To stop doubting oneself

I did go swimming on Monday night. Swam for 40 laps actually. 4 sets of 10. That's right, 10 in a row! Without stopping!

First set was just the normal stroke, nothing too special. Did my breathing through the strokes until laps 8, 9 & 10 when I had to not put my head under water anymore because I was just taking too short of breaths.

Second set was using a float board and on my back where I just kicked for 10 laps. those really shook up my legs a bit!

Third set was another 10 laps using the normal stroke again. I was dying early on but still managed to get my 10 out of it!

Fourth set was again on the board but this time, I had the board out front of me and I was still kicking. I was also practicing blowing out of my nose for when I learn how to do the turns. When swimming, I blow out of my mouth, but in the turns you should do it out of your nose so that water doesn't go up it and you get that terrible headache at the base of your skull. Know what I'm talking about?

Was gonna run afterwards but I just couldn't get my legs to stop wobbling after all that so I decided to call it off. In the locker room, I had a woman ask me if I was alright. I looked at her and she pointed to my right thigh. I have 2 noticeable deep colour bruises, just inside and another on the outside a bit higher. I know where one came from, I opened my car door into my leg but I don't know how the other happened. That was interesting. I didn't know if I should be thankful she asked or weirded out cause she asked.

OK, so I said that I wasn't a trail runner after my first trail run was a total bust. Well, the next time, I kicked it's butt. Then I said I wasn't a swimmer after my 2nd time attempting was not as great as I had hoped. But then I go and push myself and managed to do 10 laps in a row! So maybe instead of giving up so awfully fast on myself, I'll just keep pushing myself to get better. I mean, that's what I'm doing anyway, otherwise I wouldn't have tried again in either case and found out that I can complete what I once thought was not possible.

Speaking of trail running, I did receive my trail shoes last night. I read the reviews and a few said to order them smaller. So instead of my normal size 11, I got a 10 and I tried them on, they feel fine. I haven't ran in them of course so I hope they fit right in the heel and not too big. We'll see next year I'm guessing.

Tonight I'm actually thinking I'm not going to run. Got grocery shopping to do. But I will do my sit-ups and push-ups. I don't think I've mentioned on here that I'm taking on the 100 push-up challenge and the 200 sit-up challenge. I've downloaded the apps on my iPod touch and use them to keep track and follow the 3 day a week routine. It seems that I'm getting pretty good at the push-ups (girl version of course). I can now do 12 in a row easy (where when I started I was at 2) and I even have a little bit of a tricep, when I flex that is. I'm actually up to 80 push-ups in 5 sets. Pretty damn impressive considering how bad my left wrist is. Can't put that much pressure on it cause I have a cyst. Also, my right shoulder pops sometimes when I go down. That's not a pleasant feeling. Later on tonight, I might even do the Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred as well. Gotta get some sweat in!

Tomorrow evening is climbing again!! Half price Thursdays!

Categories: shoes, swimming, trail running

Taper begins

This tree seems to think it's Autumn already.

I am very angry at my shoes. The only reason why 15 miles took me so slow & I had to walk so many times is because the bottom of my feet were burning. They were rubbing in not a good way. I have developed blisters on my feet that I have never gotten before wearing any other brand of shoe! Even the previous model of the same shoe before this one. I am sooo not happy. I'm wondering if my shoes are in fact NOT narrow like they should be. So I think what I'm going to do is go back to my previous shoes and run in those from here on out during my taper. I only have 354 miles on them. They could potentially last me until approximately 450 miles. I have a few maintenance runs during the week, 12 miles and 8 miles for my long runs the next 2 Saturdays before Race Day on October 4.

So my run today was decent enough. Except as I mentioned by the end, I had to keep walking because my feet hurt. Not because I was tired or achy or sore but my feet were burning. When you're on your feet for this many hours, you need them to hold you up otherwise you will fail.

Wow, so I can't even talk anything about this run because all I can think about is my GD feet! I only wonder how things would have turned out if my feet were not bad. Would I have been able to keep up the pace??

I did get some of the typical aches and pains of taper paranoia. My left shin, left knee and right hip hurt. They went away. I started to have my doubts with even completely 11 more miles after this 15 miles. Would I be able to do it? What was I thinking? Why do I do this to myself? How can I even think of doing 2 more next year?

At 7 miles I stopped to have some Watermelon Sports Beans. At 14.5 miles, I filled up one of my water bottles at the spicket near the front of the condos. And then at 14.8 miles, I passed someone watering her plants so I yelled out I'll take some of that and she turned the nozzle toward me and I ran over to her and my front and my back got sprinkled on. Felt soooo good! I had goosebumps for the rest of the run!

Something interesting did happen at about 4.5 miles or so. I was coming up to a walker facing me with 2 dogs. Behind him was a woman on a bike coming towards him. I warned him of her behind him that way he could tie up his dogs and let her & I pass without bumping into each other or him. After she passed, I said to him, "They never tell you when they're coming up behind you." He just smiled and nodded. I then heard the woman on the bike say something but I still had my earbuds in and Steve Runner was still talking so I didn't know exactly what she said but it sounded like "I ___ told him I was behind him." Don't know if that was "did" or "would have" or what but I don't care. She was not happy and I'm not happy with bikers at all. She saw me again when I stopped for my jelly bellys and again she said something to me but I had my back to the bike path cause I wasn't sure of the way I was going to go after I ate them but I ignored her. No idea what she said this time around.

This week, I didn't want to run. I was apathetic about EVERYTHING it seemed. Work, waking up, eating, running. So not like me. I forced myself to run on Wednesday morning and I squeaked out 3.5 miles. Didn't even blog about it that's how apathetic I was even with that. I had cereal every night for dinner. Didn't feel like cooking and hadn't gone grocery shopping in a while. Apathetic about running. That is sooo not like me!! Luckily I think it was all hormonal for it seems the apathy is now gone but the cereal phase certainly is not! I'm addicted to the stuff it seems!

This song is gonna be my mantra; for more reasons than just running:

Activity Route: -- Elev. Avg: 857 ft Location: DeKalb, IL Elev. Gain: +7 ft Date: 09/12/09 Up/Downhill: [+538/-531] Time: 08:38 AM Difficulty: 3.5 / 5.0 Weather: Fair 73 F temp; 68% humidity 73 F heat index; winds NE 6 Performance Distance: 15.01 miles Time: 2:28:36 Speed: 6.1 mph Pace: 9' 54 /mi Calories: 1595 Map Elevation (ft) Pace (min/mile) Splits Mile Pace (min/mile) Speed (mph) Elevation Gain actual +/- avg actual +/- avg 1 9' 24 -0' 30 6.4 +0.3 +27 ft 2 9' 18 -0' 36 6.5 +0.4 -17 ft 3 9' 36 -0' 18 6.2 +0.2 -10 ft 4 9' 27 -0' 27 6.3 +0.3 +36 ft 5 9' 25 -0' 29 6.4 +0.3 -36 ft 6 9' 36 -0' 18 6.2 +0.2 -10 ft 7 10' 06 +0' 12 5.9 -0.1 +39 ft 8 9' 52 -0' 02 6.1 +0.0 -16 ft 9 9' 56 +0' 02 6.0 -0.0 +17 ft 10 9' 48 -0' 06 6.1 +0.1 -16 ft 11 10' 05 +0' 11 6.0 -0.1 +6 ft 12 10' 39 +0' 45 5.6 -0.4 +23 ft 13 10' 50 +0' 56 5.5 -0.5 -23 ft 14 10' 37 +0' 43 5.7 -0.4 +7 ft end 9' 59 +0' 05 6.0 -0.1 -13 ft Versus average of 9' 54 min/mile

Posted from bimactive.com

Categories: 15 miles, DeKalb Nature Trail, feet, shoes, taper

Getting over the sickness

After my not-so-great run on Saturday, I woke up Sunday and decided to go to the doctor. I officially have bronchitis and have a lot of drainage in the back of my throat. When I told him that I tried to run 14 miles but only got 8, he was impressed that I was able to get 8 at all.

He put my on a Z-pack which is a 5 day dose of antibiotic and then told me to pick up some Mucinex-D. Tomorrow will be my last day of the antibiotic but the decongestant is really not doing much for me anymore. Every time I swallow though, I can feel the icky stuff in the back of my throat and I try to get it out but alas it won't. 'm still coughing too but defnitely not as much and it's actually not really producing anything either.

I finally ran this morning. 3.35 miles at a 8:58 pace. Wouldn't even know I was sick. Except for the fact that I was coughing once I got back.

I think the faster pace came from my new kicks! I picked them up on Saturday and they fit me just fiiine!! My left foot/toes did go numb but I think that was because I tied the shoelaces too tight.

I think I'm gonna try to run again tomorrow morning and see how that goes. I need to get my mileage back up since I missed my run on Monday. Two 3 mile days in a row aren't gonna hurt anything anyway.

Activity Route: -- Elev. Avg: 861 ft Location: Sycamore, IL Elev. Gain: +0 ft Date: 08/05/09 Up/Downhill: [+104/-104] Time: 06:35 AM Difficulty: 1.8 / 5.0 Weather: Fog/Mist 58 F temp; 96% humidity 58 F heat index; winds N 5 Performance Distance: 3.35 miles Time: 0:30:01 Speed: 6.7 mph Pace: 8' 58 /mi Calories: 355 Map Pace (min/mile) Splits Mile Pace (min/mile) Speed (mph) Elevation Gain actual +/- avg actual +/- avg 1 8' 38 -0' 20 6.9 +0.2 +16 ft 2 9' 00 +0' 02 6.7 -0.0 +16 ft 3 9' 19 +0' 21 6.4 -0.3 -16 ft end 8' 59 +0' 01 6.7 -0.0 -16 ft Versus average of 8' 58 min/mile

Posted from bimactive.com

Categories: DeKalb Nature Trail, shoes, sick

Chest congestion

Not quite what I had hoped for today's run.

It's perfect weather, cloudy and cool considering that it's August 1. So because of that I slept in (cause I didn't have a good night, more on that later) and I got running about 8:40am but that was OK since it was still 65 when I started. Amazing. Well, as soon as I took off, my legs felt heavy and I knew this was going to be a tough run. I ran past the 1 mile marker and my Garmin said that it was 1.13. Whoa, that's way off. At 2 miles it said 2.15 miles. And it's always been on target before. So I stopped at that point and turned off the GPS and started it again. I figured that it just didn't get a good connection and I reset the timer and started again. This time it was a lot more "on" pace.

But I only was able to run 2 more miles up and I turned around and ran the 4 back. Well, kinda ran the 4 back. More like jogged it with a little bit of walking. I had debated going out for 3 more and 3 back to give me the 14 miles all together but there was no way possible. On my way back I was averaging a pace of 11 minutes a mile, which is SOOOO not like me.

Here's what I'm thinking. Somehow I got a chest cold/congestion. It's summer, I'm not supposed to get sick! So I've been coughing quite a bit since Thursday. Mucus and everything. I know, lovely right? Anyway, I coughed all night even though I took a decongestant and I have no idea what time but I eventually got up and took 2 swigs of cough syrup and was finally able to sleep. I woke up and got going but was still coughing. Still mucus too. I ran anyway. I feel fine physically like I have the energy just this damn cough. I didn't cough too much on the run but I did feel like I couldn't take that big of breaths which probably also didn't help with the run. At least I'm hoping that's part of it. I promised myself that after I pick up my shoes today that I'll try for another 6 miles tonight to get my 14 miles in total. We'll see if that happens.

The good news is that it got me to the pace of which I'm supposed to run my training miles in. Not faster pace that I've been doing. So far since I've been back I haven't coughed that much. And when I have, nothing has come up. I had thought about going down to the walk-in clinic today but decided to wait until tomorrow to see how another night goes and how I feel tomorrow. The funny part is my voice is about 2 octaves lower. So weird hearing myself. Doesn't sound like me at all!!

I remembered something that I wanted to share about Wednesday's run. I had a lady play chicken with me. I kid you not. I was on the right of the path, which is the way people drive in America and the way we walk on paths. So I'm just running along, and this Asian lady is walking towards me. On my side. With her dog. I'm waiting for her to move on over but she never does. I'm thinking, you wanna play chicken, fine we'll play chicken and I gear up for it. Finally as I'm getting closer to her, I point to the other side and tell her you're supposed to be on that side. And while she moves, she doesn't get over all the way just enough to let me pass on the CORRECT side of her. And then I look behind me, she's back on my side. WTF?! That pissed me off.

What reminded me of it is that it happened again today out on Great Western Trail only it happened with bikers. 3 wide were coming towards me and they never greatly moved over. One was in the middle of the lane. I've been passed by others that have moved over and gone single file which was nice of them to do. But not this group of 3 boys. Not happy about that.

Note: I stopped in the second mile of the 2nd part of my run for quite a bit at the turn around point which is why BiM is showing a 14 minute pace for that mile.

Also, my shoes have come in so I'm heading up to Rockford to pick them up! I'm excited since my current shoes have about 354 miles on them. Almost time to retire them to my everyday shoes. Must break the news ones in before my marathon in October.

Activity Route: -- Elev. Avg: 869 ft Location: Sycamore, IL Elev. Gain: +32 ft Date: 08/01/09 Up/Downhill: [+45/-13] Time: 08:40 AM Difficulty: 1.8 / 5.0 Weather: Partly Cloudy 65 F temp; 83% humidity 65 F heat index; winds SW 14 Performance Distance: 2.15 miles Time: 0:19:14 Speed: 6.7 mph Pace: 8' 57 /mi Heart Rate: 157 bpm (Avg) Calories: 226 185 bpm (Peak) Pace (min/mile) Heart Rate (bpm) Splits Mile Pace (min/mile) Speed (mph) Heart Rate Elev Gain actual +/- avg actual +/- avg 1 8' 09 -0' 48 7.4 +0.7 133 +23 ft 2 9' 33 +0' 36 6.3 -0.4 171 0 ft end 10' 00 +1' 03 6.0 -0.7 166 +9 ft Versus average of 8' 57 min/mile

Posted from bimactive.com

Activity Route: -- Elev. Avg: 876 ft Location: Sycamore, IL Elev. Gain: -29 ft Date: 08/01/09 Up/Downhill: [+75/-104] Time: 09:01 AM Difficulty: 2.2 / 5.0 Weather: Light Drizzle 64 F temp; 89% humidity 64 F heat index; winds SW 16 Performance Distance: 6.00 miles Time: 1:03:39 Speed: 5.7 mph Pace: 10' 37 /mi Heart Rate: 166 bpm (Avg) Calories: 648 185 bpm (Peak) Pace (min/mile) Heart Rate (bpm) Splits Mile Pace (min/mile) Speed (mph) Heart Rate Elev Gain actual +/- avg actual +/- avg 1 9' 53 -0' 44 6.1 +0.4 165 -10 ft 2 14' 33 +3' 56 4.1 -1.5 177 +13 ft 3 10' 27 -0' 10 5.7 +0.1 162 -13 ft 4 11' 24 +0' 47 5.3 -0.4 167 +10 ft 5 10' 58 +0' 21 5.5 -0.2 160 -7 ft 6 10' 28 -0' 09 5.7 +0.1 169 -23 ft Versus average of 10' 37 min/mile

Posted from bimactive.com

Categories: 8 miles, Great Western Trail, shoes, sick

TOMRV route

Here's the crazy ride I'm doing this weekend. I'm driving over tonight after work, setting up camp at the city park in Preston, IA and heading out tomorrow morning! About 69 miles on Saturday, 45 on Sunday. Should be good weather this year. Last year, it stormed bad on Sunday, didn't even ride! Might get storms on Friday night but that's why I have the tent!


View TOMRV in a larger map

I never did get new running shoes. The clerk called and even Nike didn't have my size (11.5 narrow) in stock for the Moto+ 6. So I'l have to get the 7's. Oh well. I guess my next paycheck will go to those. Hopefully there wasn't that much of a change between the 2 models.

Categories: shoes, TOMRV

Lakefront Marathon training

My training for Lakefront Marathon starts on 6/15. I can't believe that it's creeping up on me so soon!! I have also booked my hotel as well. There's a group from NITRO doing the race and they've all booked the same hotel so I just followed suit. Most of them are staying Saturday & Sunday night. I only booked for Saturday night. I just hope I can get a late enough checkout so I can shower afterwards. (Race starts at 8a so I'll be running to 12:30p) I might switch it up to another hotel closer downtown. But dealing with parking for 2700 runner's shouldn't be that bad right?

I think I'm going to follow Runner's World SmartCoach plan again. It seemed to work for me last time so I might as well give it another go. I gotta work up to 8 miles by June 21st. We'll see if that happen since this weekend I'll be in Iowa & northwestern Illinois for TOMRV. Won't be able to run but I think that biking for 69 miles on Saturday will count. My heart will be beating and legs will be pumping continuously... a lot more than if I was just running.

This week I have to start packing for it. As well as put on my bike rack to my car. Gotta bring my tent and air mattress and sleeping bag and of course all my biking stuff. Gotta adjust my clips on my shoes. So much to do, so little time.

Today I timed my run. I had to run to the post office immediately after work so I got home late but was still able to start my run by 4:58pm. 30 minutes of running and then a quick 10 minute (cool-temp!) shower. And I could have been ready by 6pm but that would be pushing it so 6:30pm is the best bet to set up a meeting. And normally every 2 weeks I have a non-profit board meeting to go to on Monday's and with getting out of work at my normal time of 4pm, I can get done (without a shower though) by 5:30p and that's with a stop at Jimmy John's for a quick sub that I eat while at the meeting. So it's nice to know that I can still have a evening to do something after a run and a shower!

Speaking of my run today, I also decided to take it easy today. I kept telling myself at the beginning to slow it down. I wish I would have worn my heart rate monitor today. It would have been interesting to see it. I'm sure it was pretty low. My breathing was very steady too. This is what happens when you go a normal pace and not overly stress yourself!!

Wednesday I have to skip my run though. I have to head up to Rockford to look at shoes and frames. Yes, yes, more frames. We'll get to that in a bit.
First the shoes: I have 273 miles on my current shoes (11.5 narrow width Nike Moto+ 6). So in another 75 miles (usually 300-400 miles), I'll have to get new ones. And that will be in the middle of my training. So I might as well look and buy a pair now to work them in. Now they have released a new version of the Moto+ and so the 6's are now on sale. But I've done a search on websites to see if I could buy a pair online but I'm not seeing that size option AT ALL. No surprise right? So I'm going to head to the local shoe store that I bought them from and see if they can still order them in that size. I'm hoping that it's going to be on sale there too. And I'm also hoping that they are not going to try to get me to buy the Moto+ 7 as I really don't want to buy new new shoes right now.

Frame: So I took the individual frames from my half marathon and 1st marathon and decided to join them together to make one big frame. I like the look of it better. I bought a 9x20 frame but unfortunately there is no way that I can squeeze 3 items into a 20". It was as shadow box too. I really wanted a 30" frame but can't find those yet. So then when a friend gave me his poster frame, I decided to cut it up and try to make it work. And work I did! But I also cut up my hands a bit. :-) And since my medal is hanging in it, it kinda sticks out a bit. But I'm going to head up to Hobby Lobby to see if they have a 30" frame that will work. I found a 36" frame but that's just too long, I didn't like it. So back to square one. If I don't find a 30" frame at Hobby Lobby then I'm going to take a Walmart Poster frame and cut it up like I did last time. Hopefully it won't look bad.



While there I'm also gonna hit up Old Chicago. Gotta man! I haven't eaten there in a long while!

Activity Route: -- Elev. Avg: 854 ft Location: DeKalb, IL Elev. Gain: +0 ft Date: 06/08/09 Up/Downhill: [+160/-160] Time: 04:57 PM Difficulty: 2.2 / 5.0 Weather: Partly Cloudy 76 F temp; 71% humidity 78 F heat index; winds W 16 G 23 Performance Distance: 3.16 miles Time: 0:29:19 Speed: 6.5 mph Pace: 9' 17 /mi Calories: 336 Map Elevation (ft) Pace (min/mile) Splits Mile Pace (min/mile) Speed (mph) Elevation Gain actual +/- avg actual +/- avg 1 9' 23 +0' 06 6.4 -0.1 +23 ft 2 9' 35 +0' 18 6.3 -0.2 -10 ft 3 8' 58 -0' 19 6.7 +0.2 -16 ft end 8' 27 -0' 50 7.1 +0.6 +3 ft Versus average of 9' 17 min/mile

Posted from bimactive.com

Categories: Lakefront Marathon, memorabilia, shoes, TOMRV

New kicks!

I got my new trainers tonight! And they fit B-E-A-UTIFULLY! WOW. I put them on and I could not get over how good they feel. Plenty of room.

Now they're unusual for me. They are size 11.5 and Narrow. I normally wear size 11, normal width in Ascis but I guess Nike is different. I was afraid with them being Narrow that I was gonna notice it and feel it but alas, I didn't! YAY! I didn't get on their treadmill but tomorrow I'm going to give them a spin. Best news is that since they're Nike's they have the Nike+ built right into it so I can slip my sensor right in the shoe! Not it really does any good, the calibration is off but once I can run outside again, I'll recalibrate it with my Garmin to match up. I own the Nike+, I might as well use it.

I need to get going on the long runs again. Soooo... I'm hoping to go to the Y tomorrow morning and get my run on. A long run on. I plan on going early and being honest with the people behind the desk in the workout room. That I would like to get at least 6 miles in. That's 1 hour of running. That's my goal but more would be best; maximum of 10. I will leave if I need to, as in if all the rest of the treadmills are full but otherwise I'll just stay until I get kicked off.


Anyway, after I got the shoes (which by the way were FREE!! thanks to a gift certificate from a raffle at a local race), I decided to run to Dick's Sporting Goods and buy new running clothes. I have decided that I needed new shorts mainly since the elastic in the liners of my current shorts are losing well, they elasticity. Not fun trying to not get a wedgie while you're running. All the clothes I bought were on Clearance. 2 Reebok shorts, a Nike Tempo short & a match shirt. I have the same Nike outfit but in pink and I like the feel & texture of them so much that I wanted them again. Wasn't that much of savings however. I plan on wearing the black shorts tomorrow to test them out.

But I'm excited about my run tomorrow. In fact, I think I'm gonna hit the bed now and read a little bit more of Once A Runner by John L. Parker and get up early for a long run on the treadmill. Windchill advisory tomorrow.

Categories: clothing, shoes

Motivation

I had planned on using my new shoes tonight for motivation to do my tempo run at the YMCA. Alas, that was NOT the case tonight.

No new shoes. :-(

I busted my ass to get up there before 5pm tonight. Walked in and a guy helped me. I told him I had a pair of shoes that were ordered. He took my name and pulled them out; Nike Moto+ 9. We sat down on the chairs for me to try them on. I even remembered my running socks today. But as soon I put on the first one, I was like holy cow, these are small! Put on the other one. Stood up and walked around and I looked at the shoe box. Sure enough, they were a size 11. I said "Are brands of shoes different sizes? Cause these are 11's but my feet are NOT comfortable in this." I walked over to him and he felt them and he said yea they are a little tight in the forefoot. I did the heel kick back. They were still pushing it and since feet tend to slide forward I knew that my feet were not going to stay in the back like that.

So we talked some more about shoes, different ones, etc. Had me try on my current shoe in my current size and said that I do have plenty of room in the toe box area with that brand (Asics 2130's). He said that he might be able to get a size 11.5 in the Moto+ 9 but he would go with a narrow shoe since I had some sliding room in the normal width and he didn't like seeing that.

Even though my gift certificate said that I had to get a pair of Nike's, since I was currently dealing with the owner (which I didn't know until he said so), he said that he wanted to see me with a shoe I liked and that worked for me, so he would work with his Nike Rep and he would give me the Asics instead of the Moto's.

But seriously, guys, the Moto's are amazing. Under the ball area they have a softer rubber which gives a lot more. Then also there is an air bag (Nike loves their air bags) under the ball area too. So even just standing and moving my foot left & right I could feel the softerness (is that a word?) of the shoe. The guy said that it probably doesn't absorb the shock any better. But I must admit, it sure did feel good. I ran on their treadmill so he could see my foot strike and it was different but different in that I could get used to it.

He gave me my choice of what to do. I said let's go ahead and order the 11.5 and see if they fit. My current Asics 2130's have a few miles left in them. If the Nike's don't work out then I can wear them until I really need another pair (definitely before the April marathon).

I did buy a pair of YakTrax! The Pro kind so they won't slip off my feet. That's something.

So now more waiting is to be had. I have to run tonight with no motivation to get me out there, into the cold and head to the Y for my tempo. There's a group running at 7 am on Saturday. If I can get up that early, that will motivate me but since they are not really *looking* for me going, my mind will say it's 6a, stay in bed where it's warm and they won't even know you're not there. This winter I am seriously lacking the motivation. No wonder why I didn't do a Spring marathon last year!

Categories: motivation, shoes

Corner Kick, Double Knee, Ham, Saddle Stride

Those are all terms I learned tonight in my Step & Strength class. There was a VERY HIGH learning curve for the step portion. Mainly cause the teacher would just launch right into the step and then I would stumble about and after watching her do it a few times, I could pick it up. Then she would start a new step. Luckily, I used to to the Belvidere YMCA with my mother in the late 80's and watch her do Step Aerobics so I kinda knew what to expect.

However, we started right into a warm-up and I immediately regretted attending. I wanted a workout buddy so bad at that point in time! So I could look at her for comfort or roll my eyes at her or laugh, something! I didn't move my arms as much as everyone else did cause I just felt silly. Our instructor had a bandanna wrapped around her forehead. I was waiting for Olivia Newton John to come out in a thong leotard with leg warmers.

We learned the easy basic stuff first and did a routine of that. Then after that routine all together, then we learned of other steps and put that into a routine and then we put those 2 routines together. Then we learned a few more steps and made a routine out of them. Added that to the other 2 routines. And finally did one more set of steps and a routine for a total of 4 routines all together. My head was spinning towards the end but I only missed out on a few steps mainly cause my mind wandered a bit thinking about other things.

I was the only one in the class in her 20's and probably near her 30's. I'm not kidding. The teacher herself was quite something else. She was in shape for her age, I'll give her that. She still had the "Mom" butt but her waist was kicking. And hell, she remembered all the moves. Doing this has got to help her memory (even though she had her set taped on the mirror).

Oh yea, that's right, the whole thing was in front of a mirror. However, I never glanced once in the mirror. I was watching the lady's feet the whole time. At the end of the step portion, she said that I caught on fast. It was OK, though a few of the steps I didn't quite get. Mainly those that straddled the step box.

I did have to admit that my right knee started to give me a little bit of pain. Which is why I didn't get the risers underneath the box itself. But not the normal under the knee thing, just the patella itself. I think it's still bruised from my time at the City Museum in St. Louis. I did notice that my forearms are still bruised and I do have one under my right knee.

We took 2 heart rate measures. Which is good since I was thinking during the first part, this is soooo NOT getting my heart rate up to where I want it to go. It's not like running where I have a constant high heart rate. At the first one, I had a heart rate of 144. Then the second time was 120 (which is weird since we were doing more complicated moves by that time). I did sweat a little but not drenching like a run would make me. I think that after the 15th, I'm gonna get me one of those Garmin Heart Rate Monitor thingies. I'll be interesting to see my heart rate even while running! I know when I'll have a horrible run because my heart rate will skyrocket even though I'll only go 3 miles or a TERRIFIC run cause I would have gone 10 miles and only crest 130 or so. I can feel it physically but I can't see it.

After the step portion was over, we took a mat and a stretch tube with handles and worked with that for a little bit on our legs and then we did sit-ups. Oh how I lurve sit-ups!!

I'll probably stick with it though. As much as I feel so totally silly, I have to remember that this still beats sitting at home and NOT doing anything. Plus, it's a "cross-training" day. Not a RUNNING day. I didn't stick around for the toning class at 6:15. I had a half hour to kill but my stomach was growling so I had to go home & eat.

I'm trying to decide what to do about tomorrow. I have a tempo run schedule which I can't wait to do. Been ages for one of those! However, I'm really looking forward to getting my new shoes. I have a $100 Nike shoe gift certificate for a local running store in Rockford. I have ordered the Nike Moto+. They supposedly have more cushioning which is what I hope I need. But the shoe store is only open until 5p so I have to kick some major butt to get up there on time immediately after work. I guess I could go up there, get my shoes and then take them out for a test run around 7p, hopefully when the Y will be less crowded. I think that's what I'll do! YAY!!

Categories: shoes, YMCA classes