Librarian of Doom's Staying Connected challenge

[coonskee]

Wheeee congrats on the race! I'm sorry that the kids were an issue Also, I love what the Merrell Down and Dirty did - they started us off in waves according to speed, so there were only a few things I had to wait at, but not for long.

Also, AWESOME job on not walking until the 4k mark!!

[Chris-Tien Jinn]

Urgh. Up at 4:30 to workout! The things we do when employed with kids. GL at the conference!! Which one are you presenting at?

[cline]

Congrats on the race and the mud run!!!! Yea!!! Sorry family logistics were tough but you did it!

Proud of you!!! You must be soooo happy!!

[Seabright]

Oh, man! LOD...awesometown!! You are really so inspiring...cranky husband, cranky kids, little sister with a bum knee, and you STILL killed it. Whew!

Hang tough with the long-drive-followed-by-conference-presentation-followed-by-long-drive stuff coming up. Sensible snacks and lots of water with you in the car!

[Librarian of Doom]

Wheeee congrats on the race! I'm sorry that the kids were an issue Also, I love what the Merrell Down and Dirty did - they started us off in waves according to speed, so there were only a few things I had to wait at, but not for long.

Also, AWESOME job on not walking until the 4k mark!!

Thanks! Yeah, the Merrell sounds like it was better organized; this one was just willy-nilly. Still fun, though!

Urgh. Up at 4:30 to workout! The things we do when employed with kids. GL at the conference!! Which one are you presenting at?

Well, of course since I posted that it didn't happen, because they became insanely uncooperative at bedtime. Maybe next week. I was presenting at the Oklahoma Technology Association/Encyclomedia (library media) conference...details below

Congrats on the race and the mud run!!!! Yea!!! Sorry family logistics were tough but you did it!

Proud of you!!! You must be soooo happy!!

Thanks! I am very happy. I'd be even happier if I'd hit the sub-40 5k, but we can't have everything

Oh, man! LOD...awesometown!! You are really so inspiring...cranky husband, cranky kids, little sister with a bum knee, and you STILL killed it. Whew!

Hang tough with the long-drive-followed-by-conference-presentation-followed-by-long-drive stuff coming up. Sensible snacks and lots of water with you in the car!

Thanks! I did not prepare snacks in advance this trip, and it killed me. Must plan better next year.

Days 8-12 (10/1-10/5)

Monday: No CrossFit because Academic Meet. But 5th-7th beat the other school, and 8th tied them, so decent day. But then I had to go home and pack for conference. And the dress I wanted to wear was wrinkled, but we couldn't find the iron, because we never iron. We're just not ironing people. It hasn't been seen since we moved into the new house (in February). So I just threw up my hands and went to bed. (In the morning I threw the dress into the dryer and that smoothed it out enough, considering I'd be driving for 3 hours and then sitting at conference/lunch for 4 hours before my presentation).

Tuesday: Got up early. Finished packing. Drove 3 hours. Conference. Lunch was bacon cheeseburger (with pretzel bun; remarkably sweet) and sweet potato fries. And cheesecake. I had cheesecake. I regret...well, okay, I do regret it a bit. See Wednesday for details. Presentation went well; room filled up by 10 minutes before and people were not able to get in (one person said "and this is the only session all conference I really wanted to go to!") It was an insanely small room though; they scheduled another conference on top of ours, so things were a bit crammed, but logistically it seemed like they could have done better. I was presenting on the topic of maybe some libraries might want to use alternative organizational systems if that works better for them than Dewey Decimal System. I was not tarred, feathered, and run out of town on a rail, nor was I lynched, so I count it as a success. Also, at least two people told me that they enjoyed it/I did a good job, so that was nice. That evening I went to a reception for two authors at the downtown library (OMG, library envy. So bad). There was a chocolate fountain. I dipped: one apple slice, one gigantic strawberry, one cheesecake square, one giant marshmallow, one slice of pound cake, and one cream puff. I felt a little sick, not gonna lie. Also, free books!!! Late to bed. Very tired.

Wednesday: Slept poorly the night before on friend's thin, lumpy futon because we are broke, so no hotel. Not complaining; free place to stay is awesome. Had to pump a lot because K still nurses A LOT at night. Didn't have time for breakfast, and friends only had carby things for breakfast anyway (cereal, bagels). Stomach was a little queasy, probably because of all the sugar the night before. Graciously accepted the offer of an apple for later. Ate it on the car ride to the conference. Spent all morning queasy and light-headed due to low blood sugar. Must plan better next time. Not queasy or light-headed after lunch, but generally miserable (headache, etc.) A little afraid I caught virus from friend's husband, but didn't puke. Figured it's probably just a migraine; change in diet/lack of sleep triggered, probably. Skipped the last session and went home "early" (got home at about 6pm). Almost fell asleep on the road a couple times until I changed from NPR to music; thankfully open highway with no one around. A little scary.

Thursday: Home, sweet, home. Felt SOOOOOOOOOO much better after a good night's sleep in my own house and back to my healthy food. Lesson learned. Even the usual Thursday difficulties aren't so difficult. CrossFit!!! 5 penalty burpees for dropping the hot potato in the warmup, then 5-5-3-3 push press (PR at 70 - probably could have done 80-85, but the racks were being used and I can't quite clean 85 yet). Then 100 pushups and 25 rope get-ups for time, since I'm not up to rope climbs yet. Did the first 25 pushups on my knees with decent form, then the rest "cobra" style with my hips staying on the floor (mostly, they come up at the end). Time was 11:15ish (probably a couple seconds less). Went to buy long pants because all of mine were too big and it was supposed to be really cold Friday. Apparently I'm a size 18 now, for the first time since around my wedding in '03. Who knew?

Friday: Work, home. Big meat sale at the local grocery chain; since we're broke, went and stocked up on enough meat to see us through the next month or so. Meat!!!!!

No progress on goals this week, unless you count pushups (which I kinda do) Need to get busy, but this week was about survival.

[jimmie65]

No progress on goals this week, unless you count pushups (which I kinda do) Need to get busy, but this week was about survival.

You managed to stay fairly well on track with a busy, unusual week. That's progress. And congrats on the smaller size.

[EmCee]

I'm in agreement with Jimmie! Despite a lot of crazy, you managed to stay on track - cheesecake or no!

Talk about an inspiration - you are Superwoman!

[cline]

A meat sale, good conference, and new pants? The world, my dear, is yours this week!!!! Great progress.

Sounds like those push-ups are really coming along too! Hurrah!

[Chris-Tien Jinn]

Congrats on surviving and still being in the hunt!! I'm coming up on a couple of weeks like yours ... wish me luck!!

[Kuiken]

Surviving can still be an accomplishment!

I also had a conference this week and caved to the dark chocolate mousse cake with ice cream (regretted it when I crashed in the afternoon session, but at the time it was totally worth it!). Cheats like that remind me not to cheat in the future (in theory anyway)

And super congrats fitting into a smaller size!! All that hard work is paying off

[coonskee]

I think you did amazingly!!

And I maintain that conferences are the work of the devil in terms of food

[cacklesmadly]

Apparently I'm a size 18 now, for the first time since around my wedding in '03.

Need to get busy, but this week was about survival.

So Freakin awesome LoD. Loose pants are great reason to buy more clothes; Also the mind blowing awesome of being back to pre-kid sizes. Or really best shape of your life! Survival of the Fittest (you). Great job, Keep it up.

[Seabright]

Just chiming in with others to say AWESOME! So very proud of you!!

[Chris-Tien Jinn]

And I maintain that conferences are the work of the devil in terms of food

Absolutely!

[Librarian of Doom]

You managed to stay fairly well on track with a busy, unusual week. That's progress. And congrats on the smaller size.

I'm in agreement with Jimmie! Despite a lot of crazy, you managed to stay on track - cheesecake or no!

Talk about an inspiration - you are Superwoman!

A meat sale, good conference, and new pants? The world, my dear, is yours this week!!!! Great progress.

Sounds like those push-ups are really coming along too! Hurrah!

Thanks!!!

Congrats on surviving and still being in the hunt!! I'm coming up on a couple of weeks like yours ... wish me luck!!

Good luck!!!!!!!!

Surviving can still be an accomplishment!

I also had a conference this week and caved to the dark chocolate mousse cake with ice cream (regretted it when I crashed in the afternoon session, but at the time it was totally worth it!). Cheats like that remind me not to cheat in the future (in theory anyway)

And super congrats fitting into a smaller size!! All that hard work is paying off

Yeah, I have that theory, too. But the weight and size are still going down overall, so I'm not gonna beat myself up too much.

I think you did amazingly!!

And I maintain that conferences are the work of the devil in terms of food

They seriously, seriously are!!!

So Freakin awesome LoD. Loose pants are great reason to buy more clothes; Also the mind blowing awesome of being back to pre-kid sizes. Or really best shape of your life! Survival of the Fittest (you). Great job, Keep it up.

It really was a good reason; I just wish my wallet could stretch to more than one pair of new pants right now. But given that the 18s are a bit loose (just not quite enough to go down to a 16) it's probably just as well; I'll probably need to buy more soon anyway.

Just chiming in with others to say AWESOME! So very proud of you!!

Thanks, Seabright!!!

Days 13-16 (10/6-10/9):

Saturday: Big cookup and relaxing with the family. Actually managed to get the girls' summer clothes put away, minus a few in case of warm days, and get out the winter clothes. This is astounding, because C and K played around me but did not make giant messes of the piles until they were put away!!! Felt very productive.

Sunday: Took the girls to Mom's house, and got a few things altered to fit me, including my favorite black top and my Serenity t-shirt. Pants are a lost cause, as they are too big to fit right, even if taken in. Gee, darn. Got on the scale and weight is now about 217ish, so headed back downward! Lowest weight since I was trying and failing to lose weight for my wedding through Weight Watchers and death by cardio. (I got down to 211 for like one day then, then promptly headed back up). And I'm in lots better shape, now, too

Monday: Academic meet in the evening, but got done in time to actually hit CrossFit!!! Did a 1-1-1-1-1-1-1 of sumo deadlifts. Got up to 155 which was a PR on any kind of deadlifts. I probably could've pushed it a bit further, but with a new technique, I was a little leery of hurting myself. *

Tuesday: No CrossFit: K was nursing furiously and really clingy, so I stayed home. Homemade guacamole, Castle, and then a bath and early bedtime for the girls.

Need to start getting some yoga in at least 3x per week so I can work up to my shoulder stand. I'm going to start doing either incline or kneeling pushups 3x per week too. Starting today (Wednesday). Will report back!!!

[EmCee]

Oh, man... I do NOT miss nursing! I was running a 5K once while pushing E in a jogging stroller and she started crying and wouldn't stop (I nursed her just before - I assumed she'd sleep through the race) so I had to stop, on the road in the middle of the course, and nurse her on the street LOL.

You're doing great so far I'm so glad to hear that you're on track and you're pants don't fit - best feeling when it's because they're too big

[cline]

Sunday clothes = WIN WIN WIN!!!! That's so awesome. I'm glad your clothes don't fit! Well done.

Really. That's such an awesome thing to experience.

[Kuiken]

Dang-a deadlift PR and having lost so much that you can't even get pants altered? You are seriously impressing me!

I have no doubts that a shoulder stand is coming up for you in the near future!

[Librarian of Doom]

Oh, man... I do NOT miss nursing! I was running a 5K once while pushing E in a jogging stroller and she started crying and wouldn't stop (I nursed her just before - I assumed she'd sleep through the race) so I had to stop, on the road in the middle of the course, and nurse her on the street LOL.

You're doing great so far I'm so glad to hear that you're on track and you're pants don't fit - best feeling when it's because they're too big

Wow; I've had some nursing emergencies, but I think you win Thanks for the encouragement, and yeah, the pants too big thing is a great feeling.

Sunday clothes = WIN WIN WIN!!!! That's so awesome. I'm glad your clothes don't fit! Well done.

Really. That's such an awesome thing to experience.

It really is. And this is the first time in my life I've experienced it (at least, them not fitting because they're too small), so I'm really relishing it.

Dang-a deadlift PR and having lost so much that you can't even get pants altered? You are seriously impressing me!

I have no doubts that a shoulder stand is coming up for you in the near future!

Thanks!!! I sure hope the shoulder stand is coming!

Day 17 (10/10/12)

Wednesday was a little crazy work-wise; not because of classes, but because I had an online meeting to set up times for academic meets. But we have a lot of basketball games scheduled, and one of my 8th graders plays basketball. So juggling. And the school is broke, so for the second year in a row, it looks like no money for library books again. Or at least not now. So I'm gonna get to dip into my money I was painstakingly raising, one dollar at a time from selling lollipops, which I was hoping to use to buy shelves that are a)not a fire hazard from being too close to the ceiling, and not so tall that literally 2/3 of the students can't reach the top shelf. And instead I'm going to use it to buy books that the school is, under the law, supposed to be buying so that maybe, just maybe, our kids will actually read a book or two during the school year.

Wow, that was a bit more bitter and venty than I expected before I started typing. Anyway.

Got to go to CrossFit! We did Annie. It was brutal. Our coach decided that some people (not me, I swear; I've only been there for a couple months) have been slacking off on double-under practice, so from now on, instead of doing singles in 2x the amount of double-unders, those of us who do singles will do 3x, then next time 4x, and so on, capped at 1000 reps in a set. And I quote, "I guarantee you, after doing 1000 singles, they will be sitting on the side, sucking wind, googling 'CrossFit speed rope'"

So yeah. But he capped it at 15:00, and he took pity on me because a) I'm not one of the people who've been slacking off, and he could see that I was working as hard as I could. My workout looked like this:

150 singles

50 situps

120 singles

25 situps, 15 leg braces

30 singles

30 leg braces

20 singles

20 leg braces

10 singles

10 leg braces

15:26 (he let me finish since I was close)

My abs were WRECKED. I'm not looking forward to the DOMS.

On the working toward goals end of things, I did yoga stretching before the WOD yesterday (Wed.). Did pushups this morning. Going to add a tracker to my posts even though this is an ungraded goal sort of thing.

Life goal front: We have a bedtime routine! It may need tweaking, but last night was a little better than usual. Now I just need to work on that chore chart!!!

Yoga 3x week working toward shoulder stand : 1/12

Incline/kneeling pushups working toward REAL pushups: 1/12

[Seabright]

Crossfit! Book-library rant! Push-ups progress! Yoga! Stretching! Bed-time routine! And, chore chart on the horizon!

YAYEEEEEE! So much great stuff here, LoD. Again and again - you are such an inspiration to me.

Hey, been thinking about you today. Saw a good job for me in...wait for it...Oklahoma City. The one that's in the state of Oklahoma. Trulia'd houses for sale in the area and it looks like we could afford to live there and everything. I'm going to customize the ol' res and apply for it.

I know you are WAY east of OKC, but wouldn't it be cool if we were in the same state? We could be same-state buddies! :-)

[Zatchmo]

Wow, you're insane with your dedication! You can be part of my imaginary "lifting intervention" I'd like to have for my wife. It's imaginary because I would like to leave my head where it is.

[Librarian of Doom]

Crossfit! Book-library rant! Push-ups progress! Yoga! Stretching! Bed-time routine! And, chore chart on the horizon!

YAYEEEEEE! So much great stuff here, LoD. Again and again - you are such an inspiration to me.

Hey, been thinking about you today. Saw a good job for me in...wait for it...Oklahoma City. The one that's in the state of Oklahoma. Trulia'd houses for sale in the area and it looks like we could afford to live there and everything. I'm going to customize the ol' res and apply for it.

I know you are WAY east of OKC, but wouldn't it be cool if we were in the same state? We could be same-state buddies! :-)

Squeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!! That would be so awesome!!! We could have semi-regular meetups, and I could see you when I come up to OKC for conferences!!! Okay, I can't get too excited about this, but that would be AH-wait for it-mazing!!!

Wow, you're insane with your dedication! You can be part of my imaginary "lifting intervention" I'd like to have for my wife. It's imaginary because I would like to leave my head where it is.

I giggled when I read that. You are a wise, wise man.

Days 18-19 (10/11-10/12/12)

Thursday: Bit of a lazy day in terms of fitness. A friend was in town for a family funeral and we thought maybe we'd get a chance to get together, but no such luck. I was out of sorts because Thursdays are horrendous in terms of my schedule and the classes that I see (27 5th graders in a class, right after they've been to band, for the last hour of the day. It's the cherry on top of my sundae of crazy that is Thursday). Probably should've gone to CrossFit, but I didn't. Will do better next time. I did do my pushups; I've found that no matter what else I can do incline pushups on the side of the tub as the water is warming up for my morning shower. Skipped some parts of the bedtime routine and paid the price. Must not do that again.

Friday: Incline pushups while waiting to shower, yoga at CF. Got a bit of a breather in terms of work schedule. Went and registered to vote in my current county (last day to do so - whew!). I thought it would be crazy busy, but not really. Went home, nursed K, and went to CrossFit. And there the day took a turn for the purely awesome.

We did "Karen," but as a team WOD. So we were in teams of 5 or 6, and each team had to do 100 wallballs x the number of people on the team. So my team had 6 people, we had to do 600 reps total, but we did them in sets of 5, so we never had time to get exhausted, and we could keep going fast.

It was scored on the average time per 100 reps. I did have a tiny gripe with how they did the math. Okay, so it was a big gripe. They were treating the times as though they were decimal numbers; for example, my team of 6 finished in 21:04. So they divided 21.04 by 6, and said our time was 3:50. Which is not right, it was actually a smidge under 3:31. But I couldn't explain it adequately to the coach, he tried to tell me "It's all zeroes". But at least everyone's time was wrong the same way. I guess.

Still an awesome WOD, though. *!*% treadmills, give me this kind of cardio any day. Came home, wrapped chicken in bacon, baked, and ate. (results were decent, but I think I know how to make it awesome next time) And then I had some of the key lime pie my sister A brought us when she came over to spend the night. Now nursing K to sleep. Ready for an awesome weekend and a short week with fall break next week!!!!! And then week after next, my CrossFit box is going to start offering yoga every Friday!!! Two of my most favoritest things, together!!!

ETA: Pic from last night's WOD. I'm the one in the blue shirt.

Yoga 3x week working toward shoulder stand : 2/12

Incline/kneeling pushups working toward REAL pushups: 2/12

[Kinder]

Glad you got the bedtime routine worked out, and definitely NO skipping parts of it.

[cline]

Yea!!! I would argue the math too. I'll bet the jazzed up 5th graders wild get it! ;-)

Sounds like your week was pretty good!!!

I would love yoga with cf

[Librarian of Doom]

Glad you got the bedtime routine worked out, and definitely NO skipping parts of it.

Very much not!!! Last night was much smoother; I think we could still tweak it, but it's much better.

Yea!!! I would argue the math too. I'll bet the jazzed up 5th graders wild get it! ;-)

Sounds like your week was pretty good!!!

I would love yoga with cf

Glad I'm not the only one who sees the issue with that math. It was a pretty good week overall. Capped by the fact that:

I just got my shoulder-stand!!!!!!!!!!

Got up this morning, used the foam roller, and did some yoga with A, since she was visiting. Afterward, decided to try the shoulder-stand, and I did it!!! Was still a little braced with my elbows, but w00t!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A took some pics on her cell phone; will post them later!!