Friday, July 12, 2013

Whenever I happen to have thirteen things to say, I'll post. A "thursday" 13.

Dear Diary,

This week I decided to start working on making up for lost time. Meanwhile, I though I'd posted this, but I forgot to push the button.

13. I have regretted not participating in athletics when I was in school. I was fast when I was young, but then I got older and I was too cool to run. "Too late," I'd say to myself, "you can't go back." But you can, actually. As Goethe said, it's never too late to be what you might have been.

12. Last week Sweet Baboo and I went to the first annual meet of the New Mexico track club, I saw women and men of various levels of fitness and ages sprinting, pole-vaulting, jumping hurdles, and long-jumping. I was inspired.

11. Tuesday, I went to a workout of the New Mexico Track Club. In terms of self-flagellation, nothing quite beats hanging out and doing intervals workouts with tiny, hyperactive people who weigh 75% of what I weigh. (Which means I weigh 33% more than they do. Do the math.) The workout was to run 400, jog 400, repeat, run 200 jog 200, run 600, 600 jog. Then repeat the whole thing, and by "run" I mean to run at your mile pace, which for me is theoretically around 9 minutes a mile. Eventually I was jogging and then shuffling, and occasionally I was walking and breathing real hard. I'm getting over what appears to be shin splints, and so I'm off road running for a while. All of the workout was in fairly thick grass on a defunct track.

10. As parts the track workout involved running back and forth I would ran past people who were far ahead of me and receive the Supported Pity Applause, given generously to the last, slow runner. I am not stranger to its iterations.

Hey, Misty! Good job!

Way. To. Hang!

Allright! You're really staying the distance!

Good job, Misty!

You're really hanging with it!

Way to go the distance, girl!

Etc.

9. at the track workout, Coach Dave took me aside and made many suggestions and comments designed, I suspect, to motivate. One of them was to do box jumps, starting low like, maybe, on a piece of paper, I think. Then work my way up.

Another comment he made was about how it was all genetic anyway, so no matter how hard you try and train, you can't overcome them if you don't have them. But anyway:, he continued, do lots of plyometrics.

In any case along with the running it should be fun. The track club is talking about putting together some "throwing" workouts. And, we moved our Olympic weigh-lifting but in a different gym in a rather interesting part of town.

8. I'm trying to have fun again. Treating working out more like play time instead of "now I gotta do it" time. This morning I ran in the foothills--i'm off roads for the time being until my shins heal--near our house is a long trail down, down, down into an indentation in the side of the mountains that we call "the dish"

7. I can think of no better way to celebrate independence day than by running the trails. So that's what I did. Then DreadPirate, Sweet Baboo and I went for a bike ride. Yes, on a bike. I am still on the fence about doing another Ironman but leaning towards doing one in 2014.

6. I decided that I am kind of interested in crossfit, but I'm not interested in the herd mentality, the diet, or the crazy high price. (Sweet Baboo and I belong to one of the best gyms in the city and it costs about half what crossfit does, I shit you not. So I'm looking at ideas for doing this shit at home. Sweet Baboo is going to lift Mondays, tuesdays, Thursday and Fridays but I only want to lift twice a week so on another day while he's lifting I'll play with this crossfit thing.

5. for box jumps, one suggestion was a sprinkler valve box. But I don't know...Sure, it looks sturdy, but is it zeftig Athena Diaries sturdy? Will it stand up to my unsteady jumps after I've gotten tired? Will it get tippy when I do? Plus, I need to start low and work my way up. Then I went out and walked around my back yard et voila:

 

A place to do jumps!

4. I have a treadmill and live close to a place where I can run trails or do hill repeats. We already have one kettle bell, and a few dumb bells. I do not have any rings, nor at this point do I want any. I figure this is a good start.

3. I cannot do the following: pushups or any of their permutations; or pull-ups of any kind. So, I'll have to work my way up, I guess. My first goal is to eventually be able to do one of these. Or maybe more than one.

2. I have noticed some I portant changes since I started weight-training. First, I've had a bad shoulder problem since 2012. It's going away, slowly, but there's a huge difference already. Second, I have had a middle back pain since around 9th grade. When I tried to sit without back support, it was an awful, burning pain. It's almost completely gone. Third, I have spindly old lady wrists. They hurt like hell when I try to open jars, do pushups, or ride my bike. They're getting stronger.

1. But ooh, hauling 170 lbs around the trails is tough. I've gotten several comments about "ignoring the scale" but I think I've made two things clear: first, I do pay attention to how my clothes fit. And right now, they are tight. That's not muscle cutting me in half. Second, the scale reflects how much weight I'm carrying around, given that my size indicates that most of that weight is NOT working tissue, yeah, it kinda matters. But thanks for the comments, just the same. My goal, if I must weigh 170 lbs, is to 25% bodyfat or lower. Right now, it's above thirty. Except on Sundays, when Tanita magically insists that it's 23.

...

 

 

3 comments:

  1. Subscribe to bodeefit.com daily crossfit style workout emails. Or look them up online/facebook. They're free (unless you want a premium membership to track your workout) and every single day you get a new workout in your email that you can do at home without a lot of equipment.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Go for the pushups. They are way, way easier to learn than any kind of pull-ups (which I have never ever done). Other things I cannot do: chin-ups, cross monkey bars hand over hand, climb a rope. But I have at times been quite good at pushups.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I stumbled on your blog today. I had to giggle reading the first few blog posts as I could have written them myself. I just started doing track workouts and I am always the last one done and as I'm being lapped, I get cheers and words of encouragement from others. I know I would be some faster if I lost weight, but really I think I'll never be very quick. I also totally relate to your eating pattern, binge, eat clean, binge eat clean. And the not doing so hot in 2013 with clothes not fitting quite right and having to get new sizes and having, having, having to workout or blowup instantly. Thanks for sharing!

    ReplyDelete

Comments containing links to commercial websites from people with invisible profiles are deleted immediately. Spammers are immediately deleted.

Moved.

 I'm no longer involved in multisport or endurance sports. I've started my own business, a psychotherapist specializing in anxiety d...