Hurley can't think of a catchy title for this challenge

[Teros]

Spartan races scare me, so I'm sitting it out. Maybe next year. (and yes, the scone is too damn good!)

Spectator tickets are free(you do have to sign up though). No pressure- just saying.

[RedPandaOne]

Hmm, I'll look into it. I think my friend may be running it, so I could always just go and watch him.

 

I had to look up Farmers Walks. I had never heard of that exercise before. It does not look fun! Maybe a little, but very intimidating.

 

Week 2 Day 1

 

Got my 30 minutes of cardio in. Used my home treadmill and did the interval running again. I'm starting to not dislike it. Though I am ready to go back to the gym and do the intervals on the elliptical. But that's next week.

[TourdeForce]

apple-picking sounds like so much fun, and definitely counts as a workout! And I love the criteria for rewarding yourself, I'm going to do something similar as I also have a pair of too-tight jeans, so will base progress on that!

 

Good start to week 2! I find doing interval training cardio keeps me more focused, so feels less like mindless jogging forever. Whoop whoop!

[RedPandaOne]

Yea, I think that's why I'm not disliking it. I actually need to pay attention. Otherwise, I'm just walking at an incline for 45 minutes, and it's just boring.

[RedPandaOne]

I forgot to do my Week 1 recap! Here it is.

 

Main 3 goals:

Do cardio 3x a week - B

I only did it twice.

 

Strength train 1x week - C

While I am counting the apple picking as strength training, it wasn't the fully body routine that I was going to do

 

Swim 1x a week (with a 1 week exception) - F

Yea, this wasn't my one week exception. I just never went. My mom and I are a little behind on altering my new bathing suits so the straps don't slip off (I have this problem with dresses too, grr).

 

Mini goals:

Track food 5 days a week - nay

 

Practice Swedish 30 minutes a week - nej

 

I also have a new hurdle to overcome. We hired a new girl at work last week and she loves to bake. So far she has brought in lemon bread (omg, so good) and today she brought in a chocolate chip bunt cake thing. I'm going to need to learn better self control if she keeps this up.

[Teros]

I had to look up Farmers Walks. I had never heard of that exercise before. It does not look fun! Maybe a little, but very intimidating.

 

These are my sandbags (actually, they are unmixed dry concrete) and weigh 80 pounds each. I carry both of them. The general rule for farmer's walks is 50% of your bodyweight so I'm technically doing more than that. The worst part is the grip though; not the weight.  That's why I use workout gloves when I'm using these.

 

We hired a new girl at work last week and she loves to bake. So far she has brought in lemon bread (omg, so good) and today she brought in a chocolate chip bunt cake thing. I'm going to need to learn better self control if she keeps this up.

Ouch.  I will say that most things these days don't tempt me much; but I frigging love lemon/lime based things.

 

 

Btw, there's a whole frigging group heading to fenway that's NF-based. That why I've brought it up:

 

http://rebellion.nerdfitness.com/index.php?/topic/49578-fenway-spartan-sprint-111514/page-13#entry1194280

[RedPandaOne]

Yea, I would imagine the grip on those isn't that good. Before I saw the weight I thought they looked heavy, and at 80 pounds I was right! Kudos to you for being able to carry those.

 

Lemon flavored things are a downfall for me. I think it was in my first challenge where I fought the evil of lemon bars that my mom had made. Lemon bread, danish, muffins, love them all!

 

Hmm, I'm always willing to meet NF folks in person. I'll fully check out the thread and see how I'm feeling about going to the race.

 

No workout updates this morning. Had planned on doing my strength training, but I went to trivia last night and it got out late. I knew about half way through I wouldn't have the energy this morning to do it, so I changed my alarm in between questions. I was right. Slept right up until to the alarm and would have kept on sleeping. I was having a rather nice dream about Castle and a sexy cowboy. That sounds dirty, it wasn't. Castle wouldn't date me but the sexy cowboy was interested

[deftona]

I remember the lemon bar struggles from the previous challenge, I have never tried them but it made me really want them! And yay for sexy cowboys. Who could say no to a sexy cowboy?!?

[RedPandaOne]

I know I wouldn't say no to a sexy cowboy! Now I just need to find one in real life! But there aren't many in Massachusetts.

 

Week 2 Day 2

Did my intervals on the treadmill this morning. That was a struggle getting to that point. My bed was nice and comfortable and warm. And the boy cat and I had just all comfortable and cuddling under the blankets when the alarm went off. And it's chilly this morning. Perfect for just staying in bed. But I summoned the energy and got up.

 

I am remembering why I don't normally run. My bad knee is starting to swell and hurt a little. I tore my ACL about 11-12 years ago and I was a bad PT patient, never did my home exercises. It's coming back to haunt me now. On Monday I'm going to go back to the gym and do my intervals on the elliptical. My knees like the elliptical.

 

Got a bit of strength training in last night in the form of taking the cats to the vet for their check up. With both cats in the carrier it's 18.21 pounds (one weighs 9lbs 10 oz, the other 9lbs 11 oz). Not going to count it as anything official, though. I'll do the real strength training either Friday or Saturday.

 

Now off to get dressed for work and stop boy cat from pulling everything off my desk to get my attention right now...

[karinajean]

Oh man, I didn't realize you were a bio-ACL too!

Um, you can totally get that stability back and run if you want. Start with lots of leg lifts, seriously.

Sent from my iPhone while riding a unicorn through the cosmos.

[RedPandaOne]

Yup! Tore it slipping and falling on black ice. All 200+ pounds of me (at the time) landed right on my knee. Not fun.

 

I'm going to start the leg lifts. I'm really starting to like these running intervals. I think I now have a goal for my next challenge

[TourdeForce]

well done on getting up for running, even though bed was warm and snuggly!

You should be able to get the knee muscles and ligaments strong enough for running, as Karinajean says, just gotta do the exercises...yay next challenge! 

[RedPandaOne]

Will the exercises help with the scare tissue? I know one of the main reasons my knee bothers me so much is because of the scare tissue. About 7 years ago my knee really acted up. I couldn't bend it and then put pressure on it, if I did I was in extreme pain. Like, if I bent down to grab something from a bottom shelf or something, I couldn't just stand back up because of the pain. So I'd have to sit on my butt and then grab on to something and pull myself up while pushing up with just my other leg. Went on for about a week. When I finally got in to see my knee doctor he said it was because of the excess scare tissue.

 

Luckily it hasn't done that again, but it's been in the back of my mind since. And any pain I feel I've always just associated with it.

[RedPandaOne]

Well, today didn't go as planned. The plan had been:

 

Go to Kolhs, DSW and Hallmark.

Stop at ATM

Stop at Walgreens to get ticket for the Ren Faire tomorrow

Have lunch

Workout

Have dinner

Go back to house to cat sit

 

I was able to do the first three things on the list. I was on my way home to get lunch when it all fell apart. I made an unplanned stop at Starbucks to get a chai latte and a pumpkin scone because I decided to cave in and get a scone. Then I was going to have a small lunch, like cheese and crackers or something. So I stopped at Starbucks, got the latte but they were out of scones

 

Was driving through the shopping plaza after getting the latte and witnessed a car accident. The accident was bad enough that they needed two ambulances and the jaws of life to get a girl out of the hit car. So I stayed to try to help. Used my car as a road block and luckily I had a first aid kit in my trunk that some, what I think were, off duty ems used to help one girl as we waited for the ambulances to show. I then had to wait for the police to show so I could give my statement, and then after that my car was blocked in from the fire trucks, police cars, and ambulances. So I just sat on the grass and waited until the hit car got towed and all the emergency vehicles left. All in all, it was only half an hour but long enough that it messed with the rest of my day.

 

I learned about myself that I'm not totally useless in an accident, but not the most help. I stopped myself from getting in the middle of a potential fight, but knew I couldn't handle the one dude so I stayed by my car. So someone else dealt with that. And even though I had the first aid kit, I had no idea how to help that poor girl.

 

Once I got home I was lightheaded and shaky. The adrenaline was gone, and there was no shady place to sit so I sat in the sun for half an hour (it was 80 degrees today). I was getting dehydrated and hungry. It was quarter to 4, so I didn't want to have a regular size lunch since dinner was going to be in about 2 hours. So I had a hard boiled egg and some cheese and crackers. While it helped with the light headedness, it wasn't enough. So I just sat on the couch and watched Grey's Anatomy and an episode of Firefly. I just had dinner and some more water and I feel better but I don't trust my body enough to try to exercise.

 

I doubt I'll have the time and energy tomorrow to exercise either before or after the faire. I need to start packing up to bring my stuff home before, and tomorrow is suppose to be another 80 degree day so I'll be hot and tired by the time I get home. I'm going to end up with a less than stellar week. I'll turn it around on Monday.

[karinajean]

Oh honey, I'm sorry you had such a stressful day. It sounds like you were HUGE help. I'm glad for their sake you were able to be there.

Regarding the scar tissue - I'm not a doctor, but I'm under the impression that you can (super slowly) work scarring out. Like, my PT told me to massage my incisions to work on the scar tissue. It's worth a shot, anyway!

Sent from my iPhone while riding a unicorn through the cosmos.

[RedPandaOne]

Thanks girl. I read this last night and started to tear up. I guess it affected me a lot more than I thought. I had a headache pretty much all night but I'm feeling better this morning I'd actually love to find out how the girls are, but I don't even know their names, just the hospital they went to.

Oooo, I'm going to have to try massaging my scar/incision! Thanks for that tip. At this point, anything that may help I'm going to try. I'm getting tired of it slowing me down.

[karinajean]

Love. There's a huge adrenaline crash after being through something like this. I'm glad you're feeling better!

I've used regular lotion to rub my incision but everyone of course days vitamin e oil. And if you can't work it out it's worth seeing a doc it a PT so you can meet your lifestyle goals.

Sent from my iPhone while riding a unicorn through the cosmos.

[TourdeForce]

I'm sorry you had to go through that, but I think it's amazing you had a first-aid kit and were able to help out where you could. Hope you're feeling better today! Enjoy the ren faire!

[RedPandaOne]

Much love!!

 

I did enjoy the Ren Faire. Was hot as hell, though. The humidity is what really did us in. I was sweating in places I normally don't. I drank two bottles of water and a cup of pepsi (shame on me, but I had a ton of food tickets I needed to use, the faire had run out of water and the pepsi was cold). The first thing I did was shower as soon as I got home. I just couldn't stand myself. My fitbit said we walked 1.81 miles, but we also did a lot of standing. At least two shows we stood the entire the time.

 

And despite me going to bed at 11 last night, I got up at 6 and worked out. No gym, just home treadmill. My ipod died and I feel weird bringing my ipad to the gym. Don't need everyone to know that I watch Young Justice when I work out, lol. So:

 

Week 3 Day 1

Treadmill, speed intervals for 30 minutes.

[RedPandaOne]

Oh! Oh! Oh! I need to do my Week 2 Recap before I forget!

 

 

Main 3 goals:

Do cardio 3x a week - B

I only did it twice.

 

Strength train 1x week - F

Didn't even attempt. I had it planned for Saturday, but yea, that got shot to hell.

 

Swim 1x a week (with a 1 week exception) - n/a

My one week exception. No grade

 

Mini goals:

Track food 5 days a week - nay. I can track breakfast and lunch. But then dinner hits and I just don't track it.

 

Practice Swedish 30 minutes a week - nej

[RedPandaOne]

And I just noticed that I have a badge under my name and picture. I don't remember adding that myself. Cool beans

[karinajean]

So great that you had fun at the RENN faire AND you still got up to exercise!

Sent from my iPhone while riding a unicorn through the cosmos.

[RedPandaOne]

My late night Sunday and early morning yesterday caught up to me. Still not use to getting up early. My alarm went off at 6am to do my strength training. It interrupted a very nice dream about being in Paris and having Shawn or Aaron Ashmore being my archery teacher. Without hesitation I rolled over, turned off the alarm and then reset it for 7. I then fell back into a deep enough sleep to start dreaming again. If my hair appointment doesn't go too late, and if my brother and sister-in-law aren't here too much later after that, then I'll get the workout in before I shower. But last time they were over for dinner they stayed until 9pm, so not sure if that is going to happen.

 

And because I saw this on Sparkpeople this morning, I'm going to place a link here as a place holder. There was no "Save" button like they do for their recipes.

 

http://www.sparkpeople.com/blog/blog.asp?post=a_15minute_lowerbody_workout_for_bad_knees

[RedPandaOne]

Week 3 Day 2

 

Hit the gym this morning. Did the elliptical interval for 30 minutes. OMG I thought I was going to die. At one point I had to just rock back and forth. Hopefully Friday will be better.

 

Mom is finishing up adjusting the straps on my bathing suit today, so I should be all set to go swimming tomorrow - as long as I can drag myself out of bed and get to the gym by 6am. Ugh.

[RedPandaOne]

Week 3 Day 3

 

 

This is all I'm telling myself this morning.

 

I woke up and went swimming this morning. Man is my body sore. I was putting my shampoo in my hair afterwards and I could barley lift my arms! I'm glad I went to the class, though. The instructor had some tips that I either never did when I was younger or had forgotten in the 10-15 years since I've been. One thing I do need to work on is my breathing. I'm not doing it enough. I just kept on getting winded and had to stop. I also got a cramp in my calf towards the end when I had the fins on for the second time. I did one length down, and as I was approaching the wall my leg just cramped up. So I paused and tried to massage it out, started swimming again and it flared right back up. So, she had my take the fins off, rest and then do just 4 laps without them.

 

The downside is that she did tell us that the general manager may be suspending this class until the beginning of the year because not a lot of people are showing up. But she doesn't know when it's going to get suspended. Hopefully I can at least finish out the challenge! I'm not sure I'll be comfortable enough to swim outside of the class if it stops in the next couple of weeks.