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Showing posts from February, 2010
I love watching the Olympics. Watching athletes in phenomenal shape motivates me to work a little harder when I'm running or biking. I know I'll never be in the kind of shape the athletes are, but I know I can improve and be better than where I am today. Knowing this has made me make adjustments to how I'm working towards the sprint tri, and because I'm seeing some real improvements in the three different areas, I see a tremendous effect on my mindset, not just with working out, either. Other areas of my life are benefitting from the time being spent on the treadmill, the bike, and in the water. One major turn in my outlook is not to waste time. I put a post-it note in my office with the message, "Every second counts." Everyday I see this as I'm working, and I've been so much more productive in getting papers read, assignments drawn up, and other work-related matters taken care of. I don't watch as much TV anymore, either. This has been an area of

Tabata Protocol

I read recently about the Tabata Protocol, a way to ramp up a fitness program and help get you in better shape quicker. The idea is to do an exercise full out for 20 seconds with a 10 second breather, repeating this 8 times. I tried to do the Tabata Protocol on the treadmill last night. I lasted through three repeats. At that point, my legs were jelly, my heart felt like it was going to explode through my jog bra, and I thought if I try to do more, I might end up shot off the back of the treadmill and splattered against the garage door. That wouldn't be good. Though I didn't get the full 8 repeats in, I was happy with what I was able to accomplish. I'm going to do it again in a a week or so and try to get four repeats in, then continue with this once a week until I can do all 8 repeats. It may take months for me to actually get to the 8 repeats, but I'm thinking if I can do at least four or five before the sprint tri, I might have a better time with the run portion of t

Cool Couple of Happenings

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The first cool happening occurred last Friday when I took my daughter to the thrift store to see if there possibly existed a dress suitable for prom. We found one that with a good dry cleaning would be very nice, but Lovely Daughter thought she'd like to shop around at the various thrift stores in town before making a decision. I'm afraid the dress won't be there if she decides she wants it, but that's the chance she'll take in shopping around. I probably should have bought it since it was only $10. At that price, we wouldn't be out much if she found a different dress elsewhere. But I digress. The cool happening took place after we examined the dresses. Because I received a turn-table for Christmas, I've been collecting albums, most of which have cost only $1. The most expensive record bought to date has been a Beatles album my son wanted, and that one was only $5, so we've been having fun bringing home records. Last week I thought it'd be nice to fi

Snow Day!

For the kids anyway. Not for me. But since I have several personal days I need to use before the end of the semester, I went ahead and took one so I could stay home, too. I'm glad I did. While the plan was to sit here and work all day, getting these papers read, responded to, and ready to return on Thursday, I still haven't started. I've been doing everything but sitting here working. I'm not so different from my students. Just as they put things off, so do I. Just as they don't feel guilty about procrastinating, neither do I. The work will get done. Just as it has in all the semesters I've been reading and responding to papers. Instead of working, I read an article about staying motivated in Runner's World . I helped guide my husband through a lasagna recipe; said lasagna is now filling the home with a most delicious aroma. I spent twenty minutes at 11 mph on the bike then twenty minutes at 5 mph on the treadmill, increasing the incline until I reached 10%

Day Two of Interval Training

The other day I talked about how I was going to work on doing interval training to see if I can improve my run time for the 5k. After I talked about doing so, I read a lot the next day about how to go about doing effective interval training. I learned the low speed I had planned on wasn't low enough and my high speed wasn't high enough. I was only going from a low speed of 5 mph to a high speed of 7 mph. One source suggested that to have success with interval training the runner should really slow down. A significant difference needs to be evident for the interval training to be effective. Because of this advice, I changed my workout strategy. I ended up warming up at 5 mph for five minutes then went to 8 mph for 30 seconds then down to 4 mph for a minute and repeated this 8 mph/4 mph back and forth for 20 minutes. I loved it. And according to my treadmill, I did 2 miles in under 22 minutes. I've struggled with running an 11 minute mile but was able to do it by doing the in

And The Training Has Begun

This week marked the first week of a ten-week training schedule for the mini-tri. I've been running since June and biking since December, but when I went to our first group run on Thursday, I felt like I hadn't been working out at all. The reason--I've been allowing myself to workout at a level that caused no pain, or heavy breathing for that matter. I got so used to running a 12-minute mile and biking an easy 10mph that anything above these put me to the test. I had hoped to complete the training listed for the intermediate level, but I barely finished the easy level. On top of this failure was my having to watch a woman around my age run faster than I could though she took these teeny-tiny steps. I really concentrate on my stride, on keeping my upper body relaxed, and still she easily out-paced me with her teeny-tiny steps. I set my steps to mimic hers, and I was stunned at how much more ground I covered in less time with less effort. I was under the impression that longe