That's how much money I've raised so far for Run to Stop MS. It's pretty awesome. I still have some little events planned and haven't even sent out letters/emails to family and friends asking for money. That's all from posting on Facebook, baby! It's still a far cry away from the $1000 I'm required to raise, not to mention the $2000 I'd like to raise. If you'd like to help me get to my goal, you can click on this link to do so.
The MS Society uses the money collected in so many different ways. Research, financial assistance and programs for people with MS as well as their families. My favorite program has become MS Youth Camp. It's a week-long camp for kids who live with someone who has MS, usually a parent. I attended Youth Camp last year as a counselor, because we were short volunteers. The programs side of our organization is not my area, so this was pretty exciting. I loved camp as a kid so I was stoked when I got to go. Being there was fantastic. So fantastic, that I requested to go again this year. Luckily for me, the MS Society sees fit to allow people to help out across departments and I was approved to go back again in June. I'm really excited for the opportunity to return and spend time with the kids and form new bonds. I loved summer camp as a kid so it's pretty much the perfect setting for me. I'll be gone June 19-25 and simply cannot wait.
In training news, I haven't had much to share, thus my posting hiatus. It's not that I haven't been doing any training but the workouts have all been fairly similar and boring. Winter decided to return after a couple of weeks of teasing with warm weather. That means I was back inside on the treadmill. Funny how I didn't used to mind it all that much until I ran outside in nice weather. Now it's pretty dull. But, I can still make it on there for a pretty good chunk of time without completely losing it.
Last Saturday I did a 45 minute run. During the week it's usually only about 30 minutes because we're lifting too. I thought I'd try listening to music again. Bad choice. I spent so much time fiddling with the earphones, I just got really annoyed. Today I ran for an hour (6 miles total) and didn't have the music on. It was much more enjoyable. I just listened to myself in my head. I tend to space out and think about all sorts of things. I get caught up in everything going on around me too. The gym is an interesting place to observe human social behavior. I've also noticed that I have a really big urge to encourage the people on the treadmills next to me. Weird, I know. But, people are really putting in effort for some sort of goal, and I feel like they should be given a pat on the back. I've never actually spoken a word to anyone but I really have to fight the urge to. Maybe some day I will. For now I just try to encourage Jill when we're together. This past week, Jill and I did a pretty intense workout of biceps, back, and abs. We were doing 1-minute planks and Jill was struggling a bit. Her arms were shaking, no doubt due to the brutal curls and lifts that I'd just put her through. So I made it a point to keep her going, although her shaking made me tired just to watch. But, I'm very proud of her because she made it through three 1-minute planks and didn't break once! Go Jill!
Today I took time to be at the gym alone. I went around 10:30 a.m. and easily found a treadmill. That's pretty common for a Saturday. Not as many people are motivated on the weekends. My plan was to run for an hour and I was really hoping to keep up an average 10 minute mile speed, to put me at 6 miles. I did. Now, it's easy for me to run under a 10 minute mile speed when I'm only running for a half hour, but an hour is a different story. It gets trickier but I'd really like to keep a 10 minute average for the marathon. This will put me in about the middle of the pack. I think it's totally achievable. If I think I can, I will.
Now, I'm working on replenishing my calories. That's definitely the fun part. I went to Annie's Parlor for lunch with some people I haven't seen in a while. Yay for a bacon cheeseburger and hand cut french fries. I just took a pan of brownies out of the oven. Yes I made them out of a box but, no judgement. I think box brownies taste awesome. They're for Jill who had a rough day yesterday because of some car trouble. Something tells me that she'll enjoy them tonight with the wine and cheese girl time we'll be having.
I am now off to work at the Division III Men's Hockey Championships being played at the U of M. Hopefully it's not a long shift because I really want to dig into those brownies and have a glass of wine. Hopefully I don't have so much that it impedes with my bike workout scheduled for tomorrow.
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Monday, March 7, 2011
When all else fails, go with food
I don't really have much to write about today. Had a short little 3-mile run. I ran at a pretty good clip. About .5 to 1 mph faster than usual. Not too exciting though. Back on the treadmill. I guess the most exciting thing about the run is that I had no knee pain despite the increase in speed. That's a plus!
I usually don't blog about food because, well, that's not the topic of this blog and if I blogged about every good meal I made, I'd feel like a big fat fatty because I kind of pride myself in what I believe to be above average cooking skills. Plus, people would get sick of seeing what I make because I never really cook with a recipe and thus could not share how I make things. But, behold my masterpiece for dinner last night!
Yep, that's right. It's a Chicago-style deep dish pizza. I made the sauce from scratch as well as the dough. The sauce was pretty standard with crushed tomatoes, garlic, fresh basil, oregano, sugar, salt and pepper. Don't ask me how much of each. I know I put in one 29 oz can of tomatoes and 1 clove of garlic. That's it. The dough was the real accomplishment. As you may know, I don't really like to bake. It's tedious and messy. But, making this dough was different. 1. It was easy. 2. Dough needs to be kneaded so that was fun. 3. I actually followed a recipe. Winging a dough didn't seem like a good idea. I will be making dough from scratch again. Next time I have to remember to save my scraps to make into breadsticks. I threw away the scraps before I realized that would be a good idea.
For the stuffing I chose Italian sausage, pepperoni, mushrooms and black olives along with both provolone and mozzarella cheese. There are so many other things that would taste so good in here that I can't wait to make it again. I realize I probably should though because it can't be too healthy.
To top it off, I made Rice Krispie bars. I don't consider that to be baking at all. Melting and mixing and pressing, yes. I don't have a picture of those because really, who hasn't seen a Rice Krispie bar?
Feel free to be jealous of my pizza. I know I am and there's leftover in my fridge! I think this is very good fuel for running don't you think?
I usually don't blog about food because, well, that's not the topic of this blog and if I blogged about every good meal I made, I'd feel like a big fat fatty because I kind of pride myself in what I believe to be above average cooking skills. Plus, people would get sick of seeing what I make because I never really cook with a recipe and thus could not share how I make things. But, behold my masterpiece for dinner last night!
Yep, that's right. It's a Chicago-style deep dish pizza. I made the sauce from scratch as well as the dough. The sauce was pretty standard with crushed tomatoes, garlic, fresh basil, oregano, sugar, salt and pepper. Don't ask me how much of each. I know I put in one 29 oz can of tomatoes and 1 clove of garlic. That's it. The dough was the real accomplishment. As you may know, I don't really like to bake. It's tedious and messy. But, making this dough was different. 1. It was easy. 2. Dough needs to be kneaded so that was fun. 3. I actually followed a recipe. Winging a dough didn't seem like a good idea. I will be making dough from scratch again. Next time I have to remember to save my scraps to make into breadsticks. I threw away the scraps before I realized that would be a good idea.
For the stuffing I chose Italian sausage, pepperoni, mushrooms and black olives along with both provolone and mozzarella cheese. There are so many other things that would taste so good in here that I can't wait to make it again. I realize I probably should though because it can't be too healthy.
To top it off, I made Rice Krispie bars. I don't consider that to be baking at all. Melting and mixing and pressing, yes. I don't have a picture of those because really, who hasn't seen a Rice Krispie bar?
Feel free to be jealous of my pizza. I know I am and there's leftover in my fridge! I think this is very good fuel for running don't you think?
Friday, March 4, 2011
Time to Undo My Recent Neglect
I've neglected a lot of things lately. Mostly because I most certainly did not neglect work, particularly my part time gig with the Gophers. Today is the first Friday since I can remember that I didn't work a shift at the U immediately after finishing up at my real full time job at the MS Society.
Not too long ago (though it seems like ages) I was able to exercise outdoors. This was particularly thrilling because right now I'm watching a weather report about getting another snow storm next week. We're now on to the sports report and the Gophs beat Bemidji State in hockey tonight so woo hoo! Gopher hockey is one of the very few things I enjoy about winter...Anywho...
I ran about 7 miles outside the day before which I wrote about in my last blog. I also did an outdoor walk with Jill that week. I was rear ended (in our new car of course) on Valentine's Day so taking care of that junk got in the way of any more workouts that week. Hmph. I am happy to report that the other dude's insurance is taking care of everything. Which is good because it was definitely his fault. He was rushing to a meeting and came up behind me too quickly, especially considering there was a light sheet of ice in the turn lane we were in. He also was ballsy enough to leave the scene after giving me his information because he had to give a presentation at 8 a.m. It was just after 8 when he hit me so he was already late. We've gotten everything worked out now and will be taking my car in to be repaired on Monday. We couldn't get it in until then because all of this terrible weather has meant pretty good business for local body shops.
This leads me to last week, where I also neglected my workouts. I got sick last week and I always like to allow proper time to heal before getting back at it. Considering I stayed home from work a couple of days, I figured I probably shouldn't head to the gym. Plus, I spoiled myself with the outdoor workouts so the thought of getting back inside the gym is pretty sour.
But, this week I got in a couple of days of lifting with Jill. Mondays are always busy at the gym and this past Monday happened to be the last day of the month and that means people pack the place trying to get their last time in for the month in order to get health insurance benefits. Needless to say Jill and I just forgot it and moved on to Tuesday and Thursday. We worked on triceps, chest and shoulders on Tuesday and biceps and back on Thursday. I plan to get in there tomorrow for a run.
This weekend I'm totally on my own. Erich is in Washington D.C. for the bachelor party of his friend Eric. He left last night. Since Erich started the weekend early, I decided to as well. I went out to show with my coworkers, Allison and Lisa. Allison's husband is in the band and they put on a great show. When Lisa dropped me off it was 2:30 a.m. I haven't stayed out that late on a week night in a long time. It was really fun! Today at work wasn't much fun. Allison and Lisa had the day off so it was really quiet. I was quite happy when 4:30 rolled around and I got out of there. I came home and took a nap! I would definitely do it again though. Tomorrow morning I'm going to head to the gym (whenever I wake up) and get some stuff done around the house. Then I have my only shift at the U for the weekend at 5:30. After, it's fiesta time with Jenna! I have a buy one, get one coupon for Chipotle and we're also having margaritas. I'm pretty pumped for some girl time hang out.
This post was kind of all over the place so I apologize. I've had a request to do a post on stretching so I'll get to that soon. I just need someone to take pictures. Thus ends my recent neglect of this blog.
Not too long ago (though it seems like ages) I was able to exercise outdoors. This was particularly thrilling because right now I'm watching a weather report about getting another snow storm next week. We're now on to the sports report and the Gophs beat Bemidji State in hockey tonight so woo hoo! Gopher hockey is one of the very few things I enjoy about winter...Anywho...
I ran about 7 miles outside the day before which I wrote about in my last blog. I also did an outdoor walk with Jill that week. I was rear ended (in our new car of course) on Valentine's Day so taking care of that junk got in the way of any more workouts that week. Hmph. I am happy to report that the other dude's insurance is taking care of everything. Which is good because it was definitely his fault. He was rushing to a meeting and came up behind me too quickly, especially considering there was a light sheet of ice in the turn lane we were in. He also was ballsy enough to leave the scene after giving me his information because he had to give a presentation at 8 a.m. It was just after 8 when he hit me so he was already late. We've gotten everything worked out now and will be taking my car in to be repaired on Monday. We couldn't get it in until then because all of this terrible weather has meant pretty good business for local body shops.
This leads me to last week, where I also neglected my workouts. I got sick last week and I always like to allow proper time to heal before getting back at it. Considering I stayed home from work a couple of days, I figured I probably shouldn't head to the gym. Plus, I spoiled myself with the outdoor workouts so the thought of getting back inside the gym is pretty sour.
But, this week I got in a couple of days of lifting with Jill. Mondays are always busy at the gym and this past Monday happened to be the last day of the month and that means people pack the place trying to get their last time in for the month in order to get health insurance benefits. Needless to say Jill and I just forgot it and moved on to Tuesday and Thursday. We worked on triceps, chest and shoulders on Tuesday and biceps and back on Thursday. I plan to get in there tomorrow for a run.
This weekend I'm totally on my own. Erich is in Washington D.C. for the bachelor party of his friend Eric. He left last night. Since Erich started the weekend early, I decided to as well. I went out to show with my coworkers, Allison and Lisa. Allison's husband is in the band and they put on a great show. When Lisa dropped me off it was 2:30 a.m. I haven't stayed out that late on a week night in a long time. It was really fun! Today at work wasn't much fun. Allison and Lisa had the day off so it was really quiet. I was quite happy when 4:30 rolled around and I got out of there. I came home and took a nap! I would definitely do it again though. Tomorrow morning I'm going to head to the gym (whenever I wake up) and get some stuff done around the house. Then I have my only shift at the U for the weekend at 5:30. After, it's fiesta time with Jenna! I have a buy one, get one coupon for Chipotle and we're also having margaritas. I'm pretty pumped for some girl time hang out.
This post was kind of all over the place so I apologize. I've had a request to do a post on stretching so I'll get to that soon. I just need someone to take pictures. Thus ends my recent neglect of this blog.
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
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.
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!
Saturday, February 12, 2011
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!
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!
Friday, January 28, 2011
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!
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.
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!
Monday, January 24, 2011
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? :)
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? :)
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