Xena faces the siege

[Raxie]

On ‎10‎/‎11‎/‎2016 at 9:06 AM, Xena said:

Also one of the guys likes to lift his shirt and check out his abs.

 

I don't know why this cracked me up so much, but it did.  There's lots of grunting at my gym, but usually only when it escapes unwittingly (I've been guilty from time to time myself on a hard lift).  I've just never experienced the bro-ness.  I kind of want to, because I think it would be incredibly amusing.

 

So glad you had such an awesome day!

[Xena]

Argh..."the internet" lost my long and clever reply :-(

 

So shorter version...I'm still on work travel for another day. Pretty long work days but managed short runs both yesterday and today as well as some pushups. Happy enough with the exercise, but wish I had eaten better. Just been stuck in long meetings with too many snacks within arm's reach. This girl couldn't resist. Fortunately I'm not in this position very often, and I'll be back home tomorrow.

[Everstorm]

Time for a PaL-Anon meeting?

[QengpuBenal]

On 10/13/2016 at 6:56 PM, Xena said:

Argh..."the internet" lost my long and clever reply :-(

 

So shorter version...I'm still on work travel for another day. Pretty long work days but managed short runs both yesterday and today as well as some pushups. Happy enough with the exercise, but wish I had eaten better. Just been stuck in long meetings with too many snacks within arm's reach. This girl couldn't resist. Fortunately I'm not in this position very often, and I'll be back home tomorrow.

 

Snacks at work are evil! I was doing okay as long as my secretary was stocking her candy cupboard with tiny suckers. Then she started bringing in tubs of licorice and bags of chocolate candies! As a result, this week has not been as good. I did convince myself to forego the candy bar today in favour of some green olives and pickles, so I'm proud of that choice! 

[maegs]

Agreed, snacks at work are so hard to resist - even more so in meetings, I find!

[jstanlick]

20 hours ago, maegs said:

Agreed, snacks at work are so hard to resist - even more so in meetings, I find!

In many meetings I find myself in are a reason for some people to hear themselves speak. Food becomes a good distraction and feels like the lesser of two evils at the time. I'd try to set a timer on people like in the Presidential debates, but much like the candidates, I'm sure they'd talk right over the timer.

[honeybadger]

On October 14, 2016 at 7:46 AM, Phoenix Burning said:

Time for a PaL-Anon meeting?

YES! Of course I am speaking for myself. I too have fallen into the trap of office snacks this week.

[Xena]

On 10/14/2016 at 7:46 AM, Phoenix Burning said:

Time for a PaL-Anon meeting?

Indeed! I think I'm out of the woods for now though :-)

 

On 10/15/2016 at 2:21 AM, QengpuBenal said:

 

Snacks at work are evil! I was doing okay as long as my secretary was stocking her candy cupboard with tiny suckers. Then she started bringing in tubs of licorice and bags of chocolate candies! As a result, this week has not been as good. I did convince myself to forego the candy bar today in favour of some green olives and pickles, so I'm proud of that choice! 

Great job!

 

On 10/15/2016 at 6:13 PM, maegs said:

Agreed, snacks at work are so hard to resist - even more so in meetings, I find!

I was completely powerless!

 

6 hours ago, jstanlick said:

In many meetings I find myself in are a reason for some people to hear themselves speak. Food becomes a good distraction and feels like the lesser of two evils at the time. I'd try to set a timer on people like in the Presidential debates, but much like the candidates, I'm sure they'd talk right over the timer.

Not too much blathering at this particular meeting. Just lots of time sitting in a room, and some of that time without much to specifically do (had to mostly pay attention)

 

1 hour ago, honeybadger said:

YES! Of course I am speaking for myself. I too have fallen into the trap of office snacks this week.

Week 4 re-boot initiated!

 

So I'm back home and back on track. I really tried to be healthy during the trip. Looked up places to eat and everything. Looking back, the one thing I could have done to make it easier for myself would have been to bring some of my own snacks. I had planned to do that, but just didn't follow through in the end. Don't have any more work trips until January, so I have a little more time to think about strategy for next time. I'm also not doing all that much traveling now, so this isn't really a huge deal.

 

Week 3 wrap-up

Overall: Fitness-wise, I managed to more-or less follow my plan, even with the travel. I'm proud of myself for getting two short runs in while I was away. They were shorter than I would have done if I were home, but I think important for maintenance of fitness, momentum, and habit.

 

Run 92 miles: Got in 16.5 today (was hoping for 18, but was completely exhausted, was right in front of my house, and by coincindence ran into a good friend on her bike. Felt like a good time to stop). Brought me to 26.5 for the week (light running during week days b/c of travel) and 80.8 for the challenge. Less than 12 miles to reach my goal!

250 pushups: 81 this week for a total of 211 (39 to go). Will be traveling over the weekend, so will try to finish early in the week.

50 chin-up negatives: 12 this week, for a total for a total of 44. I'll finish this up next time I get to the gym. If I make it twice this week (planning on it), I'll be able to test my improvement (I use the gravitron machine to test myself)

"Personal development" (burn-out stuff/self-care). Nothing yet, but still planning to work on this tonight. Will report back :-)

 

In other news...I reached my goal in the Daily Dare PvP :-)

 

 

 

 

 

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

Good job staying on track while traveling. 

[Everstorm]

Looks like you are well lined up to hit your numbers for this challenge!

[Xena]

Chin up goal done!

Kind of catching up on the professional/burnout goal. So far...made a new list of things I'm looking forward to, spent some time signing up for something I really want to do (and will look forward to), documented time I spent on service, did some reading about setting boundaries.

 

Got myself kind of worn out by the end of the day. Interesting to see how it happened. I was fine at lunchtime and then had to deal with 4 pretty negative things this afternoon. By the end of it, I was frazzled. Thinking about how to handle that. A key is stopping the cycle of worrying...at the end of the day, I was eventually able to put most of it aside, but it took a while.

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

2 hours ago, Xena said:

Got myself kind of worn out by the end of the day. Interesting to see how it happened. I was fine at lunchtime and then had to deal with 4 pretty negative things this afternoon. By the end of it, I was frazzled. Thinking about how to handle that. A key is stopping the cycle of worrying...at the end of the day, I was eventually able to put most of it aside, but it took a while.

A new skill takes time to learn, keep it up and you'll get better at it in no time.

[Mistr]

I think that keeping your resolve and running while on a work trip more than makes up for any extra snacks. You needed the sugar to stay attentive during those long meetings.

 

Yay for meeting your chin-up goal!

 

Sounds like you are making good progress on dealing with work stress. You limited it to a bad afternoon. That is much better than taking the stress home with you. Maybe it was good that all the bad things were piled in one afternoon so that you could get past it faster.

[Agnarr]

On 17/10/2016 at 9:00 PM, Xena said:

Chin up goal done!

YEAH, Well done!

[DJtrippyT]

On 10/11/2016 at 9:06 AM, Xena said:

 

I don't know what the heck happened, but yesterday was a great day. I got up and went for one of those runs where it feels good to breathe and feels like your body could keep going forever.

 

Ummm your natural awesome defeated the plague and came out to play? I think that's what happened.

 

 

[Xena]

today: 5 mile run, 26 pushups, daily dare

 

Push-up goal officially complete today.

Planning a long-ish interval run tomorrow morning. Hoping to swing by the gym in the afternoon for my gravitron test.

 

Starting to brainstorm about what to do for next challenge...will be mostly rinse and repeat (running, pushups, chinups), kicking up difficulty a bit on a couple goals. I've had those 3 for several challenges and the fourth has been more experimental. Not sure what to do there. Maybe a yoga goal, maybe some kind of grab-bag, maybe something different...

[Xena]

Tested my chin-up progress today...and think I made progress, but have to re-test because I wasn't quite consistent. I got to the gym today and realized I hadn't looked up what I did last time. The gravitron is the weight assisted pullup machine. I test with the parallel grip because that's the closest I can get to the chinup position on the machine. Higher numbers are more difficulty (goes up to 17, which is 10% assist).

 

At the beginning of last challenge (so ~7 weeks ago), I did 3 x 8 on "11". That wasn't maxing me out, so I went back a couple days later and did 8+6+4 on "12"

 

Today...I forgot I was aiming for sets of 8, so I did 3x6 on "13" and then another 3 on "14". I think I could have done sets of 8 on "13" but didn't try...gotta go back and see :-)

 

Pretty sure I'm getting closer to a real chin-up, but still not all that close. Can't really move at all from the dead hang at the bottom.

[Big_Show]

The deadhang is what's getting me for my pull-ups too! I've stuck a lat pulldown into my programme as that starts specifically from the deadhang position. Figure it's worth a try.

[Xena]

6 hours ago, Big_Show said:

The deadhang is what's getting me for my pull-ups too! I've stuck a lat pulldown into my programme as that starts specifically from the deadhang position. Figure it's worth a try.

 

I'm gonna try that too.  You mentioned it before and it didn't make sense to me. I was thinking about the lower part of the lat pulldown movement and not specifically the start of the pull.

 

...But now that I thought about it for a little bit, I get it and think it's a really good idea! There aren't many other ways to work that particular part of the range. Thanks for the idea!!

 

 

 

[Xena]

Went back on the gravitron today and got 3x8 @ "13" (about 70% of bodyweight). Now I have to try it one more time on "14" so I will have a goal to beat at the end of next challenge.

 

Going to do an incomplete wrap-up (I end tomorrow) since the new forums are already up.

 

1. Run 92 miles....I'm up to 91.8 (I kid you not) and have a long run planned for tomorrow. Should have this under control

2. 250 pushups...72 this week for a total of 283.

3. 50 chin-up negatives...Done, and clear progress after 7 weeks.

4. Work stress goal...Kind of nebulous but counting as done. Most of the progress on this was honestly in the first week. @honeybadger and @Tanktimus the Encourager helped me a LOT in putting a name to what I was feeling. I haven't posted everything I've done toward this, but I've put in reasonably consistent effort. Want to spend a little more time this weekend reflecting on what else I would like to do.

 

So, please trust me that I will knock out those 0.2 miles (and then some), and join me in the next challenge :-)

[Tanktimus the Encourager]

7 hours ago, Xena said:

4. Work stress goal...Kind of nebulous but counting as done. Most of the progress on this was honestly in the first week. @honeybadger and @Tanktimus the Encourager helped me a LOT in putting a name to what I was feeling. I haven't posted everything I've done toward this, but I've put in reasonably consistent effort. Want to spend a little more time this weekend reflecting on what else I would like to do.

Good for you. No telling how many years you have added to your career by starting to get a handle on this. Now build on your success by staying consistent with reducing work stress.

[Sloth the Enduring]

Another successful challenge. Nice job.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[maegs]

On 10/20/2016 at 8:44 PM, Xena said:

Pretty sure I'm getting closer to a real chin-up, but still not all that close. Can't really move at all from the dead hang at the bottom.

On 10/21/2016 at 3:22 AM, Big_Show said:

The deadhang is what's getting me for my pull-ups too! I've stuck a lat pulldown into my programme as that starts specifically from the deadhang position. Figure it's worth a try.

 

I have the opposite problem, I can get out of a deadhang but the top half is a struggle! One thing that might help (but which you're probably doing already, so I don't know if this is helpful) is making sure your scapulas are retracted (I think that's the term for it) and that your lats etc are engaged before you're actually hanging from the bar, and then making sure you don't relax them during the movement. Not relaxing completely in the hanging position made a big difference for me  

[Xena]

13 hours ago, Sloth the Enduring said:

Another successful challenge. Nice job.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks Sloth. Selfishly hoping you do a challenge next time...your page is one of my favorites!

 

1 hour ago, maegs said:

 

I have the opposite problem, I can get out of a deadhang but the top half is a struggle! One thing that might help (but which you're probably doing already, so I don't know if this is helpful) is making sure your scapulas are retracted (I think that's the term for it) and that your lats etc are engaged before you're actually hanging from the bar, and then making sure you don't relax them during the movement. Not relaxing completely in the hanging position made a big difference for me  

Think I'm generally doing this, but probably not well enough.Thanks for the tip!

 

[Xena]

A little over 16 miles today. A fantastic confidence-building run. Brings my total to 107.9