Embembola isn't actually a disease, I promise :)

[Embembol]

I've got a friend who drags the nickname Embembol (Em-bem-ball) out into Embembola (like Ebola).  As a microbiologist it cracks me up, because Ebola, although deadly, is so freaking cool in abstract study situations.  I'm just always worried new people I meet will think I'm super weird for being nicknamed after a deadly and kind of gross (aka super interesting!) disease - I mean, really that's how it's going to end up anyway, I just want to ease them into it.

 

Anyway, I'm Emily.  I'm turning the big 3-0 this year, and my husband (D) and I are planning on starting to try to have kids this fall.  I'm trying to get into even better shape:

 

1) so I can enjoy myself in a bathing suit this summer while worrying only about blinding people with my Irish skin, and not how well I fit in my bathing suit

 

2) so I can give future-baby the best start with a healthy mom during the building phase as well as the "omg I'm never sleeping/showering/shaving again" phase

 

3) so I can do awesome things like tae kwon do and rock climbing and snowshoeing and hiking and bike riding and running around at playgrounds and lifting bags of chicken feed and garden soil and small children with ease.

 

I live in Colorado, so we've got amazing weather most of the year.  This week it's a titch rainy, but really, you can't beat 300 days of sunshine a year for outdoor activities.  We hike a bunch in the summer (D actually proposed at the top of the first 14er we climbed together), and I like to bike instead of drive as often as I can when the weather is nice.  I've been doing TKD for about 2 years now, and I'm testing for my black belt toward the end of this year.  I love to lift weights, but lately I've been thinking that I should focus more on training up my real-movement strengths, like pullups and dips and jumping and stuff.  Can't give up those deadlifts, though - I've got to add 5# more so I can get to 1.5x body weight

 

I feel like I'm kind of a nerd-of-all-trades.  I'm super excited for Age of Ultron this weekend, and extra super excited for Star Wars in Dec.  I'm terribad at LoL and Starcraft and CivV and Skyrim, but I still play them all occasionally because they're so much fun.  Mostly I enjoy reading both sci-fi and fantasy novels, and my most recent favorites are the Mars series by Kim Stanley Robinson.  He is incredibly well-researched in all the science he puts in his novels (biology, genetics, engineering, spaceflight, psychology, etc), which makes his writing feel very real.  Other favorites include Dune, Ender's Game, Anne McCaffrey's Pern novels, and Forever War, but I'll basically read just about anything that isn't really sad.

 

I'm not overweight, not just starting to work out, but I'm spreading myself way too thin in the things I want to concentrate on.  Right now I'm training for a 10k that is on Memorial Day; trying to master jump reverse kicks in TKD (butterfly kicks are hard ); working on increasing my DL, bench, and hip thrust weights; attempting to get back up to 10 pull ups in a row; trying to master a paleo way of life (it's weird listening to podcasts about not stressing your system with too much work when you're running for 6 miles); and also hoping to maybe maybe maybe see my top two abs by summer.  Way too many things, but I have no idea what to cut back on, because I enjoy it all.

 

[insanity]

 

I'm not overweight, not just starting to work out, but I'm spreading myself way too thin in the things I want to concentrate on.  Right now I'm training for a 10k that is on Memorial Day; trying to master jump reverse kicks in TKD (butterfly kicks are hard ); working on increasing my DL, bench, and hip thrust weights; attempting to get back up to 10 pull ups in a row; trying to master a paleo way of life (it's weird listening to podcasts about not stressing your system with too much work when you're running for 6 miles); and also hoping to maybe maybe maybe see my top two abs by summer.  Way too many things, but I have no idea what to cut back on, because I enjoy it all.

First, welcome... second... holy crap.

 

third, I would focus on the stuff that's going to help elsewhere. IE... lifting will help your TKD, so focus on lifting and drop TKD down to less time (depend of course, on how often you do each one)

[Embembol]

I will probably drop most of the running after the race, honestly.  I find it kind of monotonous, and my long runs are getting too long to be filled up with podcasts  TKD is the hardest thing to get better at, I think, so focusing my lifting to support that is probably the best choice.  It is a lot of flexibility, core and leg strength, and speed.  I'm not sure how to lift for speed, but flexibility and leg/core strength I can probably do.  I bet that will help with this "see my abs for like a day" thing I'm hoping for, too, lol.

[insanity]

I will probably drop most of the running after the race, honestly.  I find it kind of monotonous, and my long runs are getting too long to be filled up with podcasts  TKD is the hardest thing to get better at, I think, so focusing my lifting to support that is probably the best choice.  It is a lot of flexibility, core and leg strength, and speed.  I'm not sure how to lift for speed, but flexibility and leg/core strength I can probably do.  I bet that will help with this "see my abs for like a day" thing I'm hoping for, too, lol.

Lifting for speed would probably be the explosive movements. Jump squats, snatch, clean and jerk... stuff like that.