Serious Daily Sweat

No, I'm not going to get serious on you.... I just had a SERIOUS sweat sesh. Wow. In 30 minutes on my trainer I was drenched. I was really feeling a bike ride, but with the dog situation I wasn't sure if I could ride my trainer until I am done dog sitting.

I got smart and put the dog upstairs and shut the door. Duh! I didn't feel that bad keeping it upstairs being that it was only 30 minutes. It got his walk, I needed my workout too!

I don't know if it is just harder to spin on the trainer or the fact that it was 70 degrees in the house, but I sweated buckets! It felt GOOD. I incorporated a few 2 minute intervals where I went down a gear (harder) and pushed harder.

The time also flew by because I was watching horrible TV. :)

Nice setup with my laptop

Wanted to show you this sweet gift I got from my sister. It is a wrist band that has a cute zipper pocket that is perfect for keys, cash, etc. I don't mind carrying my keys when I run, but lately I've been running in the rain and I do worry about my Garmin getting wet. Well this will cover the Garmin and keep it nice and dry! Genious! Only $15 at REI.

It's a love-hate relationship

I think many of you can agree with me when I say I have a love-hate relationship with the Holidays.

I love the Holidays because:

• I get to see my family
• Christmas lights are pretty
• I like Christmas music
• It's a good excuse to relax
• Christmas goodies like gingersnap cookies and date pinwheels
• Movie marathons (I watched Grease, Santa Clause 2, A Christmas Story and Eclipse in two days)

I dislike the Holidays because:

• Traffic sucks
• Everywhere is busy
• I eat to many cookies
• Exercise usually gets put on the back burner

 So needless to say, I had a great Christmas, but glad it's over. Ready to start eating vegetables again and running and lifting regularly. I rode my trainer for 30 minutes and have ran 5 miles since Christmas eve, but I still don't think that negates my impressive eating abilities over the past few days. Hoping to make this week a good one to have a head start into 2011.

Hope you had a very Merry Christmas, or whatever Holiday you're celebrating. :) Here are some photos from my Christmas:

My nephew Grayson and me - albino style cause I obviously don't know how to use my camera...

Minnie Mouse came bearing gifts for baby Jesus too

My Mom does such a good job decorating - really feels like Christmas in the house

Me and my sister Kim

My sister Lindsay and me. Yes, I am wearing antlers

Cookies for Santa and carrots for the reindeer. My nephew picked these cookies as the ones Santa should get. :)

You know you have kids around when there are dinosaurs stuck in the tree at kid height.

Dear Santa, I can explain...

I had today off work and officially started my Christmas holiday. I ran probably around 3 miles this morning in the rain with the dog then headed to meet my sisters. Guess what we did? Got our picture taken with Santa! Not my idea, but it was kind of fun. We mostly went so my nephew could get his picture taken, so I didn't feel that strange that 6 adults were also getting their picture taken...

L to R: My sister Shannon, Bro-in-law James, Sister Lindsay, Santa, Nephew Grayson, Bro-in-Law Wally, Sister Kim, Me

After the Santa fun, I picked up my split board (!) and tried to finish up my Christmas shopping but was unsuccessful. Ugh. Why do I wait until the last minute to Christmas shop?! Next year, someone please remind me to start early!

For those of you who have never seen a splitboard...

 

This is a board I've had for awhile and got it cut in half.

I can take the board apart, slap some skins on them, adjust where my binding attach and use them like skiis to tour.

Skins are similar to fur. Your hand will glide over them nicely one direction, but will be rough the other direction. So when on snow you can move the board or ski forward, but it won't slip down hill. FUN!

Can't wait to get some turns in with her. :)

Riding to no where

Hi! So Christmas came early for me - my fisherman gave me a bike trainer! He is the sweetest fisherman out there. It's a CycleOps Mag trainer and it's sa-weet. I rode it for 30 minutes on Sunday and quickly realized that I am out of bike shape. The trainer is going to get a lot of use this winter to get me back into some kind of bike shape...as much as a trainer can get you in shape, riding to no where... with no wind...

I am house sitting in Seattle until January 12th, so I brought the trainer down here with me to ride in nice open living room. Well, that didn't work too well. I am also dog sitting and the dog is a scardy-cat and sunk his head, threw his tail between his legs and ran off whimpering when I got on the trainer this morning. Guess I won't be riding it until after the 12th... I've never seen a dog so scared before. I know it came from a rough background, but wow. I took it for a walk and we happened to walk by one of those blow up Santas and the dog had the same reaction to the Santa as it did the trainer. Weird.

Anyway, keeping my running up for the most part. Trying to get more than 20 miles per week. Really just trying to run enough to burn off the cookie/sweet calories I'm consuming. I'm trying to not feel guilty about the sweets anymore cause then I just feel, well, guilty. So I just eat, then I run.

How are your Holiday workouts going??

Blog break

Hi! How is everyone? I haven't been posting regularly because by the time I get home from a long day at work and commuting, all I want to do is be as far away from a computer as possible. That being said, I figured I would let you guys/gals know that this blogging behavior will probably last until the new year.

But don't you worry, the Daily Sweat is still happening. I logged in 23.4 miles this week running with a handful of lunch-time walks. These workouts make eating those vendor Christmas cookie packages at work that much easier. :)

I'm sure I'll find time to blog over Christmas weekend, so until then...

Exercising in the mountains

I started writing a "3 Things Thursday" post on Thursday, but I was also babysitting my 2.5 year old nephew that night and well, you know you can't really do much except give your full attention to a 2.5 year old, so I never finished it.

I've been keepin' on with my morning runs, averaging about 20 miles per week. I'd like to see if I can bump that up to 25 this week. Today I purchased a small, light-weight flashlight to carry on my runs in the dark. I ran with it tonight and I felt so much safer being able to flash a light at a car and let them know that I'm there. I tend to run on the road in residential neighborhoods because sidewalks can be uneven, so flashing my light at cars keeps me and the cars away from each other.

Yesterday I got to make my first pow turns of the season! If you don't know, I've been snowboarding for many years and this year is the first year I did not buy a season's pass to Mt. Baker. I have come to the point in my snowboarding that I'm over the crowds that the weekend brings and I'm looking for more quality snowboarding over quantity. So this year I decided to split one of my snowboards so I can tour easier and get to more places outside the ski area.

Aaron, some friends and I went hiking in the backcountry right next to the Mt. Baker Ski Area yesterday. We did 3 runs, which took 4 hours. Yeah, that is a long time to only get 3 runs, but we had open pow turns those 3 runs, so it was worth it. It also took us a long time because we were hiking instead of skinning and we had to put in a boot pack for part of it which sucks in itself and takes FOREVER. Both Aaron and I will get our splitboards this week, so we'll be able to skin up the mountain, which is way more efficient than boot packing.

November recap and holiday goals

My goal for November was to ramp up mileage. I wanted to get to mileage that felt like I was training for a race because I hadn't felt that since earlier in the summer.

My goals were as follows:

Swim: 16-20,000 yards
Bike: 300-350 miles
Run: 85-100 miles
Weights: 11-13 days

The month started off good, but I quickly realized that getting in my bike miles was going to be hard with out doing outside rides. But with the weather being sub-par and me being a fair-weather biker, I never made it outside. I rode 106 miles all of which were during spin classes.

Swimming also went well at first, swimming two days a week, but when I changed jobs, my pool time slid off the clif and I never stepped foot into the pool again during the month. I swam 8200 yards.

I did reach my running goal and came pretty dang close to my weight lifting goal. Running is the most convenient sport which is probably the reason why it is the one area I excelled at this month. With my new job and crazy commute, it is SO easy to throw on my Brooks and run. No bikes, pools, swim suits, padded shorts, etc. needed. I ran 88.35 miles.

With the holidays here and knowing that I'll have a lot of my time allocated to holiday activities, I'm making this month's goal with the busy-ness in mind. I still want to keep my running numbers around the 85 miles per month, but I really want to make the rest of my day active as well.

Yes, I run in the morning, but for the rest of the day I either sit at my desk, in my car or at home. I read a post on Ironman 101 talking about how he lost weight over his holiday in Australia because he was walking so much more than he did in his normal life. This post inspired me to incorporate more walks and casual bike rides into my day this month. So even if the holidays take my time, I can still get out and get moving in a more casual way.

Come January it'll be time to ramp things up and start off a new year strong, so expect some big goals next month. :)


What are you trying to accomplish this month?

Good reading material

Hey blog friends! This is my 300th post. What?! Thanks for reading all my ramblings!

Yesterday before work I went on an awesome run in Seattle. I ran the Burke-Gilman trail for 4.5 glorious morning miles. I was hesitant to run at 6am because of the darkness, but I was pleasantly surprised that there are a lot of other people on the trail, so I felt a little more comfortable. I did have on my BRIGHT green Brooks shirt, so I was clearly visible.

The cool thing about the Burke-Gilman trail is that it runs from the Ballard area of Seattle to Kenmore and beyond to Redmond covering I think close to 20 miles of awesome green way. It passes by places like Gasworks park, University of Washington, Lake Union, Lake Washington, and various parks. I am so happy that my new office is ON the Burke-Gilman Trail - I see a lot of runs on it in my future.

Today I did another run and incorporated 4-5 .20 fartleks. I was surprised to see my pace reach close to 7:00/mile during those fartleks. So that's what it feels like to run a 7:00 mile...hard! :)

I got a BUNCH of reading material today and I'm itching to sit down and read. I got 2 Bicycling magazines and Runners World in the mail. Then I picked up Snow Sense at REI which is a book about evaluating snow avalanche hazards. Since I'm about to spend a lot more time in the Mt. Baker back country, I need to brush up on my avi skills and knowledge, so I can be safe!

Sporting my UW apparel. Apple Cup day. Go Dawgs!

I have yet to recap November and my goals that I didn't reach...that'll be coming soon. :) Are you guys/gals reading anything good right now?

3 Things Thursday

Yo! Thanks for the motivation tips. I really need to sign up for a race and that's that. Speaking of races....one race has made it into my 3 things...

1. Laura posted that REV3 is starting a event in Portland next year. I SO want to do this. It is July 10th which means I'd have to forgo the Clear Lake sprint triathlon, but I'd be okay with that because I'd be doing a half-iron distance instead. I totally know I can do it, especially with all the time I have to train, but I'm still nervous/hesitant to hit the "register" button. I bet I will though in the next week...

2. I joined a gym near my work. I went with Anytime Fitness because it was the cheapest. It doesn't have spin classes or a pool, but it has good weight machines which is what I use a gym mostly for. I see myself changing gyms in the next couple months though when I get my finances in order and can budget more for a gym.

3. All the driving I've been doing has really been taking it out of me. I'm glad I'm getting my workouts in in the morning because I just don't have any juice left after a day at work then sitting in traffic for 45 minutes to get home.