Fiddle speeds up!

[fiddle-on]

Last challenge, I put something up, then never checked in again. I seem to be doing that a lot lately, but even just the act of writing this up helps keep me on track.

 

Over October so far, I've lost almost 4 pounds, and continued to strength train. I've finished ZombiesRun!5k and I can do 3x8 negative pushups easily. When summer started I could do none without almost collapsing. Between training and losing 20 pounds, those have gotten much, much easier.

 

My longest run is up to 4 miles, and I've got my second 5K on the 30th. My goal is to run 100% of the race. A secondary goal is to finish in 36 minutes. It's a hilly course, though, and while I practice running hills every week, they slow me down a lot.

I've no longer got my easy "Attend 2 strength training classes per week" goal. My wonderful tiny gym is closing at the end of the month because one of the two owners got a job cross country, and the other owner is his wife. Instead, I plan to focus on running while that's still an option, then I'll figure out something else when everything ices over.

 

Exercise goals:
Running. I want to run 3 times a week, following Jeff Galloway's 30 minute 5K training program.

•     Saturday or Sunday AM: sprints at the high school track.
•     Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday: Mid pace 30 minute run. I'll probably use a modestly hilly route.
•     Thursday/Friday: Long, slow run. No trails.

Strength. I've gained a lot of strength over the last 5 months of twice a week strength and conditioning classes. I want to hold on to it. Improvement is nice, but not my main priority just now.

•     Non-running days: Do Simple and Sinister kettlebell program, plus continue working towards unassisted pull-ups and full push-ups.
•     Running days: Do S&S warm-up, followed by either S&S or pullups/pushups.

Rehab: I twisted my ankle a few weeks ago, and am doing rehab exercises for it.
Every day, without fail: (at least until Thanksgiving, probably longer)

•     Mobility: Stretch calf. Trace alphabet with my foot, 1 to 3 times.
•     Proprioception: Balance on each foot for 1 minute. Increase difficulty as needed by standing on rolled towel or closing eyes.
•     Strength: push and pull exercises with the ankle and related muscles, and one legged squats. I've got a list.

Rest days: Take rest days as needed. Probably 1-2 per week.

Stay on pavement. Seriously, if I try to go hiking or trail-running before Thanksgiving, kick me in the ankle to remind me why I'm avoiding it. I keep hurting my ankle (mildly, but still) everytime I go at full speed on grass, much less on actual bad terrain.

Diet Goals:
Keep doing what I've been doing since June. I'm keeping a food diary and generally aiming to eat at a 200-500 calorie defecit.

Life Goals:

• Apply to one job a week.
• Clean 10-30 minutes a day.
• Buy a couch? At least rearrange my apartment again.

[Infinity.Creates]

What sort of exercises are you doing to strengthen your ankle? My sister went on a hike with me over the weekend and her ankle is quite weak and she twisted it, and is resting for a bit to help it recover.

 

Good luck with the job search!

[fiddle-on]

On ‎10‎/‎25‎/‎2016 at 4:12 AM, IAmInfinite said:

What sort of exercises are you doing to strengthen your ankle? My sister went on a hike with me over the weekend and her ankle is quite weak and she twisted it, and is resting for a bit to help it recover.

 

Good luck with the job search!

Thanks!

 

http://www.sportsinjuryclinic.net/rehabilitation-exercises/lower-leg-ankle-exercises has a whole lot of options, or if that's overwhelming, http://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/rehabilitation-exercises-for-an-ankle-sprain has just a few. A physical therapist could help too. Personally, I twisted my ankles all the time when I was younger. Then I got a job that required a lot of hiking, and after about a year, I realized I wasn't twisting them so much. This was the first time in years, and not so coincidentally, came after I stopped hiking for a year.

 

I wish her the best of luck. Strong ankles make hiking much more pleasant.

[fiddle-on]

Diet:

Yesterday I had left over pizza for breakfast. Pizza really doesn't fill me up. I can eat 1,000 calories of pizza, and still have room for more 2 hours later. The problem yesterday was that 2 hours after breakfast, there was a bake sale going on, and cookies fill me up about as well as pizza does. So after 600 calories of pizza and 500 calories of cookies and cupcakes, I had 700 calories of chicken and veggies for lunch because I was seriously hungry. Happily, that left me full and I just had a small dinner.

 

I'm off to a much better start today.

 

Exercise:

I had my last strength class on Monday, unless I get off the wait list for Friday. So I'm running today, and need to do a strength workout tomorrow or Friday.

 

Life:
I hate PMS. The end.

[Infinity.Creates]

Thanks for the website recommendations! 

 

And as for the food things, I suffer from exactly the same problem. Chocolate and crisps dissapear into this abyss. But I enjoy eating them so much!

[fiddle-on]

Well, my easy run yesterday wasn't quite as easy as I intended. I ended up going for a full 4 miles in 52 minutes, mixed running and walking. That tells me that my 36 minute goal is realistic, but between that and my strength and conditioning class tomorrow, I'm thinking my legs will be kind of tired on Sunday. I won't push myself tomorrow, and then see how the race goes. Worst case, I just need to do the 36 minute 5k on my own, later.

 

Today and Saturday are rest days, since I'm otherwise clearly not taking an easy pre-race week.

 

Diet: Very well.

 

Life: Spent 20 minutes cleaning yesterday, plus I got started on my backlog of clothing alterations. The only serious drawback to losing lots of weight is that nothing fits right anymore.

[fiddle-on]

Yesterday I had a rest day. I walked to a local furniture store, and bought a second hand loveseat. I'd have carried it home, doing overhead presses the whole way, but it was raining, and that's not good for furniture. So it's being delivered this evening instead. It's a boring black, and needs a bit of cleaning, but is in otherwise good shape. It's also a sleep sofa, so if I really hate someone, I can invite them to stay overnight on it.

 

Diet: Too much free candy this week. Too, too much. I think I'm staying within my calorie limit to still lose weight, but it's pretty close.

 

Life:

I spent a couple hours cleaning yesterday to get things in shape for the new couch. My living room feels almost livable! I've packed one big box of stuff to give away, and a couple of items I'd rather sell.

 

I was also invited to do a phone interview with a company, so I need to arrange the details of that. Wish me luck!

[Maigs]

29 minutes ago, fiddle-on said:

I walked to a local furniture store, and bought a second hand loveseat. I'd have carried it home, doing overhead presses the whole way, but it was raining, and that's not good for furniture.

Bwahaha. I love that mental image

 

30 minutes ago, fiddle-on said:

It's also a sleep sofa, so if I really hate someone, I can invite them to stay overnight on it.

We have a tiny house with no guest room so I've considered getting a sleeper sofa but I don't hate people that might stay at my house enough to subject them to that

 

30 minutes ago, fiddle-on said:

I was also invited to do a phone interview with a company, so I need to arrange the details of that. Wish me luck!

Good luck!!

[Shello]

On 10/24/2016 at 10:21 AM, fiddle-on said:

 

Last challenge, I put something up, then never checked in again. I seem to be doing that a lot lately, but even just the act of writing this up helps keep me on track.

 

Over October so far, I've lost almost 4 pounds, and continued to strength train. I've finished ZombiesRun!5k and I can do 3x8 negative pushups easily. When summer started I could do none without almost collapsing. Between training and losing 20 pounds, those have gotten much, much easier.

 

 

Despite not checking in much it looks like you accomplished a lot last challenge.

 

I checked out the Jeff Galloway running program.  I had never heard of it so thanks for sharing.  I think I like how that is more customization than the traditional c25k.  

[fiddle-on]

Race results : I  finished in 35 min 37 seconds, and only walked a couple hundred feet total,  on a steep part of the hill that made up almost the entire second mile. Woo-hoo! 

[fiddle-on]

My weekend went pretty well. On Saturday, I spent a few hours sewing. I did some hemming, took in the waist on one pair of pants, and darted the waist of another. It was my first try taking in a waist, and it came out OK, but I'll only be wearing those pants with a something that covers the back.  You know how if you take something mechanical apart, you often have spare parts, or aren't quite sure where things go? Yeah, that happens with sewing too. I think I'll look for some thrift store pants to work on before I try on any pants that I actually like and aren't mostly worn out.
 
Sunday was my race. As I said yesterday, I finished in 35:37. My goal was to beat 36 minutes, and to not walk at all. I clearly made the time goal, and I'm close enough on the all-running goal. It was a fairly hard course. The first mile was flat or downhill. The second mile was flat or uphill. Lots of uphill. Mile 3 was a little downhill, and mostly flat. It got really steep towards the peak on mile 2, and I was running out of gas, so I spent 100 steps walking to recover a bit. I still finished mile two in 12:29, while miles 1 and 3 were both about 11:30. 

 

I had a pace tracker app (Pace Control) on my phone. Without that, I don't think I could have finished in my goal time. It let me know that I was doing mile 2 a little slow, but not so much that I had to try to speed up and maybe run out of gas. And then when the hill ended, and I was still going really slow, it let me know I should speed up a bit. Then when I saw that I only had half a mile left, I knew I still had enough energy to run faster for that distance, so I did.

 

I've now got Garmin's heart rate and GPS smartwatch on my wish list, but at $250, I'll be using my phone for a while yet.

 

This morning I did Simple and Sinister. I hadn't tried it in a few months (I've been doing strength and conditioning classes instead). I was alternating a 12kg kettlebell and a 20 pound dumbbell for the get-ups, while I did 100 swings easily in 4:30 with the 12kg bell. I need to be adding in the 16kg bell for those now. :-).

 

I need to be a bit more consistent about cleaning. My apartment is in good shape right now, but I need to get in the habit of putting things away as I use them.

[fiddle-on]

On ‎10‎/‎28‎/‎2016 at 11:25 AM, LadyShello said:

 

Despite not checking in much it looks like you accomplished a lot last challenge.

 

I checked out the Jeff Galloway running program.  I had never heard of it so thanks for sharing.  I think I like how that is more customization than the traditional c25k.  

 

He's got an older book (90s?) that I found used a few years ago. It's got plans for running races in specific times. I'm using his 5K in 30 minutes plan right now. The best part for me is that he encourages running 3 days a week while still working towards improvement. Most of the free plans past raw beginner take the attitude that if you aren't running at least 4 days (5 for some), you'll never improve. He doesn't encourage 4 days until you are pretty fast and experienced, and actually recommends against 5 if you aren't both young and very fit. I like variety in how I exercise, so this is great for me.

[Infinity.Creates]

Amazing run time! And already leveling up for S&S

[Elastigirl]

Great job on the running. I love it when work in one area transfers over to another, very cool that you leveled up in S &S 

[fiddle-on]

21 hours ago, IAmInfinite said:

Amazing run time! And already leveling up for S&S

 

20 hours ago, Elastigirl said:

Great job on the running. I love it when work in one area transfers over to another, very cool that you leveled up in S &S 

 

Thanks! I'm very happy with my race. I was pretty surprised with the kettlebells, because I still think of the 12 kg bell as kind of challenging. But I used the 16kg for 2x10 this morning, and it was manageable. Not completely controlled, but enough that I'll be sticking with that number of reps for the week.

 

 

[fiddle-on]

Exercise:
This morning was Simple and Sinister. I used the 16 kg bell for 2x10, and it was manageable. Challenging to control, but it was still within my control. I was also just thinking how I started in March doing 2 hand swings with a 8 kg bell. Now I'm doing 1 hand with 16 kg.

I've also got a short run on the board for this evening.

 

Diet: I had way to much candy in the house for Halloween. Of a 5 pound bag, I probably gave away about 1 pound. So I saved 10 pieces for myself, then put the rest outside my door with a free sign after it was too late for trick or treaters. All gone this morning.

 

Life:
I've got a phone interview after work today.

[fiddle-on]

I'm having a little trouble balancing my diet. It's the first week my gym is closed, so instead of working out intensively for an hour twice a week and 20-30 minutes some other days, I'm working out for 20-30 minutes most days at a somewhat lower intensity. But my body hasn't got the message yet that I'm burning less. I've been eating at about maintenance, but I want to be losing weight. I'm also eating too much junk food.

 

I'm going to go back to a stricter diet until eating proper portions gets easier again.

Breakfast is either 2 eggs with a veggie and toast, avocado, or potato, or oatmeal with nuts and fruit.

Lunch: Either bring 500-600 calories, or buy a salad at work.

Dinner: Figure out how many calories I need before cooking (probably 400-600), then make that size portion.

Treat: Hot chocolate in the evening any evening you don't have desserts earlier.  Or 1 piece of Halloween candy.

Macros: Back to 50% fat, 15-20% protein.

 

Extra smiley's for:

- DON'T stop at the desk of the coworker with a candy jar.

- DO aim for a calorie deficit of 300-500 per day. Somewhere around 1500-1700 calories eaten.

- DON'T buy more ice cream until December. Seriously, 3/4 of a cup of Haagen-daas for breakfast is pretty good evidence for why.

[Infinity.Creates]

Eesh. I hate it when you absentmindedly eat through a cup of ice cream. I could get through a pint of Ben and Jerrys, but I stop myself because there are other people in the house!

[fiddle-on]

19 hours ago, IAmInfinite said:

Eesh. I hate it when you absentmindedly eat through a cup of ice cream. I could get through a pint of Ben and Jerrys, but I stop myself because there are other people in the house!

The worst part is it wasn't absentminded. I was just hungry, and it was easier than cooking an egg or something. Plus it was chocolate peanut butter, and I wanted to find out if there was another peanut butter swirl at the bottom.

 

 

 

[fiddle-on]

My total calories yesterday were reasonable because I had a tiny dinner. But the total included 650 calories of Halloween candy + ice cream, though, so no reward hot chocolate.

Yesterday morning I ran for 25 minutes, and did about 20 desk push-ups over the course of the day at the office.

 

Today:
I'm starting out with a bowl of oatmeal. I've got an apple and peanuts if I need a snack later. I've got gum if I start going for the candy jar. None of that stopped me yesterday, but today's a new day.

 

Exercise: I did S&S, with 4-get-ups each side, alternating with either assisted pull-ups or negative push ups. The get-up weight was alternating a 12 kg kettlebell and a 18 pound dumbbell. The 100 swings were 80 with 12 kg, 20 with 16 kg. I'll probably go on a couple of walks later because it's so nice out.

 

Life: I had my phone interview yesterday. Waiting to here back if they want to do an in person interview next. I'm optimistic.

I've been on top of the cleaning. I think today I'll clear out my desk and move the desk to the bedroom, and the workout area to the living room. The good thing about a tiny apartment is that it's easy to do things like that. The bad thing is that it's necessary.

 

[Maigs]

33 minutes ago, fiddle-on said:

The worst part is it wasn't absentminded. I was just hungry, and it was easier than cooking an egg or something. Plus it was chocolate peanut butter, and I wanted to find out if there was another peanut butter swirl at the bottom.

Oooh, I have this problem with a cookie dough swirl ice cream I get sometimes

[Shello]

5 hours ago, fiddle-on said:

I wanted to find out if there was another peanut butter swirl at the bottom.

 

This cracked me up.  I have this amazing new ice cream flavor in the freezer right now that is butter cookie dough.  The swirls of that dough are amazing.  

Yeah, maybe that wasn't helpful.... Ice cream is evil. Stay away. 

[fiddle-on]

Weekend update:

This weekend was Fiddle Hell, an annual convention of fiddle players in Massachusetts. The event goes from Friday afternoon until Sunday afternoon, and people are up playing basically all night long. I wish I had been able to stay overnight, but it didn't happen. I was only there for the daytime on Saturday, but it was a whole lot of fun. I ended up doing more singing than playing, but that's just where my interests lie right now. The best part is I've got some songs to work on, and some suggestions for how to learn to sing and play at the same time.  So no exercise, but I didn't overeat because I was too busy making and listening to music to eat much.

Sunday I did overeat because I was at a bridal shower, but I ran sprints in the morning and skipped dinner, so I wasn't unreasonably over. I would have been just fine if I could have spent 5 hours hiking instead of driving.

Then this morning was simple and sinister, plus assisted pullups. I'll do desk pushups when I need a break at work today.

Life Goals:

I haven't put out any job applications :-(

My apartment is 20 or 30 miuntes from just barely good enough to have guests, and I could put it into really good shape with just another hour or two of work. I still need to do some furniture rearranging. So I'm pretty happy with my cleaning goal.

 

[fiddle-on]

I've had better days. I woke up to the election result, which was by itself a bad day. Then within 5 minutes of getting out of bed, my back started hurting near my shoulder. This isn't anything new, and is caused by playing the violin while tense. I hadn't been playing much for months, so apparently the festival over the weekend did me in. Oops. So no strength training and no running today.

 

 

So I took 4 ibuprofin and lay back down for a while on a lacrosse ball to try to relax the muscles a bit. It helped slightly; there was only minimal cursing involved in getting up again. This time I tried a hot pad and sitting upright on the couch. Again, it helped a bit. At this point, I'm on round 2 of painkillers, but I can move my arm, turn my head, and basically act like a normal person rather than cry in agony while lying flat on my back. I did binge on chocolate because I hurt so much, but I hurt too much to care.

 

 

Did you know I meet the qualifications to immigrate to Australia? I've always wanted to visit, and they don't have a Trump as ... Actually, I can't even bear to write that yet. Sorry to any Republicans reading this, but I'm upset, as is 50% of the rest of the population.

 

[Elastigirl]

Sorry about your back, hope it feels better soon.