spasms the following day. I think I overdid it a little, no?
• Thursday:
• 100 (modified) push-ups
• Friday:
• 100 squats (40 regular, 40 with leg-lift, 20 with a 25-pound weight... erm... I mean toddler!)
• 1.5 mile run + 20 minutes on the stationary bike... Baby it's cold outside! (And icy.)
• Saturday:
• 100 crunches
• Sunday:
• 5.25 mile run

This week the sidewalks in the DC metro area were icy and temps were in the teens on the "warm" days.

The cold actually doesn't bother me. But the sidewalks were better suited to ice skating than running this week. so while I did plenty of skating walking, my run miles are anemic.

Fit(ter) in '15! Twelve months of fitness challenges

Every year I set a list of goals. Last year my sole fitness goals were:

...join a local running group, and survive the first year of baby-hood.

(That second one is harder than it sounds.)

This year my baby has grown into a speedy little toddler, and while I fit back into my pre-pregnancy jeans and my biceps are fierce (lifting a 24 pound child a hundred times a day will do that...) my middle is squishier than it needs to be and I ran a measly 225 miles in 2014.

It's just too damned easy to consider an afternoon at the playground a "workout."
I need a kick in the pants.

So... 2015 will be the
Year of the Fitness Challenge
1 year. 12 months. 1 fitness challenge per month.

Before we get started, some stats:
Weight: 143.8 lbs
Fastest* mile: 7:56 (Oct. 2014)
Longest* run: 4.9 miles (Oct. 2014)
Max pull-ups: 3
Max push-ups: 60
Max crunches: ?
Max plank: ?
*In past 6 months

I considered kicking this plan off with plank-a-day, 30-day yoga challenge, or a run-streak, but after querying my friends and running buddies, and spending waaaay too much time on Google, this full-body strength training challenge called to me...

I started yesterday with 60 push ups after a 4.75 mile run.

(Yes... I know the list says 100. And I'm not making excuses. But I did a full workout with 30 walk-down-push-ups on Wednesday. Thursday was supposed to be a rest day!)

Next up... 100 squats!

Weekly workout

Refusing to let a job-changing, city re-locating, house-buying, summer turn me into a couch potato...

Last week's plan / actual:

• Monday plan: strength circuit + 60 min bike
  Actual: Jillian Michaels - 30 Day Shred, level 1 + 50 minutes on stationary bike


• Tuesday: 4 mile run or swim
  Actual: 4 mile run


• Wednesday: yoga
  Actual: 25 minute gentle yoga from Yoga Download. I generally enjoy the podcasts and videos from Yoga Download, but this one was a bummer. I found myself wondering how much longer I'd have to stay in child's pose. Maybe it was my state of mind that day, but I'd only give this video 2 out of 5 stars.


• Thursday: strength circuit + swim
  Actual: 40 minutes in the pool with 25 minutes of lap swimming and 15 minutes of pool running. (Those foam dumbbells are a great arm/shoulder workout!)


• Friday: rest day
  Actual: REST


• Saturday: 5 mile run or hike
  Actual: 6.5 mile hike


• Sunday: anything goes
  Actual: rest

This week's plan:

• Monday: strength circuit + 60 minute bike ride
• Tuesday: 4 mile run
• Wednesday: yoga
• Thursday: strength circuit + 6 mile run
• Friday: rest day
• Saturday: 4 mile run
• Sunday: anything goes

Weekly workout

As I mentioned last week, the quest for the sub-24 5k is being put on hold temporarily... But that doesn't mean I'm turning into a couch potato!

Last week's plan / actual:

• Monday plan: strength circuit + 60 min bike
  Actual: Jillian Michaels - 30 Day Shred, level 3 + 60 minutes on stationary bike


• Tuesday: 4 mile run or swim
  Actual: 3.5 mile run


• Wednesday: yoga
  Actual: 25 minute gentle yoga + 3 mile walk


• Thursday: strength circuit + swim
  Actual: 4 mile run. I looked at my swim gear bag, and realized that I felt like running. Four miles glided by easily and painlessly.


• Friday: rest day
  Actual: REST


• Saturday: 5 mile run or hike
  Actual: St. Patrick's day Prediction Run 5k hosted by McGuire's (plus another couple of miles run getting to the event). With 16,000 participants, parking is an issue best avoided!



• Sunday: anything goes
  Actual: 4 mile walk

This week's plan:

• Monday: strength circuit + 60 minute bike ride
• Tuesday: 4 mile run
• Wednesday: yoga
• Thursday: strength circuit + swim
• Friday: rest day
• Saturday: 5 mile run or hike
• Sunday: anything goes

In search of the 5k PR (week 4 training)

*sigh* Despite my best efforts at Saturday morning's Double Bridge Run, the quest for the sub-24 5k continues...

Starting line of the Double Bridge 5k in Gulf Breeze, FL

Last week's plan / actual:

• Monday: strength circuit + run or bike / 30 day shred + 45 minutes on stationary bike


• Tuesday: 3 mile run / 3 mile run (felt like a 6 mile slog. How is it 80% humidity in January?)


• Wednesday: yoga + foam-rolling / 20 minute power yoga (My foam roller is gathering dust...)


• Thursday: 3 mile easy run / 3.1 mile run


• Friday: rest day / ... and I rested.


• Saturday: 5k RACE DAY! / 25:05. Not a PR, but fast enough for an age group award, and a good baseline race to help me fine tune my training plan


• Sunday: recovery day / long, leisurely walk on the beach

This week's plan:

• Monday: strength circuit + 5 mile run
• Tuesday: hill repeats
• Wednesday: yoga
• Thursday: 5-6 mile easy run + core work
• Friday: rest day
• Saturday: 8 mile run
• Sunday: fun day - any workout

How often do you incorporate strength training into your workouts?

Line 'em up (12th cross training challenge)

Readers, I present you the twelfth and final entry into Kim's 2012 New 2 U Cross Training Challenge. This project has gotten me skipping, kickboxing, and playing tennis. (See my 2012 goal roundup for all of the year's cross training challenges.)

Earlier this month I went ice skating, but that's an activity I love (even if I am wobbly on the ice). So skating hardly counts as stretching outside my comfort zone.

I really was skating.
I just stopped long enough for a photo op.

Complicating the challenge this month, I spent twelve and a half days away from home. To complete the challenge, I had to get creative. (There are only so many activities a person can do in a hotel gym or a hotel room.)

Since I'm ending the year in Texas, I figured a little country line dancing was in order...

I love to dance. Hubby and I will sometimes spontaneously tango down the sidewalk.

However, I do not love dances that require a complicated sequence of steps. If I have to follow more than a few choreographed moves, I lose the joy of just dancing, start trying to figure out whether I should be on my right foot or my left, and wind up tripping over my shoelaces (or worse, tripping over my neighbor's shoes).

Line dancing is definitely out of my comfort zone...


But I gave it a whirl, using "Learn How to Line Dance - Tush Push."

Biggest lie in the video:

"Be patient with yourself. These turns are a little challenging at first, but you'll get it."

Three times through the video, I got the first 10 or 12 steps down, but the turns? Not happening.

I run because it's simple. Left foot. Right foot. Repeat.

Line dancing is... step tap step tap tap hop step tap step tap tap quarter turn bump bump sway sway sway quarter turn front hop hop hop hop hop hop three quarter turn left right left right rock turn tap tap tap hop half turn step tap step tap tap hop step tap step tap tap turn bump bump single hip rock rock rock quarter turn back to the front left right left right rock right left right left rock turn (or was that a three quarter turn?)

Oh bloody hell.

I give up.

I might keep trying, but either way, I lived up to the spirit of the challenge and tried something new.


Are you a dancer or do you have two left feet?

Success? (2012 goals)

Back in January I set a few key goals for the year. Unfortunately, at the end of the 3rd quarter, my goal score was not looking so good...

Goals: 3, Injury: 2

That left me with a long list of competing goals for the final months of 2012. In a delicate balancing act in the final month of the year, I made some substantial progress... but was it enough to accomplish every goal?


Goal - Run Faster:
5k in less than 24 minutes

Progress: While I consistently placed in the top 10 percent of the field, high temperatures and humidity meant that my summer 5k didn't even crack the 25 minute barrier. (Boo!)

My Turkey Trot was closer, at 24:48.

I had one last attempt at breaking the 24 minute barrier during the Ho Ho Hustle 5k on December 15th, but my legs were still tired from the prior weekend's half marathon. Despite earning an AG award (2nd of 35 women 30-34), I wasn't fast enough to PR.

This goal lives on in 2013...


Goal - Run Longer:
Complete 5 half marathons

Progress: (1) Gulf Shores, (2) New Orleans, (3) Pensacola Beach, (4) Holiday Half in Point Clear, (5) _____ Umm... 80% is a passing grade, even if I was aiming for an A+. Just don't tell my students I said that...


Goal - Learn New Things:
Read 15 non-fiction books

Progress: Here's my non-fiction reading list for the year...

1. Two Old Fools, Ole
2. Delinquent Daughters
3. Complaints and Disorders
4. Wild: From Lost to Found on the PCT
5. Ratio
6. Delusions of Gender
7. AWOL on the Appalachian Trail
8. Memoirs of a Gas Station
9. Behind the Beautiful Forevers
10. Longitude
11. Bossypants
12. Galileo's Daughter
13. Predictably Irrational
14. The Art of War
15. it's complicated

As for #15, I'm not sure where to begin...

I've been reading the The Complete Memoirs of Casanova for several months, but Casanova lived to be more than 70 years old at a time when most people lived to a ripe old age of 30, and he chronicled nearly every day of his adult life. That's works out to more than 20,000 days of biography!

Casanova led a remarkably adventurous life of travel, gambling, career-hopping, and yes bed-hopping. (This is no 50 Shades, though. Despite Casanova's sexual adventures, he wrote his diary in the 1700s. Most of the smutty stuff is written in a fade-to-black style because back then even a rake didn't tell all of his secrets.)

Even without lurid details, the "book" contains 30 volumes and more than 2,200 pages (yes, that's a four-digit number). So I'm happy to have gotten through the first few volumes (about 400 pages). We'll count that as "book 15."

On the fiction side of the fence...
I read Things Fall Apart, Cold Comfort Farm, My Antonia, Study in Scarlet (Sherlock Holmes), Sense of an Ending, Slaughterhouse Five, Still Life With Woodpecker, War Brides, NW, and some fluffy beach-reads not worth mentioning.

I just started Bonfire of the Vanities. This classic weighs in at 700+ pages. While unintended, 2012 is, apparently, the year in which I read really long books...


(If you want to know more about what I'm reading, follow me on Goodreads.)


Goal - Travel/Explore:
Visit one new-to-me place every month

Progress: Still exploring like a tourist!

• January: Gulf Shores, AL
• February: Indian Temple Mound museum in Fort Walton Beach, FL
• March: A jazz club, Maison, in New Orleans
• April: This month was a new-to-us trail double header.
• The Blackwater Trail 10k took Hubby and me to a part of the Florida backwoods we'd never seen before. (So new, in fact, that I nearly skipped the race out of fear that I'd get lost...)
• We followed that up with a hike in the Naval Live Oaks National Park
• May: Audubon Park in New Orleans.



Colonial Williamsburg

• June: Another two-fer!
• I ventured into new neighborhoods and new-to-me museums while in Washington, DC.
• Hubby and I went back to Gulf Shores, AL for an "adventure day" of exploring new beaches, shops, and restaurants.
• July: A whirlwind weekend trip to Jacksonville and St. Augustine
• August: Spelunking in Florida Caverns State Park and hiking through Falling Waters State Park
• September: A visit to the battleship museum in Mobile, AL



Eden Gardens State Park near Rosemary Beach, FL

• October: the travel month to beat all travel months included trips to:
• Atlanta
• Williamsburg
• Rhode Island (hiking a new trail with my family)
• and Destin (running the Halloween 5k)
• November:
• Tarkiln Bayou State Park
• Torreya State Park
• Eden Gardens State Park
• December: Point Clear and Fairhope, Alabama for the Holiday Half Marathon

Goal - New 2 U Cross Training Challenge:
Just ask Kim...

Progress: Is there a medal for this multi-sport event?

Tennis!

• January: I discovered that I loathe burpees,
• February: ... but I enjoy cardio kickboxing.
• March: I nearly broke my nose trying stability ball strength training.
• April: 100 ups became a regular part of my workout routine.
• May: I skipped it! (skipping drills to improve running form)
• June: I shredded Jillian Michaels.
• July: Cross training paid off when I found $10 buried in the sand while snorkeling.
• August: I got back in the pool for some long-overdue lap swimming, and I suppose spelunking counts, too!
• September: I tried pool running, aqua jogging, pooling... whatever you call running underwater.
• October: I rocked a workout on BodyRock.TV
• November: I conquered my worries about lack of hand-eye coordination and tried my hand (and eyes) at tennis.
• December: _____ (I still have 36 hours to go. I'll think of something!)

Goal - Go streaking!
Run at least 1 mile per day from Halloween through the New Year

Progress: I've been streaking for more than 60 days, and covered more than 170 miles!

Did you set any goals for the year?
If so, how did you do and what are your goals for 2013?

Cross training grand slam

The whole point of Kim's New 2 U Cross Training Challenge is to break out of your comfort zone and challenge yourself in ways you didn't think possible.

Since high school I've though of myself as completely uncoordinated when it comes to sports. (That's why I'm a runner! No catching required!)

As a child, I lacked both balance and depth perception. It wasn't until I reached my mid-20s that was I finally diagnosed with astigmatism - an eye condition easily correctable with glasses. Unfortunately, the belief that I'm just "bad" at ball-sports stuck even after my vision improved.

So when Hubby proposed tennis as a new sport, I balked.


Tennis!

The last time I swung a racquet was in the mid 1990s. I launched my tennis ball high over the court's fence and into a thicket of poison ivy. Oops.

I had tried once. That was enough. I needn't play again.

But then our family sent Hubby a set of tennis racquets for his birthday. (Damn their meddling gifts!)


Shiny new tennis racquet and ball

I pleaded to play a few practice rounds in an empty parking lot. I would not embarrass myself by launching my serves into a neigbhoring court on my very first try. I knew that if I had a bad first outing, I really never would try again.

So practice in a parking lot we did.

I had a few doosies of shots that rolled off into the bushes, and I whiffed more than once. (I snorted with laughter over some of my worst misses.) But over time our serves and volleys got cleaner.

Today we stepped up into the big league.

We went to the city courts, which are usually full at all hours of the day, all days of the week.

Ok... ok... I'll admit, I didn't really want to go. I wanted one more parking lot practice run. I could have kept playing "tennis" in a parking lot for the rest of my life and have gone to my deathbed without any regrets. (Tennis is that far outside of my comfort zone.)

Fortunately it's Black Friday, and the courts were mercifully empty.

Completely and totally empty. (Sigh of relief!)


Empty tennis courts

We played for an hour. While plenty of my shots were messy, no balls were lost, no bypassers were struck, and no bones were broken. Grand slam!

My only remaining problem is: if I'm going to play, it seems I'll eventually need to learn the rules, and they're bloody confusing.

A first score is worth 15 points, the second worth 15, and then... 10? What?! Who does this math? Why not 1, 2, and 3? And what's wrong with zero - why do we have to call that "love?" I suppose it's more polite than saying 15-loser, or 15-you-suck. But "love?"

Tennis terms may never make sense to me, but at least I can no longer say "I just can't play."

Are you a tennis player?
Is there a sport you think you "just can't" play?

Down to the wire

Alt title: Crunch month

My October entry into the New 2 U Cross Training Challenge is the latest of my entries to date. (Thank goodness for 31 day months.)

My only goal going into this month was "stay on dry land," because my last three entries into the challenge were all aquatic.

Little did I know that being airborne 3 weeks out of 4 would also complicate this month's challenge. (Anyone know of good exercises to practice in seat 13B of an MD-88?)

Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't have changed my schedule for the world. Attending a conference and running my way through Williamsburg, VA was pretty awesome. But my schedule was tight enough that I had a hard time fitting in basic workouts, much less getting creative. 2 mile run around the block on my lunch break? Check! Research, find, drive to, and participate in a Zumba class? ...Not gonna happen.

But with only 7 days left in the month, I realized that I couldn't let a little schedule squeeze derail my Challenge! So I did what any good blogger would do...

I asked Twitterverse and Facebookland...

... and I got several excellent recommendations:

• Kia (@Keyalus) recommended BodyRock.TV
• Jim (@jmacpcola) recommended a circuit of 4 x 25 each: pushups, crunches, lunges as fast as possible
• Hubby suggested tennis (maybe prompted by a birthday present he received from our family?)
• Lori CS suggested I just suck it up wake up earlier

So, what workout did I crunch into the end of the month?

While Lori's suggestion is a clever one, I'm not the kind of person who can skimp on sleep. I envy those who can, but I start stumbling for words when I'm sleep deprived -- not a good situation for a teaching-heavy and conference-heavy month.

So Kia and Jim won.

On Monday I did Jim's circuit of 4 x 25 push ups, crunches, and lunges. I breezed through the lunges (and yes, one lunge = one on each leg). I figured the crunches would be easiest, but I felt those because I did 'em right after the pushups (and good pushup form engages the core). But the pushups... nearly killed me!

Ok... ok. I'm being dramatic like Jim Cantore on a sunny day. But... I've never in my life done 100 push ups in one workout.

The verdict: 100 push ups = new PR for me! (And I'm bloody sore now!)
Pros: What I loved about this workout was the simplicity. I can do this circuit in any hotel room. In any time crunch. Heck, I could probably find a way to do crunches at the airport.
Cons: Um. None. Thanks, Jim!

As for BodyRock.tv...
I'll admit that I was a skeptic.

I skimmed through videos and found that many focus their cinematography on sweat dripping down the instructors silicone cleavage. All I could think was:

"What is Kia getting me into???"

I almost turned the videos off, but in the spirit of "out of my comfort zone," I persevered with a workout that I would have dismissed otherwise.

The verdict: Loved it! I fit 12 minutes of high intensity intervals in before a morning class, worked up a sweat... and... I'm gonna' be sore tomorrow.
Pros: Most of the workouts are brief and can be completed with minimal equipment in a living room or hotel room. The interval timer on screen was also a nice touch.
Cons: Um... The cleavage shots were a little excessive, and if it hadn't been for Kia's recommendation, I would've ignored these workouts forever. Also, the exercises were a somewhat complicated, and there was precious little instruction about proper form. These workout videos are not intended for newbies.

Next month... tennis!
(We'll see how long it takes me to break the racket or hit someone 3 courts over with my serve...)

How do you balance competing priorities?
Any suggestions for an aspiring (but completely uncoordinated) tennis player?

Is it Pool Running or Aqua Jogging?

Alt. title: Exercises to do while nursing an injured calf

My September entry into the New 2 U Cross Training Challenge is both the lamest and the most creative of my entries to date.

My sole goal: get a good workout without putting any strain on my right foot and calf.

This sounds pretty simple until you realize that nearly every aerobic and strength exercise involves standing, jumping, pushing, or pedaling with your feet. Even core exercises like planks are out of the question.

Google searches for "exercise with calf strain" return almost nothing of use. There are exercises to do once your calf is healing, but no advice at all about what to do to keep from going batsh*t crazy during the week or two during which you need to stay off your leg.

Yes, yes... I know I could just laze around, read, nap, repeat.
But I have never been good at sitting still. Maybe I had undiagnosed ADHD as a child? Either way, I don't intend to change now.

So this month's workouts took some creativity. I developed a strength training routine to use during these dark days of calf-strain-plus-PF:

• bent-knee push ups
• cat/cow pose
• bicycle crunches
• rowing crunches
• Russian twists
• 1980s aerobic-video-style leg lifts
• superman and hollow-man
• alternating donkey kicks and "dirty dogs" (one leg at a time, none of this jumping stuff)

Source: google.co.uk via Joanne on Pinterest

In addition, I did a workout I've never done before: pool running.

Or maybe it's called aqua jogging?
(If it's really "aqua jogging" this is the one and only time you can call me a jogger without ending our friendship.)

Whatever we call it, I've been "running" in the water-aerobics-area of my local pool after I finish lap swimming. I can't say pool running will ever replace real running, but it was a nice alternative while I was hobbling around.


I'm also glad that the Cross Training Challenge got me back in the water with snorkeling in July, lap swimming in August, and now pool running/aqua jogging in September.

That said, I think I need to return to dry land for my October challenge.

So is it called "pool running" or "aqua jogging?"
Have you ever tried aqua jogging or other water aerobics?
Clearly I need a non-aquatic activity for my next cross training challenge...
Any suggestions for another new-to-me exercise to try?

Review of Ripped in 30

Over the past four weeks, while sidelined from running, I completed Jillian Michaels' Ripped in 30.

For the record: Something irks me about the titles of Jillian Michaels' workout videos. I don't want to rip or shred anything! I have spent my entire runner life trying not to tear or pull a muscle! I know... I know... she talks about proper form and injury prevention during the videos, but the titles are so... frantic.

But the workouts are good, so I look past the sensational titles. Honestly, I think being a Ripped in 30 graduate became a good (temporary) replacement for my 5k and half marathon goals while I was not able to run. After all, I'm not a "slacker runner" if I'm doing high intensity interval workouts for a few weeks, right?

Here's what I liked, and what I didn't like...

The Good:

I cannot speak highly enough of the 3, 2, 1 system: 3 minutes of multiple-muscle strength exercises, 2 minutes of high intensity cardio, 1 minute of core.

Even with a less-than-30-minute workout, I would be drenched in sweat and noodle-armed by the end.

The strength exercises are intense, and just when you think you can't do one more rep, you switch to another exercise.

I also appreciate the brevity of the workout. I can crank out a session before my morning classes on busy days.

The Bad:

There were a few exercises that raised my eyebrows.

Full sit-ups and leg lifts are notoriously bad for your back. I often found myself modifying the core work to include equally-tough, but less controversial moves (planks, hollow-man, crunches).

While we're talking about modifications, I am a fan of JM's plyometric cardio exercises, but with nagging plantar fasciitis, I had to modify some of those to lower-impact options for this go-around. Fortunately JM provides several low-impact cardio moves over the course of the 4 weeks. Whenever a jumping routine would come up, I'd either substitute another of her lower-impact options, or I'd add a set of squats or static lunges.

Also I really enjoyed weeks 1 and 4, but week 2 was a workout that I simply "got through" rather than a workout that I "liked."

The Results:

I should have Hubby write this section... I think he has noticed more change in my muscle definition than I have. He keeps poking my biceps and calling them guns.

From my perspective, I had to stop stepping on a scale while doing Ripped in 30 because my weight was going up, not down, even though my clothes were fitting better. (Another reason to kill the bathroom scale!)

The Verdict:

The program was highly effective for me, and I am sure I'll go through the circuits again.

What's your favorite at-home workout? Least favorite?
What's your take on the "Ripped," "Shredded," and "Insanity" naming phenomenon?

Junk(ie) miles

Three.
Three weeks of being sidelined by plantar fasciitis.

By now I thought I'd be crawling the walls because I haven't been running. I assumed I'd be bitter without my daily dose of endorphins/endocannabinoids. In fact, I worried I'd be a little like a junkie going through the DTs.

But lack-of-running-anxiety has not set in.
The shakes haven't started.
I'm not homicidal.
At least not yet.

So how have I stayed sane?

I filled my morning "running time" with other productive pursuits: prepping my class materials for the first day of school, submitting a journal article I've been working on for months, baking multi-grain pumpkin muffins, tying down the lawn furniture and then consuming frosty rum drinks.

But I still need my daily workout fix, so I've found other activities: swimming, yoga class, and a slightly modified "Ripped in 30" wherein I sub low-impact cardio for all of the jumping and plyometrics. (If I'm going to hurt my foot more, it will be on the track, not for a DVD, thankyouverymuch.)

So far, this plan seems to be working!

Ok. Ok...
I'll admit it.
I ran 4 miles on Sunday.
And I've taken a couple of long walks, which are supposedly no better than running when it comes to healing from PF. But one run in 20 days is a low I haven't seen in years. That counts as "not running."

Yes, I know I sound like a smoker who substitutes a straw for a cigarette and who chews nicotine gum for a fix... I know I sound like a drinker who says "I haven't had a drink in weeks! Except for one with dinner yesterday. But that doesn't count."

We all have our addictions.

And while the placebos are working for now...
I cannot wait for my next fix.

What is the longest you've gone without running?
How do you avoid withdrawal symptoms when you're sidelined from an activity you love?

Lane lines

Eight months ago I joined Kim's New 2 U Cross Training Challenge with the goal of getting out of my comfort zone.

During the first few months of the challenge I struggled at month-end to find something (anything!) to do easily that would count toward the challenge. (Yes, I know how silly that sounds.) But over time the challenge became... well... less of a challenge and more of a mindset.

This month I've already gone spelunking (a lifetime first!) and tried another new high intensity interval training (HIIT) workout. But the crowning jewel in this month's fitness adventure list is a sparkling blue one.

With lane lines.

Image source

As I mentioned last month, I kept telling myself that I'd "get back in the water." I once was a triathlete. I once was a lap-swimmer. But the distance between now and "once" was growing wider and wider.

In July I finally dusted off my snorkel and went to the beach.

But I was still avoiding the municipal pool.

The reasons for my avoidance are varied (and completely ridiculous). Municipal pools can be crowded. They can be dirty (rare, but true). Mainly I was just unsure what the "swimming culture" would be at the public pool. The looming unknown was keeping me firmly planted on my stationary bike at home. After all, my living room is pretty comfortable and an interval workout on the stationary bike isn't exactly slouching.

But I missed swimming.

I missed the cool water.

I missed the rhythm of strokes and kicks and breathing.

I missed staring at a lane line in a field of blue.

I missed the feeling of grabbing the water and pulling myself forward.

I missed it...

... until Sunday.

I paid my $4.

I grabbed an open lane.

And I swam - freestyle and backstroke and breastroke - until my arms ached.

When I got home I checked my workout records and realized that the last time I swam... really swam... was more than two years ago. July 2010. (Gah! How did I let that much time pass?)

But once I was in the water, it felt as natural as if my last swim was last week.


Have you ever let a favorite hobby fall by the wayside?
What cross training would you recommend I try next month?

Here's the complete list of other CTC triumphs:

• January = burpees
• February = cardio kickboxing
• March = stability ball strength training
• April = 100 ups
• May = I skipped it! (skipping drills to improve running form)
• June = shredded
• July = snorkeling pays off (with $10 floating in the water!)

Weekend reading

With no runs on the schedule, I've done more reading this weekend than usual (which is saying something given that I devour about a book a week).

In an attempt to "do the right thing" in treating my plantar fasciitis, I swapped this morning's planned 12 mile run for almost 2 hours on the stationary bike.

(Have we talked about how boring it is to spend 2 hours on a stationary bike? No? Well. It's boring. By the time I was done, doing laundry sounded like an exciting change of pace.)

Fortunately I had a stack of good books in easy reach. The one (only?) benefit of equipment-based workouts over being outdoors is that I can catch up on my reading. Balancing a book while running would elicit funny looks from my neighbors. Plus, I'm not coordinated enough to pull off reading-and-running. I'd trip and break something.

But I'd have to be awfully drunk to fall off a stationary bike. Even while reading a book.*

So here's what I've been working on while pedaling away this weekend:

Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time is my book club's next book. I am not sure I would have picked this up otherwise, but I'm halfway through and so far I really enjoy both the science and the storytelling.


I just finished Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, death, and hope in a Mumbai undercity. This was definitely not a beach-reading book. The issues are complex, and the book is beautifully and compellingly written, even when it chronicles tragedy and loss. Fortunately my stationary bike is in my living room, so no one but Peanut notices when I make shocked faces/noises about my reading or my eyes well up with tears... If I were in a gym I'd just pretend it was sweat.


Also, last month author Liana Chin contacted me to let me know that her book Mom's First 5k would be available (for a limited time) on Amazon for free. I downloaded a copy, and finally started reading it this weekend. While I'm no longer in the beginner ranks, I recall some of the struggles Chin talks about. (I will post a full and detailed review once I finish.)

And last, but not least, I thought I knew most of the craziest Olympic history stories. But there are a few I missed...

*PS - Hardcore HIIT devotees will probably roll their eyes at my reading-while-working-out. I figure weekends are for long slow distance (running) so that translates to long slow (boring) biking for me right now. A variety of paces, distances, and intensities is key to a well-rounded training program.

Do you ever read while you work out?
What type of reader are you: one-at-a-time or multiple books going at once?
Any reading recommendations to share?