Awesome firsts this week!

This week has been full of some sweet firsts. Needless to say it's been a fantastic week.


First, Sunday was over 40 degrees. That was a first for the year for sure. It hasn't happened for a long time. That first led to another. I ran outside. Now, I've run outside many many times before but since we're in the middle of winter, it's been awhile. Months. So for the first time since probably October, I ran outside and boy was it awesome. The weather was perfect. There was barely a breeze, though it did pick up a bit as I ran across the Mississippi River for the second time in my run. That time it was blowing against me so it made it a little tiresome at the end of a fairly long run. But, it turned out to be great all around. For some reason, I love running over the river and I got to do it twice with this run. I ran a total of 6.77 miles according to Daily Mile.


This run led to another first. Despite having lived in Minneapolis for over 5 years, I've never ran on either of the River Roads. It's a very popular spot for recreation so it's kind of weird that I'd never done that. For those of you who know the area, I started at Minnehaha Park in south Minneapolis and ran north on the West River Road to Lake Street. I crossed the Lake Street bridge (which turns into Marshall Ave halfway across the bridge), going across the Mississippi River into St. Paul. I then turned south and took Mississippi River Blvd down to Ford Parkway. I crossed the Ford Parkway bridge (which turns into 46th Street once you get across), then followed 46th St to Minnehaha Parkway and back to the park. It's essentially the Walk MS route, backwards. The route was a little slushy and puddly and there was some soft snowpack on the trail. That mean I had to do a lot of hopping and skipping to avoid my feet being submerged in frigid puddles. It also meant that every step on the snowpack was a little uneven so it was a big workout to my ankles and inner calves. Kind of like running in sand. I found those areas to be exceptionally sore on Monday and Tuesday. It was a great run. Anytime I'm outside I feel so much better. I did feel some of my old knee pain/IT Band Syndrome coming back. I'll have to keep an eye on that.


Monday morning rolled around and on my way from the Target Center to my office, someone rear ended me in our new car. First accident for the new car and first time anyone has EVER hit me in my almost 10 years of driving. Grrrrrr! It pushed me into the van in front of me which happened to be a guy doing some work in my office. No damage to his car. Also, no damage to the car that hit me. Unfortunately all of the damage was concentrated on my poor little Elantra. :( My front license plate holder is now bent and there are two holes poked in my back bumper, left by the screws on the dude's front license plate. It looks like a vampire bit it in the butt. So, now we're trying to figure this all out with insurance, etc. Damn that guy in a hurry.


The last firsts for the week have to deal with work. Our office is closed this entire week (a definite first in my tenure there) for a network, operating system and phone system upgrade. We're getting Windows 7, Microsoft Office 2010, and a VOIP phone system. Wahoo! So, Monday we had about a half day to do real work, then we started cleaning up our workspaces and I moved my cube to a new one. I'm now by the window which is the first time I've had that since being there. Yay! Sunlight! Tuesday we had an all staff retreat and today we volunteered at Second Harvest Heartland. Tomorrow is another cleaning day. We're literally scrubbing our office from top to bottom. Then on Friday we'll be trained and getting used to our new gear. We have Monday off for President's Day.


Today, after volunteering, Jill and I took a walk on the West River Road near our office. It was a little chilly but we did a bit over 4 miles. We're looking forward to a day lifting in the gym tomorrow. I think we're on triceps/chest...maybe biceps/back. I don't really remember. More on that later.


Happy Hump Day!


***
Addendum: I originally included the following information in my post, however didn't want to spill the beans too early. I think I've given it plenty of time though so here's another first that should have been included above.

At the end of the day, things got significantly better when my sister, Kaci, who had called me during my run on Sunday and I missed it, called me on that evening. She was calling to let me know that I'm going to be an aunt! Up until this point I've been an aunt to only one person, my sister-in-law's daughter, Megan. That's been great but I'm so stoked for my own sister to start bringing kids into the world! This is my first blood-niece/nephew. It's also the first grandchild for my parents and the first great-grandchild for my grandparents on my dad's side. Today I went to Target and of course had to look at the Twins and Gophers onesies. The kid's going to be stylin' in Minnesota gear! I pretty much can't get over this and am so looking forward to visiting in April. Wooooooooooo!

Marathon Official!

It's been a seriously long time since I've posted. It's been a little boring around here. Just a lot of work. I've got at least 45 extra hours with the Gophers this month. That's more than an extra week of work so it takes up a lot of time. I don't really have full weekends anymore. The job is so easy though so meh, whatever. It also doesn't hurt much because we're headed to DC in April for our good friend's wedding. Erich's big bro from the fraternity, Eric, is getting married out there. He was the best man in our wedding and Erich is the best man in his. And yes, they are both named Erich/Eric. I'm pretty stoked about this wedding.

Even with all of this busyness, I've still been getting in my runs and workouts. In fact, I will probably hit up the gym tonight after I get done working at a women's gymnastics meet. I've got the whole afternoon but I need to get groceries and get the car washed prior to going. I'm hoping Erich will come with me (it's always better to tag team our grocery shopping) but he's not out of bed yet. It's 11:00! I'm also currently watching Secrets of a Restaurant Chef on the Food Network and don't want to pull myself away. So much to learn!

This week I started planning out my training program for the marathon. Turns out I have to start training at the end of May for the 18 week program. I chose this one for a couple of reasons. First, it allows for some flexibility. Hal Higdon, who designed it, knows that most people have real lives to live and mentions this in the training explanations. He also writes as if he's talking to you and it's pretty humorous. Second, I don't want to over train. Since that can definitely be a problem, I'm all about not doing anything to make myself hurt worse. Lastly, Hal Higdon also has a post marathon training program to allow your body to recuperate properly. It's  a total of 5 weeks of post marathon training so this whole endeavor will take me into November.

I decided a while ago that I'd be repeating one of the weeks due to an event I'll have in June. It runs Friday-Sunday so I'll be missing my long run that Saturday. It probably wouldn't be a big deal because it's a step back week and the long run is only 5 miles. Friday is a rest day so I wouldn't miss anything there and Sunday is cross training. But, I want to make sure I still get the mileage in. The best thing I could think of was to repeat the week. My biggest concern for the rest of the program is the day I have to run my longest training run of 20 miles. It's a tough run and will take multiple hours. It happens to fall the day after a long tiring event I have for work. :( Not cool. Looks like I won't be taking part in any post event happy hour as I usually do. It'll be home and off to bed so that I can do the run the next day with no problem.

I also started looking in to standard tips and such for training. I put together a whole book of all of this info. I now have a lovely marathon training guide thanks to Hal Higdon and other online resources. I included nutrition advice and clothing advice, though I'm already pretty well versed in the clothing department. I'm already super picky about what I wear to work out.

My last preparation which was done last week was to actually register for this thing. I'm now officially registered through the MS Society (I was the first) and have begun raising money. The required fundraising amount is $1000, but my goal is more like $2000. So far I have raised $151.20. Why such a strange amount? Well, my first gift was from my dear friend Chris who gave $26.20 in honor of running 26.2 miles. Clever Chris! Next I received $75 from my uncle, Kent who also participates in MS Society events in North Carolina. He knows the great events they put on an the great work they do. Then, I received $50 from our cousins, Adam and Sonia. I feel like they have a connection to multiple sclerosis somehow. I believe that is what Sonia told me. I'm well on my way and I've still got some time to go! The MS Society was lucky enough to partner with the Water Park of America here in the Cities to hold a great fundraising event. If you don't know, this is the largest indoor water park in the country and is across the freeway from the Mall of America, which is the largest shopping mall in the country. The water park is donating their entire park for 5 hours in April and we are holding an exclusive private party. The tickets are just $5 per person which is a steal compared to normal admission rates to this place. The best part is, 100% of the ticket price goes back to the MS Society and can be applied to my fundraising. If you live in the Twin Cities, or would like to take a trip up for this event, check it out and get your tickets here. If you get tickets, be sure to indicate that you want the money to go to me. As another fundraising tool, I'm planning to have a pancake breakfast at work. More details to come on that.

If you'd like to make a donation to me, you can do so online by going directly to my fundraising page. The website is completely secure and you can donate with a credit card. How convenient! I really hope you'll help me out with a donation. The money will work to do great things such as fund vital research (my nerdy passion) and provide programs and services for people with MS, as well as their families. After going to MS Youth Camp this past summer, our family programs are now one of my favorites. Please consider giving!

The Great Strength and Cardio Controversy

I've always known that it's good to do strength training along with cardiovascular training. However, until recently, I haven't done much strength training. When I say recently, I'm talking about the past year or so. I've always just been a cardio fool. I get my feet moving and just go and go. After four years of higher education in the exercise field and a new membership to a gym, I started thinking about strength training.

Now, lower body strength training had always been easy for me. I don't know why, we'll call it genetics, but I've always had ridiculously strong legs. It's somewhat weird. I probably should have been a sprinter or something but ugh! Where's the fun in that? Run for 10-30 seconds and be done. Instead I took up distance running when I was  in 6th grade. I probably did this because my older brother and sister ran cross country so it just seemed like the thing to do. Plus the only other fall sport offered at school was basketball and if you've ever seen me shoot, you'd know why I didn't take that up.

Since I became a distance runner, I rarely did any weight training. I especially never trained my arms. I'm surprised that while playing softball I was one of few girls who could make the throw from third to first. I guess I figured out early that throwing has more to do with proper mechanics than strength, but I digress. I had virtually no upper body strength.

After four years of college and learning all about cardiovascular training and strength training and nutrition and hordes of other things related to exercise, I figured I should probably use my education on myself since I wasn't using it in my career. Erich and I joined LA Fitness in the Twin Cities area and I still go there today. Erich gets a free membership elsewhere through work so he dropped LA. For the first few months of our membership I didn't do much strength training. The bulk of any resistance training I did was swimming, which was probably a good start. However I started attending some boot camp and body works classes with my friend and coworker, Jill. After a couple of months we got bored of them and decided that I would design our workouts from there on. And that's what we did. I'd design strength training sessions that we'd do about two times a week. We'd do cardio on another day or two. At this point, it was Jill's and my goal to "look good" and I remembered that doing strength and cardio on the same day can help burn more calories. We took a brief hiatus from our routine over the summer because of busy schedules and Erich and I sharing a car, but when we returned I decided to switch it up.

Much to Jill's chagrin, we began doing a short strength training session, followed by a short cardio session. This also proved to be good because both of us were getting a little more bulky than we wanted so toning down the weights was a good choice. And this, my friends, brings me the the controversy.

Up until this week, Jill and I would strength train first, as to have full energy for lifting. I'd always been taught that lifting after an endurance workout isn't as effective because you've just used up all of your energy on a run, or bike ride. Not to mention the fact that it is also dangerous for the same reason. Who wants to drop a weight on their face? Not me.

Up until this week I'd also been writing in this blog that it's better to do strength training first and promising an explanation of why. I never really got around to writing the explanation. Then my friend, Chris, sent me a message asking if I always lifted before running because he'd always been taught to do it the opposite. Another friend, Greg, echoed his sentiments. My first instinct was to school him with my knowledge of why strength training is best to do first, until Greg gave his input. So, I thought I should do more research and a quick Google search turned my world upside down. There seems to be no definitive answer because it depends on situation, goals, type of workout, etc. Below are the arguments for different each type, and I've thrown in a third for good measure.

To begin, we must understand how fuel is used in different types of exercise. Anaerobic exercise  (sprints, weight training) uses short term fuel stored in muscle glycogen. This type of fuel is depleted very quickly and that is why the exercise cannot be sustained for long. Aerobic exercise (running, biking, swimming) on the other hand uses blood glucose and fat stores as fuel. I'm going to leave it there since to explain it further would mean going into a biochemistry and physiology lesson that I don't want to get into. After all it's an entire chapter in my exercise physiology book. Too much for a blog. So, here you have my breakdown of the benefits of each way of exercising:

Strength before endurance

There are a couple arguments for this. First, if your goal is to build a lot of strength, this is definitely the way you should go. Do your strength training first when you have the most energy present. That way you have an optimum strength bout. Second, if trying to lose weight and burn fat, this is a good way to go too. If you were to simply hop on a tread mill for 30 minutes, you'd spend the first couple of minutes using muscle glycogen stores as your fuel which means it would take that much longer to use your blood glucose, then fat stores. In the end you wouldn't burn as much fat. Then, if after 30 minutes you hop off the treadmill and start lifting, you might find yourself fatigued to the point that your strength training session will be significantly less productive.

If you were to strength train first, you'd use up your muscle glycogen and when moving to a cardio workout, you'd start using blood glucose, then fat stores immediately. Thus, you'd end up burning more fat. This is what a significant amount of people at the gym want. To lose weight. So, this is probably a good way to go for them, as well as anyone who wants to build strength. This is definitely where I fit in when Jill and I started out. I wanted to lose some fat and replace it with muscle. However after doing my research and re-evaluating, it seems that I may fit into the next group.


Endurance before strength

Now the argument for the opposite view. This is the view point endurance athletes probably hold and is probably where I should begin to shift my focus. Beginning a workout session with an endurance exercise will allow the body to have more energy for the endurance activity, such as running or biking. This means the exercise can be sustained longer and more endurance will be built. So if you're trying to simply increase mileage it is probably best to work on that first. However, that doesn't mean that strength training should be ignored. Even endurance athletes should strength train because it benefits the body in a couple of ways. It can prevent injury since it is strengthening muscles that create stability. Also, it is good for the bones, which means in the long run, you'll have stronger, more resilient bones.

I'm still a little concerned about the lack of energy to strength train after running for 30-60 minutes. I really don't want to drop a weight on my face or my foot or anything else for that matter, just because I was too worn out from my cardio. Plus, I am a sweat machine when I run or bike. It's quite ridiculous actually. Some might say downright disgusting. Who wants to sit down on a bench just after I've slimed it with my sweaty self? I'll have to overcome these two obstacles in order to employ this method. Or, I could just use the last option.


Endurance one day, strength another

This is a simple solution, do your endurance workout one day, and strength training another. It seems like a simple solution, however, not necessarily realistic. What if you're a person who can only get to the gym 3 days a week? I don't think this is going to work well for you. I'd say you'd need at least five days. three for endurance, two for strength. Six would probably be even better. Three days of each. However since there are only 7 days in a week, this doesn't leave you with days to recover? It's quite tough to do a quality endurance bout when you're sore from your strength training the day before. :(  I think the best method for this is to do endurance in the morning and strength in the afternoon, if you're going to try endurance in one session, strength in another. But, really who has time for that? Not many people.


I hope you are as enlightened as I was with this. I believe that a person should do what works for them and the goals they have. When it comes to health and fitness, doing something is always better than doing nothing. I haven't mentioned any of these findings to Jill yet so, Jill, if you're reading this, expect some changes coming to our trips to the gym!

Which reminds me, yesterday's trip to the gym included a 4 mile random hill workout on the treadmill. It was stellar! I felt awesome. The best part was that there were open machines! It is the end of January after all and people are giving up on their lame New Year's resolutions. Though it saddens me to see that people can't stick with exercise, it means there's more room for me! :)

In other news, I think it's time for a new pair of these. The Asics Gel Kayano 17. I've been running in the Kayanos for a few years now. I get the new model each year and currently my feet can't wait to get into a new pair of these. Not to mention my joints. However at about $120 a pop, it might have to wait a month or so because I'll need two pairs for my training and marathon race.

So beautiful!

To close, you'll see that I've added a distance widget to the blog. Since I just added it yesterday it only had yesterday's mileage on it and seems a little sad. Follow along as that number increases!

I'm ready for a new gym...

No, I don't mean I want to change my membership. I like LA Fitness. It's cheap and has a lot to offer for it's price. I can't beat $10 (after the $20 reimbursement from Blue Cross) for a month of working out. What I am ready for is for LA to build another facility. They've been popping up all over the place around here but it seriously hasn't been enough. The gym is continually packed.

Today, Jill and I thought we'd take a break from Roseville, where we usually go, and head to St. Paul. We thought maybe it would be less crowded. After leaving work and forgetting we'd made this decision, and driving almost all the way to Roseville, I finally arrived at St. Paul. No parking. Go figure. It seemed less crowded inside.

We started our lower body workout only to find that there weren't many dumbbells up for grabs. That is unless we wanted to use ones that we could barely lift, let alone use in a lunge. We finally found some and got going on our workout. It was a quick lower body workout consisting of lunges, squats, and calf raises. We did three sets of each in a circuit style.

After lower body, we went upstairs for some cardio. ARGH! The St. Paul gym is terrible about having machines up and running. So, even though there seem to be empty machines, there aren't. They turn out to be broken. So, Jill found an open treadmill and did some walking and I found a bike. I found an open bike after trying a treadmill and different bike that were not in working order. Seriously people? C'mon! I noticed that the people around me were irritated too. One guy there with his buddy said, "You warm up, I'm going to go downstairs and tell them that all of their shit is broken." I agree. I ended up biking for 30 minutes in a hill workout. After the lower body strength training and this bike ride, I could barely walk down the stairs. Wobbly legs! It's kind of sad but I bike at a pretty high intensity level.

We'll hit up the Roseville gym tomorrow and hope that even though it's busier, their machines will actually be up and running. I'll see if I can get a good run in. I've had some pain in my lower legs and that's not cool so we'll see what happens. I hope it isn't anything big. Is it weird that I'm happy to get back on the treadmill? :)

Back in the pool

I'd forgotten how lovely it is to spend some good quality time with my TYR suit and goggles and my Speedo swim cap. Well, today it was a swim cap channeling Finding Nemo, a gift from my friend Gina. It even has a fin and tail that stick out of my head! I should post a picture...

Today, my day off, I met my old swimming (and Human Factors and Ergonomics) buddy, Gina, for a dip in the LA Fitness pool. We took a swim class at the U together and did many swimming workouts after. Gina was a swimmer in high school so she has significantly better technique and therefore speed. But, I can hold my own in the breast stroke.

We started with a 200 meter warm-up. Wow I am not in swimming shape. A 200 free should not be difficult but whew, it was. We then moved on to doing 10 100's. We alternated between freestyle, backstroke (blech) and breast stroke, every 100.  I must say it wasn't too bad. We made it through, despite having not been in the pool since at least August. I've gotta get more pool time in for cross training. It's so wonderful and so much less painful on the joints. The total was 1200 meters. 1600 is a mile so, next time we'll work on getting there.

After our workout, we had a nice lunch at Acapulco. I also haven't been there in a long time. Probably not since my 23rd birthday. Mmmmm...best queso dip ever.


UPDATE: My body is a little stiff today. I think it's time to spend more time in the water.

1 hour, not too shabby

Recently the gym has been full of your standard New Year's resolution folks. Annoying to say the least. It's quite irritating to show up to the gym and have no where to park, get inside and realize there are no cardio machines open. And mind you, I go to quite a large gym. It's really a good thing Jill and I lift first. Usually we can track down a couple of machines after we're done. 

Well, on Tuesday Jill and I completed the following bicep and back workout with a small amount of core:

Chin ups (assisted of course) - 3 sets of 15

Seated row - 3 sets of 17

Alternating hammer curls - 3 sets of 17

Closed grip lat pull downs - 3 sets of 17

Angled bicep curls - 3 sets of 17

Supermans - 3 sets of 20

Ab Machine crunches - 3 sets of 25

Torso rotation - 3 sets of 25

By the time we got done with the above, it was relatively late (around 7:00) so Jill headed home. I still wanted to get in a run and there happened to be an open treadmill. I set to do a quick 30 minutes, then when I got there decided to keep going. I got to 45, realized that if I quit then, I'd have to find a way to kill some time before I picked Erich up from work at 8:45. So, I kept running. I ended up running for a full 60 minutes. It felt amazing. I'm sure I didn't smell amazing after but I don't really care. 

This weekend is a long weekend and I'm pretty excited about it. I have tomorrow off for Martin Luther King Jr. Day. I'll be spending the morning in the pool for the first time in a long time. It's been so long that I don't remember the last time I swam laps. On the up side, I get to use my swim cap that looks like a fish. I'm pretty sure people are going to seriously laugh at me but, oh well. Gina is coming with me and it was a gift from her so I have to wear it. Kind of like pink bunny pajamas one might get from their great aunt for Christmas. Only an orange fish swim cap is way cooler than pink bunny pajamas.

Monday Funday?

Today while running, knowing I would be on the treadmill for a total of 45 minutes, I got to thinking about how I was going to reward myself for a good run. Knowing that we would be heading to Buffalo Wild Wings for our weekly Monday night trivia hosted by Loose Gravel Productions, I thought maybe I'd get some wings. But, I got home and took a shower. 35 minutes of pure bliss. That's right, I was in the shower for 35 minutes and it was AWESOME! That in itself was the best reward.

I really deserved that shower too after today's debacle. I headed to the gym after dropping Erich off at home. Upon pulling into the parking lot I realized that Monday's are the worst gym days ever. I'm not talking in terms of the actual workout. I'm talking about how many people are invading the place. It's really bad when there are absolutely no parking spots and people are circling like sharks looking for someone to pull out. Upon seeing this, I realized that inside, there would be a feeding frenzy for the treadmills. I promptly called Jill and told her the predicament and we decided to head to a different location. After sitting in traffic for an extra 15 minutes (not bad by Minneapolis standards in the snow) we made it to the New Brighton LA Fitness. It was the same situation, however Jill found an elliptical, and I found my oh so beloved treadmill.

I do think I'm kind of an oddity for a couple of reasons. I don't really mind running on a treadmill. Joint pain aside, it doesn't seem that terrible. Now, I definitely prefer running outside but the entertainment presented to me by looking down over a gym full of people trying in vain to keep New Years resolutions is just too good. I'm also entertained by the big men whose biceps are so big they can barely put their hands down at their sides. I also watch the people who have no idea what they're doing on a weight machine, although I tend to take pity on them and it takes great will power for me to not stop what I'm doing and tell them how to properly do an exercise. It would be nice since it would keep them from injury right?

The other reason I am somewhat of an oddity is that when running, even on a treadmill, I don't find a need for headphones and to listen to music. I find that more than anything, it really messes up my stride and my timing. Plus I am a sweat machine when I run. Even my ears get sweaty and it's uncomfortable to have anything in them when they're so...drippy... I like to listen to the rhythmic, "whoosh, whoosh, whoosh" of the treadmill next to me, and the guy on the bike behind me who sounds like he's doing a strenuous activity that is not riding a bike...I'll let you infer what you want from that. There's also the slight clang of weights and machines below me that adds to the symphony of the gym. I don't know why but I really like it. Without music, I find that I'm able to have great "me time" in my head. I think about lots of things and I even pump myself up a lot. During my run tonight I said to myself, "You can do it Whit. What are you made of?" and without thinking I answered, "Sugar and spice and everything nice. And a whole lot of muscle just for good measure." Then I realized how strange of an exchange that was inside my head, and got to thinking about why I would even think that to myself. Before I knew it, 2 minutes of my run were gone. Poof. I probably wouldn't have had those thoughts had I been listening to some bumpin' tunes, and those 2 minutes wouldn't have flown by.

All in all, today's 45 minute run was great. I went just over 4 miles. Quite slow but I'll take it for a Monday evening. I'm not ashamed to be pokey. After all, a wise reptile once told me, "Slow and steady wins the race."