Situps, Pushups and Groans

It's not just the Earth's Rotational Axis....

2010-09-13T15:10:00.000-05:00

My days really are getting longer and longer.
Issues at work and surrounding work have meant multiple 12-13 hour days for me lately. I'd say I'm exhausted and in need of a vacation but I've realized recently that I am such a freak about "vacations" that I usually don't come away from them all that rested. I'm going to try. Headed to the DC area this week. It was a surprise present for my Squeeze so he can visit his best friend. His best friend since 6th grade people. That's a long time to keep liking someone. I plan on long walks, possible solo museum trips, some running, podcast listening and magazine perusal while they sit in a corner and act like 5 year olds. I expect pranks. And laughter. And that weird language that only the two of them speak.

Back to the workout log:
Thursday Sept 2: 5k-ish run in 27 minutes and change. Good time for me, a sucky time for most runners I know. Stupid runners with legs that are longer than mine and can turn over fast.

Sept 3NOTHING!

Saturday Sept 4: 2.5 hours of jog-hiking at Pinnacle. Up and over 2x and back and forth to the OT trailhead.
And a couple more hours of trail work. I dug a trench with a pick ax. There will be no dwarf or Hi Ho references.

Sunday 5: we went to the zoo. in memphis. yes we did.

Monday 6: in celebration of Labor Day, I Labored. Not in my own very needy yard but in my neighbor's. Because they don't or won't clean it up. Our front yard looks at their back yard which is wooded. When trees start growing in the street and the water can't get to the drain, I clean it for them. It took most of the day. And all of my energy. But I'm not bitter.

Tuesday 7 back to morning workouts
warm up with CORE and Jump Rope
4 Rounds: 1 min per station, 1 min rest after completed circuit
Single leg plyo jumps 90lb
single leg squat on box
wall ball 15lb
wall sit with 10lb plate
push press 25lb Db

Wednesday got an I don't think so at 4:50 a.m. Tuesday night was unpleasant due to work stuffin.

Thursday 9th
warm up 300 jump ropes, 3 x 12 x 33lb bar overhead squat, 5 x 5 hang clean 65lb, 75, 75, attempt 85, 80
4 Rounds:
Group Hang Clean 10 x in 1 min: 1set x 55lb - 3 x 60lb
1:00 treadmill run 1 x 7.5 mph x 5% incline, 2 x 5.6 mph x 10% incline , 1 x wall sit
400 m backward run
single leg jump on 12" box 10 x ea leg

Friday 10th
warm up CORE
superset 4x:
endurance bench press 10 rep:10 sec hold:10 rep : push up position plank 30 sec
db curl and press 10 x 20lb : overhead tricep extension 30lb to Fatigue (avg 6)
walking push ups, no wts : 1 min plank

BIKES!

2010-09-01T09:32:00.000-05:00

Easter weekend 2009 found our little 3some + one at this park for biking, hiking, fishing and egg hunting. This past weekend, just the 2 of us went down there in an attempt to help out a friend who was putting on an adventure race. So the workout for Friday the 27th and Saturday the 28th involved a little mountain biking and a little hiking each day. And a LOT of driving. So Sunday the 29th we decided to ride the whole 7 miles of trail at Pinnacle that we've been working for the last several months. I've never ridden the whole thing and honestly- din't think I could. I did. And then some. We had a great time. Those guys that put that trail out there did a great job! Thanks Daron and Joe. : ) I was really fed up with working on it but after finally getting to ride the whole thing I have a renewed energy about it.

Sunday 22nd: 30 miles of road biking with one ride up the little hill at Ft. Roots.

Monday 23rd: Rest

Tuesday 24th:
warm up jump rope...100 push ups...100 sit ups
superset: dumbbell bench press on ab ball 4 x 10 (25-10lb) and push up w/dumbbell row 4 x 25 x 12lb
superset: single arm push press 4 x 10 x 30lb and single arm snatch 4 x 10 x 30lb
last thing: plank walks with call outs by Chris. Plank position, push ups, up-down, walk in plank. ugh

Wednesday 25th: CORE
5 Rounds of:
max pullups (i used a band, max=10)
200m backward run
plate push 20yd? 35lb plate
20 box jumps 24"

Thursday 26th: CORE
superset: bench press 5 x 10reps:10sec hold:10reps and 30 sec of push ups in between each set
superset: standing military press into push press 3sets x8x8 with feet elevated pushups to fatigue
superset: chair pushups:explosive pushup(clapping):plate raise x 25lb 3 rounds to fatigue(failure)

Monday 30th: Rest

Tuesday 31st: warm up w/ jump rope
Partner work- one partner has a set # of reps, the other partner does the *alternate exercise until the other is finished regardless of time/reps done.
20 x heavy leg press (100% body wt.) *overhead squat 33lb bar

400m run holding 25lb plate between partners: 20 squat jumps *mountain climbers: repeat 1x

20 x romanian dead lift 65lb *wall balls w/ 15lb med ball

200m partner run backwards: 20 squat jump *mountain climbers : repeat 1x

partner curl- both holding a 33lb bar alternating curls 10rep...9rep...8...7..........1

Wednesday Sept1st: welcome Sept!
warm up 300 jump rope 100 sit ups
superset: 4 x 15 chair pushup: 4 x 15 inverted row
alternating dumbbell bench press on ab ball 2 x 10ea arm x 25lb 3 x 10 x 30lb
6 rounds of : bench press 2 x 10 x 65lb, 4 x 10 x 70lb and 6 x 10 tire flips

I love tire flips. Don't judge.

Wait, I work out? Really?

2010-08-20T09:16:00.001-05:00

Of course I work out- that way I can justify eating steaks, drinking wine, and eating pizza and hot wings. Derr.

There is a serious lack of workout information for the last several weeks. This is a fitness log? Huh?

Sunday 15th- the short, hot, great fun bike ride with Sarah Smiles. It involved a carry a bike over a pedestrian bridge, getting very intimate with my seat when it came loose and tilted in the middle of the ride, and a failed search for breakfast.

Monday got nothin cause I'm lazy like that.
Edit: remembered that I FELT lazy so I walked on the treadmill doing HILLS for about 25 minutes, and did a couple of sprints.

Tuesday- warm up 300 jump ropes
set of push ups: 3 sets, 15 reps of each alternating between chair push ups, feet elevated, chest elevated
5 x 8 single arm bench press, 3 x 25lb, 2 x 30lb dbs
4 x 8/8 military press straight into push press with front plate raises x 10 in between presses
2 x 45lb press : 25lb plate, 2 x 50lb press: 25lb plate
3 x 7:7:7 shoulder complex- 7 front raise-7 lateral raise-7 rotator 10lb for raises but had to go 8lb for rotators

Wednesday got nothin again. See Lazy comment

Thursday- warm up 300 jump rope
1 min each station:1 min rest after all 5 stations complete 4 Rounds (25min)
plate push 35lb
wall ball 15lb
tire flips
squat jump holding 10lb plate
Zots press- front squat then military press while holding the squat-stand holding the press- repeat. Cry.

Friday 20th-
5 Rounds
10 front squats 65lb
20 push ups
30 full sit ups
200m run

finished with 400m warm down jog
added 2 sets of walk the boxes push ups 8,12,18,24 inch boxes lined up-3 push ups on each with feet elevated then back down with chest elevated
2x10x 25lb plate raises in between
2x 30 sec wall sit with 10lb plate overhead.
Then I quit.

Time Management:

2010-08-15T15:38:00.001-05:00

During July we had a wedding. And I had a working trip to Montana. And we spent a weekend driving to and from Oklahoma to help the newly-marrieds move. And on 4 weekends we were either picking up or dropping off the small one at a camp an hour or so up the road each way. And I continued to work my usual 10 hour days throughout. I got a little tired. So I tacked on a camping trip to the first weekend in August. Bright idea, eh? I have a sore throat I can't shake, I'm constantly exhausted and my resting heart rate is hovering around 40 beats/minute. I may need a rest. But there is no rest for the wicked?!

The wedding: Perfection. The bride was lovely, the groom was dapper and the reception was absolutely capital F-Fun.This probably deserves a full post of pictures which my SIL julia did a great job of taking. But I don't know where J stored them.

Montana: was spectacular. I can't wait to find an opportunity or reason to return. On each end of work sessions, which were 3 very intense and long days, my boss and I wrangled a day to enjoy the beauty. Before the meeting started we headed to Lewis and Clark Caverns State Park. I think the drive might have been as lovely as the caverns.

We were staying in Bozeman, home of the University of Montana at Bozeman. Apparently a few years back the students decided that a hike close by the U needed a monument of sorts. So this white rock "M" was laid out at the pinnacle of this steep trail that can be seen from several vantage points in town down in the valley. I climbed it, as fast as I could, while the boss stayed in the car to take a phone call about her new house. 35 minutes up and back. Must say I was rather impressed with myself : ) We also managed to find that Bozeman is completely and utterly littered with trails. Bikes and pedestrians everywhere with some sidewalks but not many bike lanes. Goes to disprove my theory that people in Little Rock can't walk or bike due to lack of safe sidewalks and lanes. Apparently the trick is to teach DRIVERS to share the road. Sigh.The campus is lovely. I even found that I could share an afternoon respite from mind numbing science to sit with Walt Whitman. Nice.

On the day before departure we rented a car for a trip 90 miles South to Yellowstone National Park. Oh. That's it. Just Oh. Whenever I am in unfamiliar territory I have to wonder, when you grow up looking at this lovliness...do you ever really see it? Do people who grow up here find the same kind of peace and tranquility when they visit the plains, a sandy beach or a flat delta farmland? There is nothing like snow capped mountains or standing at the top of a deep canyon over a waterfall to make one feel small and insignifcant in this world and yet after the initial shock of my own smallness here, I want to climb-scale-run-hop-roll in the snow at the top. That desire is somehow empowering.

Toward the end of an exhausting but sight filled day- we looked out the window of the car as we were driving alongside the Yellowstone River and caught a glimpse of these guys playing in the white caps of the rapids. They are much larger than they appear! We had to stop and take a walk down to see them.

And then out of nowhere, just hanging out on the side of the road as if he was just waiting for some buddies to come by was this fella. Not the biggest bloke we'd seen all day, but one of the mellowest. He just watched as the traffic went by. Don't you wonder what the animals think? Car after car filled with people, just staring at him and taking pictures. I would like to think he is thinking, "what a bunch of morons...don't you know there could be millions of us in your own backyard if there weren't highways and parking lots everywhere?"

July was BUSY. August shows no sign of slowing down. Just this weekend We've done hours of trail work, seen a minor league ball game, gone for a bike ride, had a sweet brunch and shopped at the Argenta Market for T-Bones from Creekstone Farms Humane Processing and had the best chocolate milk ever. No, I mean Ever. J says that in Heaven, this milk is available any time, in unlimited quantities. Thanks Seven Doves Creamery. I gotta go get more milk. I'm thirsty. I think the buck would like some too.

What blog?

2010-08-10T16:16:00.000-05:00

A weeklong work trip to Montana. A weekend trip to Oklahoma. A weekend camping trip to DeGray Lake Resort State Park. And somewhere in between was some trail work, a few workouts, and possibly one or two mental meltdowns. Zombies have no need for blogs. But perhaps when this stupor is over, or regains a slow shuffle, I'll have pictures. Boy do I have pictures.

And the summer is...nearly over

2010-07-14T16:04:00.002-05:00

We've been a little busy doing things like this:

And witnessing beautiful things:

And having fun like this:

And there just hasn't been enough time for everything. Blogging is one of those every things.

Before these lovely photos (THANKS! Julia) were taken, there were some actual workout days believe it or not.

Monday June28:

5K partner run. That's right a 5K run holding a 10lb plate between you and your partner. Soon discovered that it was a little easier to let one person run with the plate and switch off. Defeats the purpose but left shoulders intact

Tuesday 29

500 jump ropes

5 rounds as fast as possible for time:

10 thrusters (front squat/push press 45lb)

5 pullups ( I used the rubber band on the pullups, weakling)

time 4:58

500 jump ropes

CORE at the end

Wednesday 30

short CORE

2 rounds with 3:00 at each station :30work :10rest

plyo board call outs

plyo machine call outs

box jumps

jump rope

jump machine

treadmill fast run

Friday July 2nd

Pinnacle trip with Libi- my neice. That adventure deserves its own post. It'll happen eventually.

Tuesday 6th

100 sit ups

500 jump rope

3 Rounds:

21 sec 21% incline run @ 7mph

400m backward run

21 single leg jump 1 x 75lb, 2 x 60

400m forward run

21 box jumps

21 wall balls 12lb

Wednesday 7th

2.5 mile run in the mid day heat

1.5 hr mountain bike ride- road and Pfiefer loop track in the p.m.

forgot to write down Thursday and Friday oops

Sunday 11th

Trail work and mountain bike in the a.m.

4 mile run/hike at Seven Hollows yeehaw

Tuesday 13th

500 jump rope

100 sit up

5x5 bench press 85lb

5x5 push press 55lb

5 Rounds of push ups on various height boxes with plate raises in between. It still hurts

Wednesday 14th

CORE+

8 rounds of :30work :30 to transition to next station (not rest according to the Man)

plate push 35lb

tire press (4 per group)

tire flip

box jump

wall sit w/plate hold

Whew. I'm tired now.

Work Out- Catch Up

2010-06-25T14:03:00.001-05:00

Tues June 15:
warm up with tough CORE work
12 x 200m laps, alternating running forward and backward with call outs every 45 seconds. Jump squats, push ups, jacks, or lunges.

Wed:
CORE again
5 rounds:
200m run
50 wall balls (12lb)
50 yd plate push (35lb)

Friday:
CORE
2 rounds:
Partner run holding a 45lb plate between 2 people 400 m
partner curl 30lb bar 10,9,8,7,...1 (1 works while the other person rests passing the weight back and forth)
partner run backward holding plate 200m
partner tricep extension 25lb bell

Mon June 22:
Warm up: jump rope 3 min, 2 x 10 overhead squat PVC pipe *7lb?, 2 x 10 front squat 45lb bar

100 backboard slaps
100 jump rope both feet, 50 on each leg
single leg squat x 50 each leg
plyo jump 10x10 105lb
lateral box jump 3 x 30sec

Wed:
circuit 20sec work: 10sec rest for 4min
jump rope
400m forward run, 400m backward- have 4 min to complete, any time left to rest
bench press x 25lb DBs to 20lb after 4th set
push press x 45lb bar
alternate heavy bag punch and squat jumps
plate push 35lb for 3 min (had to dash, late for the bus)

2 mile jog/walk at 11 a.m. in the heat. Not a great idea.

Thurs:
jump rope 3 min
bench press 5,4,3..1 from 65 up to 95lb
100 chair push ups, set of 20 then sets of 10-15 at a time
curls- 45lb to failure, 35lb to failure, 5lb bar with partner resisiting-x8
2 x 1:00 plank in push up position, 1min rest between

20 oz. curls with Sarah Smiles on the deck at Senor Tequila's. Can you say "negate all workouts for the week"?
Hoping for a little Pinnacle this weekend!

Blog Hiatus

2010-06-22T20:51:00.004-05:00

Toward the end of May I contracted a nasty respiratory virus that kicked my butt for 2 full weeks. By June 4, we were headed on vacation and I was still keeping NyQuil close by. I felt much better while on vacay but since returning, there has been so much to do I feel like a dog whose owner just threw every single ball in the house out at once and screamed "FETCH" OMG- which way do I go, which way do I go??

I'll catch up on workout stuff but 3 things we did for exercise while on vacation: Riding mountain bikes on the beach at low tide. Those knobby tires, despite being somewhat fat, did not like the sand, even packed sand. We did about 8 miles of tough riding one morning with hardly a soul out but us. And that one crab that had both his beady eyes on us, a lot of birds. I thought I saw a sea serpent but it turned out to be a dead sea snake.

Kayaking the intercoastal waterway. Unfortunately we thought a tour group would be a better way to do this. We were oh so wrong. None of the other participants had ever even been in a kayak before so that was interesting. Then, we knew more about the history of the city than our guide. That disappointed. I wanted to learn.

Paddle Boards. Oh my gravy! I wish I had discovered this the first day. I would have done it every single day we were there. Every day. Did I say every day? Maybe twice a day. : )

For our vacation this summer we tent camped at Anastasia State Park in St. Augustine, Florida. It is a lovely park and our campsite stayed surprisingly shady most of the day. Big Palms and Live Oaks helped with that. We were within walking distance of the beach but we usually rode bikes. The night we arrived we went down to the beach to walk in the waning sunshine. Lovely.

St. Augustine is touted as the oldest continuously inhabited city in the U.S. There are buildings from the Spanish colonial period and the British "occupation" period that have been wonderfully restore as well as modern wonders like the Ponce de Leon Hotel, that served as a Coast Guard training center in WWII and is now Flagler College.
One of the first historically significant places we visited was Ft. Matanzas, built in 1740-42 to protect the Southern entry route to St. Augustine. We learned that Matanzas is translated as slaughter. Matanzas River and the fort were named for a skirmish between the Spanish soldiers at the fort and some French soldiers sailing down from Ft. Caroline, the French being the slaughtered ones of course. We saw pictures of what the remains of the fort looked like when the NPS took it over, we are so lucky that there are people interested enough to maintain these historical beauties for us. I can only imagine how beautiful this was with white stucco and red trim.

Later in the evening we went into the old city of St. Augustine and walked around. A lot. It was hot. In the evening we took a walking tour of the city that started at the old city gate where parts of the city wall remain and you can see the impressive Castillo de San Marcos standing guard at the water.
Another morning at the beach then led to another visit downtown to an area of boutiques, junktique stores and a shop with the yummiest cupcakes on the planet. Shout out to Luli's and their Key Lime cupcakes. While in the area we toured around the Mission of Nombre de Dios and the Shrine of Our Lady of La Leche. So pretty! One of the items of interest here is a 208 foot steel cross. We caught the sun right overhead, giving the cross a corona.

As it should be. Somehow after the beauty of this church, we still managed to Tourism Cheeseball our way to the Ripley's Museum. Always a treat but I think we've seen them all now. Luckily the small one is not as enamored with Ripley as she once was.
The next morning had us on an early morning bike ride to the local farmer's market. Oddly enough, our purchases were in order: coffee for the big ones, rice milk for the small one. Turned out the kids running the coffee shop had lived in Fayetteville. Small world. 3 giant juicy breakfast burritos. Oh good gravy! A skirt of recycled Tshirts for me and a collage for the small one. What we don't know about art, we make up for in enthusiasm. We biked back to camp, even though it was only 9 a.m, it was already terribly hot. We headed straight to the city for a guided kayak tour. See above. Disappointing. After lunch we walked up to the Castillo. We had passed by it, sometimes several times a day but had yet to enter. It was a magnificent structure but I wish we had a live guide or at least a recorded guide. There was too much there and not enough printed info for my taste. Lovely views. Interesting history. A good day. I hope people weren't too offended by our smell having been active outside the entire day.

We had to make a quick trip to the grocery for supplies then went "home" to have beanie weenies and a game of National Park Monopoly that we bought at the Castillo. Our camp neighbors invited us for S'mores...no one can resist the S'mores!
Next day it was back to the beach with a plan to hit the oldest part of the city for the afternoon. We hit the Alligator Farm first. Driving into St. Augustine the first night, the small one said "Is it like Joe Dirt? Will they wrestle alligators? I don't want to go there." But it wasn't. It was beautiful. One of the highlights of the trip! Besides the lovely reptilians, the birds were incredible. Incredible.

By late lunchtime we were in town searching for sustenance. We happened upon Gaufre's Goods where they advertised a mash of Mediterranean foods mixed with Polish delicacies. Odd. And intriguing. Of course we had to eat there. Man was it yummy. I've forgotten to upload the food pictures the small one snapped throughout our trip, I must get them from her. I had the best Greek salad, a slice of spanikopita and some coconut soup that was deee- licious. The small one ate a cabbage roll the size of her head and the big one had pierogies. Meat ones. Fried with bacon. Lordy. We took dessert of baklava, a wedding cookie, and a canoli? with us as we walked to The Oldest House Museum. Then we walked over to the Cathedral. So beautiful.

Afterward, we had very nice meal at The Conch House Restaurant and tiki bar and we were oh so ready for those camp cots. That was a LONG day.
Last full day in the park so instead of the beach, we went to the Salt Run Marsh between the beach and the camp ground to rent paddle boards. I've already had my say on this activity. This was the highlight of MY trip.

It was a day for fun in the sun so we hit the beach after this for a last chance swim. We'd come to the last day of our trip and hadn't visited one of the iconic St. Augustine locales less than 2 miles from our camp, the St. Augustine Lighthouse. We'd seen it from just about every angle: driving past going to and from town, from our bikes, from kayaks, from paddle boards...but hadn't been inside. What a surprise it was! They had an audio tour that was very well done with stories and interviews of former caretakers and their families. The old caretakers house had a wonderful WWII exhibit and memorabilia. But the stairs in the lighthouse were my personal favorite. So glad the man has an eye for shots like this one.

I can't imagine climbing those stairs, every couple of hours, carrying a 60lb bucket of oil for the lamp. Oh my what a workout that would be!

Lovely relaxing day. I was not ready for this vacation to end. Time to start saving money for the next one!!

Row, Row, Row the boat....

2010-05-23T15:53:00.000-05:00

Or machine. Whichever.
Monday:
400 rows on machine
50 wall balls 15lb
300 rows
50 box jumps 18inch
200 rows
1 min heavy bag punches
100 count jump rope
200 m backward on elliptical resistance @level4
50 box jump
300 m bw
50 wall balls 12lb
200 m bw

Tuesday: at work-
20 min on treadmill-4 min w/u, 12 min hill intervals 3.7 mph, 4 min jog 6 mph
CORE , 50 ea seated twist, toe touches w/ 10 lb plate and 50 seated knee tucks
20 pushups : surrenders x 10lb DBs x 2
15 tricep pulldown : 25 mtn climbers ea leg x 2
20 fast squats : 10 dumbbell chest press 25lb x 2

Wednesday-warm up on agility ladder
sprints and back pedals
4 warm up sprints 7.5 mph
5 sets of 15 sec work: 10 sec rest backpedal 4.5-5 mph (2:05 ea set)
4 sets backpedal 15 sec forward 15 sec 4.5 mph: 9 mph (2:00 ea set)
3 cool down runs x 20 sec ea

Thursday- warm up on ladder
2 rounds:
tire flips x 15
plate push 40 yds x 25lb
heavy bag punch 1 min
plyo jumps x 20 x 105lb
jump rope 2 min
wall sit w/ 25 lb plate overhead 2 min ( I had to do it in 30-40 sec intervals. it hurt)
chair push ups x 20

Thursday night workout at Faded Rose included a bottle of wine and Red Beans and Rice with Andouille. And then unexpected visitors.

Friday- no workout. I'm sure that's a shocker

Saturday- 2.5 hours of walk, jog and climb at Pinnacle Mountain. I've missed my outdoor gym and could tell I haven't done it enough lately.

See I have this kid...

2010-05-20T17:29:00.001-05:00

and she's smart. And pretty. And creative. And I probably tell her more often that she's irresponsible and isn't working hard enough instead of praising what she is. She attends a school that goes from 3 yr olds to 8th grade. Many of her classmates have been going to school together, with the whole grade no larger than 2 classes, since they were 3. Even though she only started school there in 5th grade, she feels like this school is her home. They are "graduating" next week. Earlier this year we were given the option of placing an ad in the back of this year's Yearbook to commemorate her transition into High School. I love this quote. And I love the pictures her Dad took of her and the ones he put together to try to show all her personalities. Even as a baby, she couldn't resist a good book. Especially one that played music. I think this ruined her for life and is the reason she can't do anything, including read, without music on.

If this moment in time is any indication, she and her friends will grow up to be crazy, smart, wild, creative, freaky, fun, loving, compassionate adults. And some of them might even be able to do chores without being asked. Amen.

The Fun Stuff

2010-05-16T08:36:00.000-05:00

There were much more interesting events this week than workouts. Like a sports banquet that involved a slight disagreement over the length of a skirt. Which turned out to be pointless since apparently the parents of every single 14 year old girl on the planet had this same argument this week. And a piano recital. And more trail work. But that can wait until I have cleaned up pictures and video.

Mon: warm up was knee lifts, hip swings, walking lunges etc. to get ready for this-
50 reverse lunges 25 ea leg
50 split jumps
50 tractor tire flips with jumps (flip it, jump in the tire, jump out)
      managed 30 in the first set but at some point, several people were stuck on flips because it took the most time so we had to all take turns on one tire, yes that's right, me and the boys flippin the same tire
uphill run 20% incline 5mph 2 x 50 sec
50 tire flips (no jump) did 20 in the first set
50 single leg press-25 ea leg, 75lb

run, flat, 8.5 mph x 50 sec    9 mph x 50 sec
     got 20 more tire flips + jumps in
50 plyo jumps x 90lb
finished tire flips x 30

Tues: warm up knee lifts, hip swings and jump rope
should have been a 5k run but used the rowing machine again instead of running on asphalt, fasciitis still an issue
500 rows, 20 push ups, 500 rows, 20 push ups, 250 rows, 20 pushups

Wed: warm up with CORE
3 rounds of 20 sec work: 10 sec rest for 4 min at each station (that equals an hour, I did the math :) )
agility ladder with 4 long jumps at the end
plyo board jumps
plyo machine hops x 150lb
box jumps, 2 x 12 @24in, 1 x12 @18in, 1 x 12 @12in, 1 x 12 @ 8in...not timed, if you could do them fast, you could rest until the next round started
jump rope

Plyo board- diamond shape on a wooden (think basketball court) platform with 1,2,3,4 in a cross. Each time we'd get a combo call like 1-2 or 1-2-4, and jump only on those numbers so it's front and back or side to side or side front back. Plyo machine has you on your back with a weighted platform at your feet. for this one, the numbers like the plyo board are on this platform to. Lift the weight by straightening legs then hop between the numbers called. Not as easy as it sounds! I really liked this workout- I have terrible verticle so I need stuff like this.

skipped Thurs
Fri: warm up with CORE
4 rounds of
500 rows
30 kettlebell swings x 20lb
10 pullups (assisted with band)
30 full situps

Saturday was trail work, got about 2.5 hours in before I had to come home to get ready for the small one's piano recital.
Who knows what will happen today. Could be a bike ride, could be much needed yard work. Pretty sad that we've been working on trail so much that the "wilderness" looks better than our yard.

Workout Lite

2010-05-09T19:54:00.001-05:00

Was not a heavy workout week.
Monday:
warm up :4 x 8 3 in 1's (hang clean, front squat, push press) 1 x 45lb, 1 x 55lb, 2 x 65lb
4 rounds of:
300 rows on rowing machine
hang snatch x 10 x 45lb
300 rows
turkish get ups x 6 ea arm x 10lb kettlebell (from standing down to lying on floor and back up all while holding a weight pointed up to the ceiling regardless of body position. Try it. Not as easy as it sounds)

Tuesday:
1 min weighted toe touches x 10lb
30 sec plank
1 min jump rope
30 sec plank
1 min wtd roman twists x 25lb ouch
30 sec plank
30 sec jump rope single leg, each leg
30 sec plank
1 min flutter kicks and that was the warm up

6 rounds
200 meter run ( I ran 3 and did 3 x 200 rows on the rowing machine. Rowing is harder)
30 wall balls x 12lb
30 kettlebell swings x 20lb

Thursday:
warm up with a little core, not much
15 minutes of 10:10:15 lat pulldowns, push ups, sumo squats
45 sec run @ 8mph
10 push ups
run
10 lunges each leg
repeat all 4 again
3 x 30 sec @ 9mph

Saturday:
17 mile bike ride, flat but fast
Sunday:
6 mile bike ride with the small one, flat and slow but alternated Big Ring Ride with Spinning

Mother's Day Workout

2010-05-09T11:27:00.004-05:00

This week there were a few workouts of the usual type but also a different sort of cardio. This week my heart has been given heavy pitter pattering while watching the kids and wondering "how did I end up here?". Thump Thump, Thump Thump. I'm watching my baby grow up and become a young woman. Scary enough. I'm watching the boy I got as a bonus when I married my husband be more excited about his college experience than I've ever seen him before even though he's beginning his Junior year. He needed to make some changes and has been smart enough to make them happen. And then there's the oldest. Oh my. She was a 15 year old who was already 6 feet tall and made me feel like a dwarf when I met her...I don't think she's gotten much taller but she continues to dwarf me in so many other ways. She sees what she wants and makes it happen. Not many people can do that. She's officially a college graduate. With honors. And is getting married to another recently graduated honors student who shares my love of things dorky and science-like. She's adding to our often strange little family, in-laws who are incredibly fun and smart and make me laugh like few other people I know. Life is full of goodness. And my insulating bubble that keeps the goodness in and the badness out, is still intact today. Amen.

Love Without Resistance

2010-04-30T23:52:00.001-05:00

I've been too busy to blog. My life is full and I should be thankful. I've been busy doing stuff like rushing around to get 3 girls to their last soccer game of the season where they just had fun. This team ... oh my. They have a few girls who have played before but the majority of the team are first timers. For a Middle School age group, this is not a recipe for a championship team. Mine tends to watch and process the game more so when she makes a move it's deliberate. Our Tinkerbell sweetie who only entered the fray for the last 3 games of the season, charges like a mama elephant even though she's half the size of the competition and hadn't kicked a soccer ball until a month ago. Then there's "the bull". I love watching her play. She gets in the way, she accidently ahem knocks people over. She is all legs and elbows and laughter. This game she even managed to let a ball bounce off her shoulder and right into the goal. Our goal unfortunately but still...it was the only goal of the game for our team. And when she got up from the ground where she let herself collapse after realizing what she'd done, I could hear her laugh. She has a very loud raucous laugh. There is no mistaking it. I was worried she would cry but most of her teammates were laughing with her. Not the goalie, but I wouldn't have laughed if I were her either.
Immediately following the game we hit a fast food joint for a bite then hurried back to town 30 minutes away to drop the others off at home so we could turn around for a 3 hour drive to Winslow, Arkansas and one of my favorite places in the state. Devil's Den State Park.
The Man was going up for a video/photo shoot in the park for new commercials and ads. The small one and I went along because 1) who passes up a night in a cabin in a beautiful park? and 2) maybe we'll get lucky and get to be in the shot. We didn't get to the cabin until almost 11 p.m. I would love to rent this cabin again- screened in porch with rocking chairs and a picnic table facing the woods and we could hear the creek. #12, go, make reservations NOW. Having had a long day, we all fell into bed until the alarm went off before dawn the next day.

And then the work began. The 3 of us set out for the campground to meet several others including the always gracious and lovely Park Wife and her clan. Luckily the boy was able to free his schedule for the morning and he met us in the campground too. I think he was happy he did since he spent the entire morning at the forefront of a video shoot hiking across Lee Creek with the park interpreter, Rebecca, who is very easy to look at. And smart. And funny. The poor boy. It was such a chore for him. It amazes me each time what goes into just getting some pictures on film- waiting for the light to be just right, doing the same thing over and over again to get the right shot. It's exhausting, I can't imagine how the film crew does it all the time. We had a fun day, a full day, a long day.

Someone kept yelling "Smile!"

In the middle of the day while there was a break, mostly due to the cloud cover moving in, I caught the small one and the boy playing in the creek and on the dam. J usually has sole custody of the camera but he was busy so I grabbed it to catch the fun. I marvel at times such as these that our little blended family that has been through such trials and tribulations, has grown into this. Moments of peace, camaraderie, gentleness. Moments when the tensions and anger of the past don't show. Love without resistance. Caught on film.

2 Lazy 2 Blog Workout

2010-04-30T15:26:00.001-05:00

Busy or Lazy. I could go either way. I'm having issues with foot pain (fasciitis), so I had to replace all the running exercises with something else, like rowing or elliptical. And I missed blogging the workouts the last 2 weeks so here we go:

Monday 19th
warm up: CORE and 4 x 8 hang clean 1 x 65lb, 3x 75lb
3 Rounds of:
group hang clean x 10 x 75lb
200 rows on rowing machine
15 single arm push press 20lb DBs
200m backwards on elliptical
tuck jumps x 20
It was supposed to be 5 rounds but I had to get to carpool so I did 2 more rounds at work in the afternoon

Tuesday 20th
warm up CORE
5 Rounds of : 1 min at each station, 1 min rest after completion of all 5
Box Jump 18 inches
wall ball 12lb
plate push 35lb
jump rope (try for at least 100 jumps)
push press 65lb

Wednesday 21st
warm up CORE
30 minutes to do as many rounds as possible- I got 3 1/4
15 single arm snatch each arm 25lb
200 rows
15 kettlebell swing 20lb
10 pushups, 10 chair pushups, 10 clapping pushups ( i had to do the clapping ones on my knees, grr)

Mountain bike for about 45 minutes in the evening- easy pace

Friday 23rd
1 1/2 mile on the elliptical with call outs (stop to do whatever C says do: pushups, jumping jacks, mountain climbers, etc) 50 tire flips to be done any time. I did 20 in the middle of the "run" and 30 after.

Monday 26th
warm up CORE
20 minutes- as many rounds as possible
10 lat pulldowns 70lb
10 push ups
15 squats with 12lb DBs

Friday 30th
warm up CORE
Jump rope- 1 min dbl foot jump, 30 sec right leg, 30 sec left. 2 min rest, REPEAT
1 min dbl foot jump, 30 sec shuffle jump, 30 sec dbl under- which I could NOT do. Kept whacking my ankles with the rope. 2min rest REPEAT
20 sec work 10 sec rest x 8 intervals (4 min of ea exercise)
push up
squat
full sit up
walking lunge

I Heart Tractor Tires

2010-04-11T18:01:00.011-05:00

What a great way to spend a Sunday morning and afternoon.

Monday: warm up with Core work
10 min limit- do 50 tire flips- GO! Did it.
Overhead tire presses- 4 people pressing. Supposed to do 50, I'm not sure if we did. I think I blacked out.
50 tire flip and jump (flip, jump in, jump out)

Tuesday: warm up with bench press...5x65lb, 5x75lb
Bench press 2x3x95lb, 2x2x105lb, 1x1x105lb
50 chair pushups, 15,10,10,10,5
superset: incline DB press 3x10x20lb, 1x10x25lb AND Ab Ball Flys 4 x 15 x 15lb
50 pushups wearing 25lb weight vest 15,15,13,8

Wednesday: warm up with Core
30 minutes to do as many rounds as possible: did 7 Rounds in just over 30min of:
20 mt climbers each leg
20 sec sprint 20% incline 6.6mph
10 single leg plyo jumps 90lb
200m run
Wednesday night was just nuts and I didn't feel like cooking so instead- we had this lovely plate of cheese, fruit and smoked salmon rolled with cream cheese and grilled squash.

Thursday: warm up with Coreand bench press 1x5x85, 2x2x100, 2x3x95
20 min limit to do as many rounds as possible:did 4
400m run
21 kettlebell swings x 20lb
12 pullups (used a band for assist)

Friday: NADA, did nothing. Felt guilty. Dunno why.

Saturday: Heavy Yard Work. Still hoping I saw the Poison Ivy before it saw me. So far so good.

Sunday-GOT MY MOUNTAIN BIKE ON!

This morning we set out at Murray Park, close to the Big Dam Bridge and headed over the bridge into NLR. At the Soccer fields we cut over to the trails at Burns Park to ride in the woods for a while. We rode for several miles and there is a sweet but much too short ridge ride that we love. There's J on the ridge, and here's me coming down the end. J says I always look stressed in every picture so he said SMILE! Now he says I have a cheesy fake grin- Bud, you can't haven't both ways.

We rode out of the park and down the river trail to the Emerald Park turn to head up the switchbacks to Ft. Roots. We rode the rough and tumble rocky trail down to pick up the river trail once again and into downtown Little Rock. We stopped at Rumba Mexi-Cuban Kitchen for a bite to eat. Turns out they do a brunch on Sundays with a make your own Bloody Mary bar. hmmm. Didn't try the Bloody Mary bar since we were still riding. I had grilled fish tacos and J had the chorizo with cheese grits. If we hadn't eaten 2 count them 2 baskets of chips, it would have been better. : ) Those last 6 miles or so to finish the river trail were a bit tougher than they had to be.

We'll have EASY workouts, April Fools!

2010-04-04T17:12:00.000-05:00

Monday: warm up with Core
6 rounds of:
Max chair pushups
30 kettlebell swings (20lb)
350 m run holding 15lb medicine ball
50 m of backward lunges holding med ball at chest height

Tuesday:
Bench Press warm up then 2x3 @ 95lb 1x2 @ 100lb but failed on #2 so 1x1 back @ 95lb
Superset: 4 x 20 close grip push ups with 4 x 12 tricep pulldowns @ 30lb
Superset: 5 x 10 lat pulldowns @70lb with 5 x 10 curl and press @ 15lb for some, 20lb for some
partner curl with 30lb bar: 10 reps,8,6,4,2,1,3,5,7,9

Wednesday: 1.5 hours mountain biking with the girls : )

Thursday: warm up with Core
20 rep-15rep-10rep each
Thrusters (front squat with push press) 45lb for 20 and 15 set, 65lb for 10 rep set
squat thrusts
Followed immediately by 1.5 mile run total time 21:02

Also did 45 minutes of step aerobics in the afternoon

Friday:
Upper Body-50 push ups, bench press 2x5 @ 85lb 2x3 @ 90lb, 50 chair pushups
followed by 400m run, 400m backward jog, 200m sprint

And then the trouble started! Hot dogs, chips, ice cream- fish tacos, margaritas and apple crepes with grand marnier!!!! It was a good (bad) food weekend. And now there is a pork loin a cookin in my kitchen. I love to eat.

These Boots are Made for Walkin'...

2010-04-04T16:40:00.000-05:00

A little more than seven years ago, I purchased a pair of hiking boots to wear on a dream trip to hike the Inca Trail in Peru. I love those boots. Rather, I loved them. I loved them till they looked like a ratty old doll in the bottom of the toy chest. That pair of boots carried me, my pack and my dreams on countless adventures. They have hiked trails on 2 continents. They have been on my feet as I helped build new trails. They've played in the rare Arkansas snowfalls and kept my feet dry while throwing the snowballs I'm lucky to make every couple of years. They've crossed streams and rivers and mountain passes yet have never once given me a blister. The boots must love me too. They carried me along when I was in front of, in back of, and most importantly beside my treasured partner in outdoor adventure.

Alas, as all good things must come to an end, so it was with my boots this past week. About halfway through a 27 mile hike we were walking along a rocky riverbed when something didn't feel quite right. I looked down to find that the sole of my boot was flapping freely in the breeze. And the other boot was about to blow too. Did I immediately worry about how I was going to finish the hike with no sole? No. My first thought was "How will I ever replace these!?" Everyone knows that duct tape is essential. Not only when hiking in backcountry...duct tape should be mandatory equipment for life. My boys quickly bound both my boots at the toe and we continued on our way. Those duct tape covered boots made it through the rest of the day, over rocks and roots, up steep hills and back down again and then I asked for more. We still had another 6.5 miles to go on day three. The terrain would not be as demanding but it would be wet. And they held together. I'm tempted to keep them regardless of appearance. Perhaps like the worn out and hard loved Velveteen Rabbit, my boots will have another life after this one.

Thanks to LOWA for 7 years of fantastic adventure. Guess I'd better start shopping.

What Grade is that Climb?

2010-03-29T15:47:00.001-05:00

Because I'm kind of sick and wanted to learn more about the Marathon and the 17 mile "fun run" that happens on the trail we hiked last week, I went back and looked a bit closer at the website for the run. This is what I found about the climbs of late day 1 and all of day 2 of our trip.

8 Ridge Passes:
Missouri
Hurrican Knob
Brier Creek
Leader
Brushheap
Brushy
Big Tom

Max elev. 2028 ft Min elev. 1023 ft Climbing Gain 4600 ft
Climbing distance 7.10 mi Avg Grade 12%

Nice. So the marathon involves all these climbs- twice? It's an out and back. My original assumption that these people are crazy still holds.

Spring Break Hike

2010-03-26T11:30:00.002-05:00

Several weeks ago, my stepson David asked us if we would take him backpacking for Spring Break. I couldn't let that opportunity pass! A trip that we have planned several times but never made happen was waiting for us. We could start the Eagle Rock Loop , the longest loop trail in Arkansas, in less than 2 hours drive time from home. Monday morning bright and early we packed up the car and headed straight into adventure.

We started at the Albert Pike Rec Area in Langley, AR. We each got our gear out, changed into boots and looked down the trail. Immediately all the information about water crossings that we had read and heard came roaring to the surface. There was a low water bridge and a small stream crossing within 0.1mi of the parking area. It's going to be a wet day. A fantastic, beautiful, scenic, lovely, wet day. Which meant a slow start because the camera was out. A lot. Within a couple of miles we ran into a large youth group from Illinois who had sheltered overnight in the rain and snow flurries of Sunday. They stayed with us until the first river crossing. It was thigh high (for me anyway, knee high for the guys) and I learned a lesson to last the rest of the trip: Choose your path carefully before you step into the water. It's cold in there! The group went in search of a better crossing spot and we didn't see them again. I hope they had a good time enjoying the sunshine after the rain.

One of the most popular sections of the

Little Missouri Trail is Winding Stairs. I found a you-tube video from Exploring Arkansas with Chuck Dovish about this part of the trail. We found the perfect spot for lunch and took our time enjoying peanut butter and honey sandwiches while listening to the rushing water and dreaming about using that rope swing over the deep blue swimming hole on a hot summer day. This part of the hike gave us a lot of small stream crossings, I think we stopped counting at 10 by mid morning. Most of them were rock hoppers but a few were sit down and put on the Tevas or Keens. At one rather deep and wide crossing we ran into some girls from OBU on a day hike. I think they learned some lessons that day too. Like believe it when someone tells you you're going to get wet. And don't wear so much cotton. David got to play the chivalrous knight and offered advice from the far side, a hand as they made it across and shared his Shamwow to dry their feet. No ladies, chivalry is not dead. At least not on the trail.

We knew the section of the Athens-Big Fork trail was going to involve multiple steep climbs over mountain ridges so we tried to get one over with before we made camp for the night. We made it up to Eagle Rock Vista about 3:30 p.m. and spent a few minutes enjoying the view. The climb up was moderately strenuous for the old 'rents, but the boy just went up like he had wings. In the valley we found the perfect camp spot with plenty of room for both tents, off the trail, and next to water. We were pleasantly surprised at the number of campsites along the way. It was still relatively early so we hunkered down for a lengthy UNO game before making our standard first night camp dinner of Mac n Cheese with Summer Sausage. Don't judge, just understand that some traditions hold dear, even if it means carrying a pound of sausage in your pack. J could barely keep his eyes open and though we all debated about the dangers of going to bed too early lest we all be up at the crack of dawn...we crashed and didn't get up until after 7 a.m. the next morning.

Finishing the Athens-Big Fork trail will be the toughest part of the hike. We all know it and we're ready for the assault. Up. Up. Lots of Up. and killer down. Did I mention there was a lot of water too? We had 5 ridges to pass over and lots more stream/river crossings. I can't believe this was once a mail route between Athens and Big Fork. There is a marathon and a "fun run" in this area. See these people? These people are nuts. This is a tough trail. Look what it did to my boots! These trails are rocky and require sturdy soles and souls. Thank God for duct tape and prayer. Amen.

A recent controlled burn made parts of this trail seem a bit desolate, especially since life hasn't had time to "green up" even in areas not burned. Still there is beauty to be found in the desolation, you just have to dig a little deeper to find it. Like this guy. He was finding the beauty in a sunny day on the trail until I almost stepped on him. No I did not leave the starburst...snakes don't like sugar. That's how they keep their slim figures.

The plan for the day was to hike as long as we could, at least until 5 before we started looking for a camp site. We made it within 0.25 mile of the Little Missouri Falls Rec Area which we thought was pretty good since the last 6-7 miles would be much easier terrain than the day we just completed. After setting up camp and making jambalaya for dinner, I brought out the treat of the day- Chocolates. It's rare we have the right temps to carry anything chocolate and they were a welcomed treat out there in the woods.

The morning started out a bit cloudy and threatening. We stopped at the Falls to take in the view.

Pretty soon we came to a section of the trail with multiple crossings of the Little Mo River. I don't know what it looks like in the Summer but it was flowing fast and was knee to thigh deep on me at every crossing. At the 3rd big crossing of the morning we caught up to a couple from Texarkana who were on their first backpacking trip. They had camped on the opposite side of the river from us the night before. We had a nice chat and were back on our way. About 2 miles from the end of our trip, the clouds parted, the trail became green and life was good. The boy was making it hard to keep up with his long legged strides and I unfortunately could not help but break into song every few minutes. This is an annoying trait, I recognize and embrace it. A few more small stream crossings and we were back to the low water bridge, tired and grinning from ear to ear. And most likely smelly. And most certainly carrying good memories in those heavy packs.

Another week, another $2.00

2010-03-19T14:40:00.000-05:00

Tuesday: warm up with CORE and agility ladder
25 pushups
25 chair pushups
25 weighted pushups (PU with a 25lb plate on my back, wish I had a picture)

outside run 800m forward, 400m backward, 800m FW, 400m BW.

Running backwards becomes the theme of the week.

Wednesday: lighter CORE workout to warm up
"The 300" 50 of each exercise done in sequence
wall ball x 15lb ball
box jump 24" box
pull ups (assisted by a band of course)
kettle bell swings 20lb
push up
thrusters 65lb (front squat with push press)

Thursday: CORE again.
5 x 10 hang clean 45lb bar
21 single leg jumps (used plyo machine on this set at 60lb)
400m run backward
200m sprint forward
15 single leg jumps
400m bw
200m fw
9 single leg jumps (used an 18" box this time)
400m bw
200m fw

Friday: CORE, again. Ouch.
3 rounds of:
tire flips x 15
tire hits x 20 - baseball bat coated in tape till it looks like a bowling pin, wood chop over head and hit tire.
plate push 2 x 20yds - 1 x 45lb 2 x 35lb
weighted step ups 12 ea leg - 1 x 25lb DBs on 24" box 2 x 20lb on 18"
bench dip x 10-elevated feet, 1 x 12 x 10lb plate in lap, 2 x 10 x 25lb plate
seated chest press x 15 ea arm x 30lb

I'm tired. And my shoulders are a little sore

I'm late, I'm late...

2010-03-17T19:11:00.001-05:00

We've been busy. Really busy. Last weekend J, the small one and I saw Eric Clapton Live and Elvis's grave at Graceland.She spent most of the concert with her mouth hanging open. It's great to watch her appreciate talented musicians. Not only were Mr. Clapton and Roger Daltrey (who opened) just phenomenal, but their bands were equally impressive. There was some fantastic musicianship all across that stage.
Just a quick shout out to Memphis Tourism. You guys have it down. We've made several trips to Memphis lately. Every one of them a success. From the time we arrived to the time we left people were helpful and nice and get this...they were POLITE! I felt like I was actually being served instead of my patronage being an inconvenience. I hate when in a restaurant, hotel or entertainment venue I am treated as though they are doing me a favor to take my money. So thanks Memphis. It didn't even ruffle my feathers that the nice lady at the concession stand at the Fed Ex Forum called me honey, baby and sugar all in one conversation while she apologized that I had to "gasp" wait in line to buy a soda.

The small one had asked to go to Graceland before but honestly we thought she wouldn't enjoy it. Imagine my surprise when she looked at me after we spent several hours there amidst a large group of young girl scouts (and a few screaming siblings) and said "thank you." Wow. Was it the gold records or the sequined jumpsuits? Perhaps the fancy cars and motorcycles? Maybe it was the fur covered furniture in the jungle room? I think she was amazed to find out that what would be an average sized home for some of her more affluent school companions, Graceland really was once considered a mansion.
We were going to eat at the famous Marlowe's BBQ after Graceland, alas it didn't open until 4 p.m. and we had to be back on the road to LR before then. So we searched 'area restaurants' in our TomTom and an address for Sam's Down South BBQ and Hot Wings came up. As we drove down the street the small one expressed some concern about the condition of the neighborhood. Upon arrival we discovered a smoker on the cracked front sidewalk of a strip mall. With window bars. And peeling paint on old concrete walls. But it smelled so good. So we entered. And were immediately greeted with "you folks aren't from around here are you?" I am not kidding. That's a quote. What? They don't see "our kind" there? How sad. The cook watched us warily for several minutes, commented how nice it was to have a loving family in his place and asked us all kinds of questions to make sure he fixed our meats just the way we wanted. Nice. After he finally figured out that we just like to eat, he sat down with us-there were no tables, just a couple of beat up old vinyl chairs-and we had a nice conversation while balancing styrofoam boxes full of MEAT. He even brought out some of the meats we didn't buy for us to try. We had ribs, wings and a pulled pork sammie between us but we tried the brisket which was heavenly, pork shoulder mmmm and rib tips. Sam thinks his rib tips are the bomb and he might be correct. Sam, those were some of the hottest, meatiest, messiest wings we've had in a long time. And yes you were right, the ribs are better dry.

Then J and I went off to Eureka Springs for 3 days while he attended a work conference. We were just in that gorgeous little town right after Christmas for some R&R. I knew I couldn't shop-or rather I shouldn't. Instead I ran the winding and hilly historic loop (from our hotel it was about 2.7 mi) where all the quaint little shops and restaurants are located, did hill repeats in our hotel driveway and then walked the loop again to get lunch. The following day I was completely lazy and read books, mostly cookbooks that I had "won" at the silent auction the night before. I watched more TV that day than I had in the last month I think. I became addicted to some show about people who "do" hair. How did I live not knowing about Shear Genius? Yeah. Whatev. I haven't watched it since that day and I can't say I've missed it. But THAT day, that day it was essential to my mental well being.

In December, I insisted that no exercise would be part of the trip. It was relaxing remember? But this time we took our mountain bikes and finally got to try out some of the trails at Lake Leatherwood. Here we are on Miner's Rock Trail. The sweeping downhill was so worth the climb up! Sweet Ride. That's a really nice little city park. Well done Eureka Springs.

There is no workout program...

2010-03-17T15:40:00.001-05:00

that makes up for a bad diet. Damn straight.

Sunday 7th: 5 hours of early morning trail work then 3.5 hours sitting in a car. Ate a lot.
Monday: 2.7mi hilly run, hill repeats to pain mode on short steep hill (about 8 sec runs each), chair pushups on the "porch" of our hotel room : ) , chair dips too, then a walk of the run route in the afternoon. Ate AND drank a lot.
Tuesday: Abs and a little in room cardio/calesthenics food wasn't quite as bad today, I even ate quite a bit of fruit but come on!!?? what's with the fried food frenzy?
Wednesday: an hour or so of pretty tough mountain biking and another long car trip
Thursday: NADA
Friday: back to morning class
10..9..8..7.......1 rep workout
Weighted stationary lunges 10,9,8 rep @ 20lb dumb bells 7,6,5 @25lb 4,3 @30lb 2@ 35lb, 1 @ 40lb
Incline dumb bell press 10,9,8 @ 20lb 7,6,5 @ 25lb 4,3,2,1 @ 30lb tried and failed with 35.
Dumb bell push press same as incline press

Finished off with 2 x 20 each sumo squats and walking lunges carrying a 15lb medicine ball. Yes my glutes were sore, thanks for asking.
then had a great pasta and wine dinner with Sweet Sarah Smiles.

Saturday: 7 yes I said 7 hours of trail work. Followed by another 3 or so in our own yard on Sunday. Criminy. No more raking for a while please. Pretty please. With a showgirl on top. Maybe even 2.

Full week

2010-03-06T20:35:00.000-06:00

Hit the 5:30 a.m. workout 5 days in a row this week!

Monday: warm up with core (seated twists w/10lb plate, V-ups, plank, etc)
5 pull ups
10 pushups
15 squats
20 rounds in 20 minutes!
then 1000m run/jog in 5'50"

Tuesday: warm up with core
50 pushups
bench press 2x3x80lb, 2x2x95lb, 1xFx100lb
10..9..8..7..6......1 start with 10 reps, then 9 then 8...so on down to 1
superset: dumb bell bench press and elevated pushup (feet on 8 in box) to failure
db press 25-30lb, avg push up 7
superset: push press and plate raise to failure
          push press ended rep 1 at 65lb but tried at 85lb and could do 4 reps...25lb plate raise avg to F was 10

I ruined it all by eating fried catfish and onion rings for dinner, but man was it tasty!

Wednesday: warm up with core and speed ladder work
Sprints day
8 sec sprint:8 sec high knee holding the support bar (same speed)
11 sprints @ 9-11mph, flat incline
4 x 12 sec sprint @12-12.5mph    tried 13mph but tripped and burned my back on the treadmill. Doofus.

Thursday: warm up with core and ladder again
3:00 circuit of ea exercise 20 sec work: 10 sec rest
box jumps switching between 18-24 in box x 3 rounds
plate push switching 25-35lb plate x 3 rounds
lat pulldowns 70lb/DB row 30lb x 2 rounds
tire flips avg 14 flips in 3 min x 2 rounds
DB military press 20lb x 2 rounds

Friday: warm up with core
5k outside in the cold
finished off 3 x 20 x 8lb wall balls

Then, the weekend. But that's another post.

Birthday Cake, Soccer and Karaoke

2010-02-28T18:56:00.001-06:00

This week the 'baby' had a birthday. We fooled her into thinking that we were ignoring the actual date due to all the other good stuff she was getting to do around the time of her birthday. But I couldn't let it go completely. So while she was having a music lesson, I went and rounded up her 3 best friends. The small ones' Grandparents met us at a local pizza joint and brought birthday cake. I went to pick her up and suggested we eat out since J was out of town and we were both hungry. I think she was surprised. She said she was surprised. How do you tell with teenage girls? They look surprised when you remind them they didn't finish a chore, or forgot the due date of a library book, or when you find that unfortunate stain that was hidden by a backpack on the floor for 3 days.

She gets very excited over mixed CDs made especially with her taste in mind.

Later in the week she had her first soccer game. She's trying the game this year after sitting out of any sport all last year. She says she likes it. I'm happy to see her running.

After the game, we needed to eat and stopped in at a "bar and grille" close to the school we had played at. It was karaoke night. We were highly entertained. Within minutes, the small one had switched her Facebook status to:

Yeah, I'm a professional karaoke hopper. I travel around the country, going from bar to bar competing against whoever dares to challenge me. It's a pretty intense lifestyle. I don't recommend it for the weak.

My kid has a sense of humor. She makes me laugh.

A Busy Week

2010-02-28T18:36:00.002-06:00

2 1/2 weeks ago, our yard looked like this. The good news is, this week it doesn't!

Monday:
warm up- 50 x V ups, 3 x 12 overhead squats
4 rounds-
3 in 1's (clean, squat, press) x 10 45lb
plyo jumps x 20 started at 120lb, dropped to 105 lbs set 3,4
400m run outside, every 50 steps (counted on one foot) stop for 12 jump squats
pushups x 20
1 min rest between rounds

Tuesday:
warm up with core workout
bench press 2 x 3 88% of max, 2 x 2 93% max, 1 x F 100% 85,90,95lb
superset 1- 4 x 12 each front plate raise 25lb AND military shoulder press 20lb
superset 2- 4 x 20yd plate push 35lb, shoulder implosion 2 x 10seconds
shoulder complex (8front, 8side and 8rotator lifts per set) 3 x 5lb
50 pushups

Tuesday Night involved a birthday cake and way too much pizza so Wednesday morning I slept in that extra hour. More on that later.

Thursday:
warm up with core workout
50 chair pushups (sets of 15, 15, 17, 3)
bench press 1 x 6 80lb, 2 x 5 85lb, 1 x F 95lb = 3 reps
3 x 25 pushups between sets of bench press
endurance bench (as many reps as possible for 15 seconds, hold the wt up for 15, press for 15 seconds)
1 x 55lb, 1 x 60lb
standing curls 3 x 10 15lb dumb bells
partner curls- 10 reps, 9 reps, 8 reps.......1 rep. used 15lb until last rep- used 45lb bar
resisted curl- partner holds bar and resists you as you try to lift and lower

Friday:
warm up with core
10 rounds-
30 plyo jumps 90-105lb
200 m run (sprint)
box jump (over 8 and 12 in)
10 burpees
NO REST!

Saturday:
Worked on the trails for 5 hours. Lots of raking, bending, rock moving, etc. Sure didn't feel like all that much during the day but we were so exhausted, we both fell asleep on the couch before 10 p.m.. Sad.

Food, Food. Glorious Food.

2010-02-19T18:04:00.002-06:00

Grilled Portabellas with Herbed Goat Cheese

One weekend night we were invited to a lovely but very large pot luck dinner. We thought we would be arriving relatively early so we brought an appetizer- goat cheese rolled in paprika and another rolled in finely chopped fresh dill. Yum. But there were so many people there and SO much to eat. We brought home a sliver of each to enjoy later. I had planned to make portabella burgers so the leftover goat cheese was a perfect topper. Then we decided to forgo the bun altogether and just eat the creamy cheese covered shroom on its own.

Baked Eggs

One morning I got ambitious and decided to try something different for breakfast. This was one of our "snow" days so something hot and comforting was in order. Ramekins + butter + fresh garlic + eggs = goodness.

Jambalaya, Feijoada and Praline Liqueur

The Saturday before Mardi Gras and Valentine's Day Eve saw us entertaining and being entertained by our wonderful friends. I made a bastardized version of an Emeril Legasse Jambalaya and our Brazilian friends brought a traditional black bean dish called Feijoada.

Served with a beautiful pico de gallo and toasted yucca flour over rice, this dish was mouthwatering good!

We also had a Praline Liqueur to celebrate the Nawlins in us all. Who Dat!

Ladies and Gentlemen may I have your attention please. This is like yo momma's Pecan Pie in a glass. Go get you some. Now. Right now.

Snow, Tire Flips and Push Ups

2010-02-19T13:45:00.000-06:00

No, snow has nothing to do with the tire flips. Or push ups. Except that the snow got in the way of me doing any said tire flips or push ups for a week.

Last Monday we got hit with a beautiful snow. A rare occurance in these parts. I was happy to see fluffy stuff instead of ice pellets. But, it kept everyone home for a couple of days and made conditions still treacherous in the dark hours of early morn when I usually to to work out. Then it just got darn busy trying to play catch up. Did get a bit of walking in on Monday and Tuesday- walking in the snow FEELS like a workout.

Saturday 13th- 2.5 hours on the Ouachita Trail in heavy hiking boots traversing the mud and snow.

Monday 15th- She's Got Leeeggggs
3 x 15 plyo press 180lb
3 x 15 plyo jumps 125lb
2 x plyo jumps 15 sec work: 15 rest: 15 work
mountain climbers between sets while other group did jumps

circuit 15 sec work: 10 sec rest for 3 min
wall balls 15lb
plate push 25lb
tire flip
wall sit

Tuesday- She's got ARMS??
3 x 20 wide chair pushups
bench press 1 x 6 85lb, 2 x 5 95lbs, 2 x 4 attempted 100lb but went back to 95.

Circuit x 4 rounds
alternating dumb bell chest press 10 ea arm x 25lb
med ball push up (hands on top of 2 small med balls) to failure (face plant)
walking push ups 10lb DBs
: 30 sec of cable bumpouts 20lb each arm - this is like boxing but pulling weighted cables out - ouch

Wednesday- She doesn't have speed
5 minute core workout to warm up
sprints. omg sprints.
5 light x 8.5-10 mph to fail maxed out about 40 sec
5 medium x 11-12 mph to fail maxed out about 20 sec
2 heavy 5.5 mph on steep incline this was my favorite maxed out at 30 sec!
Took a 600 m jog outside in the cold to warm down

Thursday- 20 minutes to do as many rounds as possible
5 pullups
10 push ups
15 squats
only did 11 rounds?? It sure felt like more
then 4 x 8 push press, 55lb, 65,65, 75lb

Friday- TIRE FLIPS- Waaahooo tire flips!
50 x 2 hand heavy tire flip
25 x single hand "light" tire flip right arm
25 x single hand "light" tire flip left arm
50 x flip jumps- flip, jump in, jump out, flip. Oh my stars.

I should have a rest day but I'm hoping the weather holds out long enough to do some trail work tomorrow. Please weather gods, shine down happily upon us!

Good Friends, Bad Influence

2010-02-07T14:48:00.001-06:00

Friday night J and I enjoyed a much needed evening out with a couple of good friends. I have been trying to make it over to The Pantry since the fall when Sweet Sarah Smiles would not shut up about the apple strudel. Darn her. We finally made it there. I enjoyed a lovely dunkelweissen at the bar, but I wouldn't have if I had seen the specialty drink menu first. I would have gone for the Pomegranate Gimlet or the Gin & Ginger Press maybe. I knew I would be ordering the pork shoulder for dinner and the strudel for dessert. Thanks Sarah.

The restaurant has a lovely bar and a lounge area up front. I did appreciate the warm coziness of the wood and deep colors they used to decorate.

Following our most decadent and enjoyable dinner, the 4 of us saddled up and headed to Grumpy's for after dinner conversation. We were having such a great time, we started to ignore the fact that we were supposed to get up very early the next morning. I love when time flies like that. Good Times. Good Times.

The Freezing Fun of February

2010-02-07T14:36:00.001-06:00

I know, it wasn't so long ago that I would have had no issue at all with jogging in a 27 degree pre-dawn. Lately I think I'm wimping out on it? I haven't done a distance road run in months. I've never really enjoyed road running as much as other things so if I can substitute something else I will. I should find a way to rediscover some joy in it.

Monday- Overslept after a fun Sunday workout at Pinnacle (2.5 hours on the icy trail!)

Tuesday- 15 sec work : 15 sec rest intervals x 8 (4 minutes each)
resisted run out (bungeed to a sled with 100lb dumbell on it, grab a med ball overhead, run out and put it back)
weighted step ups (45lb bar on shoulders or at chest, step up and down on 24inch step)
wall ball w/ 15lb ball
lying med ball toss (alternate with plank or pushup, no rest)
sprints x 10 mph
I repeated the wall balls and ball toss/ push ups cause I had a few minutes to kill but didn't think I could do any more legs

Wednesday- warm up with Abs. Workout time limit 20 minutes, as many rounds as possible
10 push ups
max out lat pulldowns 80lb OR pullups ( I did mostly lat pulls, a few pull ups)
15 squats
Finished 13 2/3 rounds!

Thursday- Step Mill 25 minutes followed by 4 x 45sec run @ 8 mph

Friday- The "Angie" workout
100 push ups
100 sit ups
100 squats
100 pull ups or lat pulldowns- did 40 assisted pullups with band, 60 lat pulldowns 70lb
did 5 x 30 jumping jacks in between lat pulldowns sets to keep heart rate up

Saturday- I had a little too much fun out with friends on Friday. Managed 35 minutes of Wii "hard" workout with resistance band

Sunday- Started on building a new mountain bike trail in the woods. yee haw. 3.5 hours of raking, walking and a little jogging.

Not so New Year's Resolution

2010-01-31T10:51:00.000-06:00

Started back at the 5:30 a.m. AIM workouts.

Monday 25th: 10,9,8,7,...1
1 circuit repeated with 10 reps of each exercise, then 9 reps, then 8, etc down to 1 rep trying to increase weight on the way down the reps. There were so many people at this workout that no matter what, I ended up waiting between sets and I had to leave for the bus at rep 2. It was still so tough.

Deadlifts- started with 45lb, ended with 75
bench press- started with 65lb, started and ended with 75 after rep7 but did an 85 at rep4
single arm snatch- started with 20lb but moved to 30lb from 7 rep down
push press- 65lb for 10-7, 75lb 6-end
chair push ups to max avg was 6

Tuesday 26th: 7 rounds of
300 meter sprint outside
20 kettlebell swings 6 x 20lb 1 x 30lb
lat pulldowns to max- I switched each set between 70-80lbs and did 4-11 reps each set

Wednesday 27th: warm up with ab workout
15 x 15 sec sprints! started at 8.5 mph increasing every 2 sprints up to 12.5 mph

Thursday 28th: warm up with abs again
5 rounds 1 min at each station, 1 minute of rest after completing a full round
push press 65lb, last set was 45lb but doubled the reps
box jumps on 12 inch
wall balls 10lb ball
weighted wall sits 10lb plate overhead for 30 sec, in front of chest moving like driving a car for last 30 sec
plyo jumps w/ 90lb

Friday 29th: snow day. went sledding some and did a 30 minute resistance band workout

Saturday 30th got NADA but sitting and watching the ice melt. Too slippery to get out much but not enough to sled.

Sunday- 31st Today we're heading to my favorite outdoor gym- Pinnacle Mtn right after lunch!!!

Too Happy?

2010-01-19T11:25:00.000-06:00

Stress is not healthy, but stress usually encourages me to work out more. And I tend to make an effort to stay away from certain things that spell doom for me when I'm stressed out. Mainly dessert and alcohol. Lately life has been too good. Is there such a thing? Despite a few hiccups and a big worry over the realization that we're about to dump a ton of money into renovating our kitchen- life is good. I hate to say it's noticeable, but the last few years have been extremely stressful both at work and at home. Have we found our groove? Am I cursing the happiness by actually saying it out loud? Last night the question was posed to me - "Skinnier but unhappy or Fatter and happier, which do you prefer?" uh, I would prefer to be able to eat steak, baked potatoes, pasta, cobbler and banana pudding without ever gaining a pound. But since that won't happen...crap, it's back to writing down everything that goes in the mouth. I hate that more than exercise.

Saturday 16th: Got up and cleaned the garage. Then once I loaded my car with good but no longer needed items, I sent the boys to Goodwill and immediately went upstairs to commandeer the one working TV in the house to do a Wii workout for 40 minutes. Realized that the weather had actually improved after several days of sub 30 Degree days and I should have been outside running hills.

Sunday: should have been a bike ride but the whole house was sick with some sinus crud. Except me. So instead of working out, I took the small one, who was recovering nicely, out to buy a dress for Homecoming Court. That was a workout for my patience. 5 stores. And we still have to get shoes.

Monday: Finally got that bike ride in. Short but Sweet. About an hour worth of mountain biking out at the CARP trails on Camp Robinson. J was still feeling pretty sick so I was afraid the ride would be short. I decided to single speed it. yucca, portapotty, freeway, 2 (10) bridges.
Added 25 minutes of upper body work with a resistance band at home in the p.m.

Fatter but Happier it is then. I'm okay with that. I think.

I'll forget if I don't...

2010-01-14T21:26:00.000-06:00

write it down.
Tuesday- 25 minutes on the step mill, 20 min at 65-100 steps/min. 5 burpees followed by 3 x 45 sec "sprints" @ 8 mph. not really a sprint pace for most people :(

Wednesday- 40 minutes of Wii Sports Active. Ouch. I've now broken 2 resistance bands trying to get them to feel like I'm actually doing something. Ugh. Must go get REAL band this weekend. Then got smacked playing balance games on Wii fit. I am the most uncoordinated member of the family by far.

Thursday- 20 minutes on the step mill followed by:
12 pushups to plank 30 sec, 1 slow pushup, plank 15 sec, 1 slow pushup plank 15 sec
4 x 45 sec sprint @ 8 mph
bench press 10 x 45lb, 6 x 65lb, 4 x 75lb

What Good is Cold Without Snow?

2010-01-11T15:55:00.004-06:00

This past week we had record low temperatures here in our Southern hamlet. I do not enjoy single digit temps. Yes, I do realize it is January but what good is cold without snow to play in?
Saturday I needed to be in my office for a couple of hours but before leaving I hit the fitness center for a quick 25 minute treadmill workout-uphill. When I got home, I talked the man into a Wii workout. We did a 30 minute full body circuit followed by a 25 minute upper body circuit. Nice :) At least it felt like I was somewhat better than a comatose sloth bear that afternoon.
Sunday when the temperature finally reached above freezing (barely) we went out for a stroll in our favorite urban park. There were more people at Pinnacle Mountain than I expected. I guess after a few days of teens and tens for temps, 35 was downright balmy! We got about 6.5 miles in, but not as much running as I would have liked. Still a better workout than I've been getting since the Holiday Haze of Laze set in.

This is part of the Base Trail back in November. It didn't look much different yesterday, except for the occasional patch of ice.

Ah, the bliss. Except for the random unleashed dog and wild haired hippy runner. That's a different sort of trail entertainment.

Busy or Just Plain Lazy?

2010-01-07T22:10:00.001-06:00

I've been skipping the "intense" workouts since Christmas. Instead I've substituted playing games on the Wii with my family, walking instead of driving sometimes and a few hikes.
I bought a Wii Fit balance board with the Wii Fit Plus game and the Biggest Loser game just before Christmas. We were having a really good time playing the balance games but the workouts left me a bit Meh. I've only tried the Biggest Loser game once, it too left me a little cold. But my sweet man got me the EA Sports Active bundle for Christmas. THAT, I like. Since then I've purchased a second nunchuk and leg strap so we can do workouts together if we want. I thought the resistance band was way too weak so I used another one I had that was not as stretchy and got one with the new leg strap that is really good. I also bought a pair of 2 lb weighted gloves. That doesn't sound like much but I was trying to hold dumb bells during some of the upper body workouts but that prevented me from holding the remote and nunchuk in the proper position so it "yelled" at me to do it right, or else. : ) Even 2lbs makes a difference, especially if it's a 20 rep exercise.
Thanks for the present J. Much better than all the cookies I made you. Merry New Year's Resolution!

Pedestal Rocks

2010-01-03T09:10:00.006-06:00

On the way up to Eureka Springs we wanted to stop and stretch our legs while checking out a trail neither of us had been on before: Pedestal Rocks Scenic Area close to Pelsor, Ar. We were coming up on Hwy 7 from Russellville so we took a East turn on Hwy 16 to get there. There are 2 short loop trails here, the Kings Bluff 1.7 mi and the Pedestal Rocks 2.2 mi. J had his "big" camera equipment with him so I knew this hike would be all about the photo ops. It was a cold but luckily sunny day and we decided to try the Kings Bluff trail first. After a few minutes of typical scenary we see the sign reminding parents to keep a close eye on kids. Danger Ahead.

The trail opens up to the bluffs and one of the first sights is a tall waterfall. The icicles were beautiful.This is an area that was hit very hard by the ice storm in Winter of 2009. Much of the damage to the woodlands is still visible. Next came the formations the area is named for- the pedestal rocks. So pretty, so many caves and breakaways and even in the dead of winter the color was magnificent with all the moss, lichen and weathering of the rocks. It took us a ridiculous amount of time to finish that 1.7 miles. We were so caught up in the ice and rocks.

We spent so much time playing and taking pictures that we decided to eat our sandwiches and head on up to Eureka with plans to do Pedestal Rocks on the way home. The weather was still cold but it was also overcast so the light wasn't great for pictures. I expected fewer people to be there since it was a Tuesday at lunchtime but there were several cars including a large family gathering all bundled up to have a picnic. Much of the ice had melted away and there wasn't as much water flowing but we did find some cool "chimney" formations and a "natural bridge". All in all, a really cool place to stretch out your legs.

While the Kid's Away, the Parents...

2010-01-01T17:14:00.000-06:00

Since the small one was 4 years old, her grandparents have taken her to Disney World sometime in December nearly every year. They've skipped a couple of years, I didn't go every time, and this year would be the first year that they would be there for a big holiday like New Year's. The day after Christmas off they went, the small one and one of her very good friends (the one she went to Minnesota with this summer) with Grandma and Mark. J and I decided it was a good time to go spend some quality time together. I insisted that it would not involve bikes. I got that part but lost out on "no hiking! sweetness only!". Yes, we stopped on the way up and on the way home for a very short but beautiful hike at Pedestal Rocks near Pelsor, Arkansas off Hwy 16. I think I'll save those photos for a different post. But while in Eureka- it was pure non athletic bliss. Good food, good wine and spirits, good shopping and even better company.

We stayed at the Historic Crescent Hotel. This hotel is allegedly haunted. Ghost tours and TV shows love this place. I don't know how I feel about that but we took the Ghost tour once. The only thing that I found a little creepy was the area in the basement that used to be a morgue. Okay, creepy but cool, cause we're weird like that. We actually attempted to make this trip in late December of last year but the area was hit with one of the worst ice storms in recent history the day before we were scheduled to leave and we had to cancel. We arrived at the hotel late in the afternoon and the staff I must say, was wonderful. We settled into our rooms, showered off the trail dirt and got dressed up for a night out. It was Sunday and it's winter so I have to say that there was not a lot going on as far as Nightlife. I hear the scene, if that's what you're looking for, is much better in warmer weather. Nonetheless...our room was just a few steps from the upstairs bar Dr. Baker's Extraordinary Bistro and Sky Bar which has a balcony looking out on the city. We spent exactly 0 minutes out there. We just watched others go out to smoke and come back in shivering. I'm sure it's wonderful in the spring and fall. We indulged ourselves in a few pre dinner cocktails before setting off to Rogue's Manor. I can't say enough good things about our experience at this lovely dining room. The food was excellent, the service was great and best of all, we had the dining area to ourselves that cold Sunday night and we LIKED it that way. I highly recommend a visit to this establishment if you are in Eureka, especially if you're staying downtown on Spring and can walk back to your hotel.

The next day we slept in (a real luxury as of late) and went for a late breakfast buffet in the Crystal Dining Room. They did have eggs and omelets to order but we stuck to the fare already out: oatmeal, bacon and sausage, biscuits with white gravy. And lots of coffee. The plan was to hit Spring Street on a walk from our hotel to shop and people watch. Years ago, J and I came to Eureka and wandered into a wonderful old antique store that specialized in Maps. We spent a lot of time in that store that day. Unfortunately we found that the shop has since closed but we continued to make our way down Spring Street, window shopping and enjoying the day together. We found some deals, had some lovely coffee at Eureka Daily Grind, and continued our walk back up the hill to the hotel. We decided to hang out for a while in our room relaxing then cleaned up to go back over to the bar where we ended up being seranaded for far too long by a woman yelling her life story across the room at people she'd just met at another table. Some really nice folks from Kansas and Michigan who spend every "after Christmas broohahah" together at the Crescent invited us in to their card game but we opted to go take pictures on the Charity Christmas tree competition lawn and watch TV. Yawn. It may not have been filled with excitement but that is a nice change of pace for us. No bikes, no races, no rush.

The Traditional Christmas Hike

2009-12-29T22:13:00.001-06:00

Almost every year since we married, J and I have wandered off into the woods on Christmas morning or afternoon.It's time for just the two of us to decompress after the excitement. This year we had a quick Christmas morning gift exchange and yummy breakfast with the small one, my mom and her husband before driving to Lake Catherine State Park for the afternoon. The plan was to hike the Dam Mountain Trail, but we didn't realize that it closes during hunting season. Better safe than sorry. We did a loop of 2 other trails to get in about 4.5 miles of hike.

The 23rd and 24th of December brought record rainfall to our neck of the woods. Unfortunately it was bad enough to flood several areas, strand a few folks and even displace a few for the Holiday. It also meant that the waterfalls were flowing and we saw some pretty magnificent ones. Beauty and Destruction. Water always wins, no matter what.

We've hiked most of this area before but it looks totally different with that much water.

We had a great time and we can still look forward to going back to finish that Dam Mountain Trail someday.

Christmas Eve Fun and Folly

2009-12-26T15:01:00.002-06:00

Of all the gifts in the stockings, or perhaps even under the tree, the boxing Santa pens were a much bigger hit than we expected. The picture does no justice. The Santas not only had boxing arms like Rock Em Sock Em Robots, the eyes lit up red when the arms moved so it was kind of like Possessed Boxing Santa. Not exactly the Christmas Spirit we hoped for, but we take what we can get around here.

I was the recipient of a beautiful tiara and light up wand- to go with my tutu from my day as a Beer Fairy with Sweet Sarah Smiles.

Yes, I did do a little dance with my tutu and tiara on.

All 3 kids were there along with the fiancee tagging along. The mooch. I guess we have to get used to him being around now. I think he enjoyed his presents though I don't think he understood the purpose of the reusable bag we gave him. It isn't a hat. I don't think.

I had to kick them all off my Wii Fit balance board. Luckily the kids were playing the games as my Mii so now I hold the high score in about every single game!

I had to wait until Christmas Day to use my new EA sports Wii game that I got.

And there was good food. Lots of good, not traditional Christmas dinner, food.

MMMMM pork loin with cranberry chutney and garlic rosemary potatoes with brussels sprouts a la bacon and pine nuts. Dessert was a chocolate pecan pie made by the oldest kid and my molasses cookies that had to leave our house because we could not resist eating them one after another.

Merry Christmas Ya'll!!

I'm late, I'm late...

2009-12-21T21:49:00.001-06:00

I feel like the white rabbit. It's been one busy week! I have workouts to log, cooking to do, kitchens to clean. I just got out of the kitchen at 9:40 p.m. I've been in there since I walked in from work at 5:30. And the raspberry pinwheels did NOT turn out! EERRRGGGHH

Monday 14th
4 rounds of
400 meter run (outside)
30 sec mountain climbers
25 kettlebell swings x 20lb
25 wall balls x 10lb

Tuesday
warm up = 60 pushups
5 sets of:
alternating dumbbell chest press on balance ball 10 ea arm x 20lb
chair pushups x 12
front plate raise 15 x 25lb
walking push up 10yd x 10lb dumbbells = OUCH

end with partner curls x 45lb bar rep 10..9..8..7..6..5......1

Wednesday- should have been something else but because people were late and confused, we got sprints and punishment. I don't even remember because I blocked it out. I know it hurt.

Thursday
3 rounds
hang clean x 10 x 65lb
treadmill run 1 min @ 7 mph
chain pushup x 10(feet on shoulders of person behind you, supporting person in front)
400 m run on one round, other rounds
25lb plate push until other person finishes running
tire press- lifted tractor tire overhead and did presses x 10

Friday- that's right I bugged out and regretted it later because...

Saturday- we were supposed to ride but crap got in the way
Sunday- we were supposed to ride but crap got in the way AND we decided to invite a few friends over for a Holiday gathering which explains why...
Monday(today)- GOT A NADA TOO!!! Lazy Lazy Lazy Lazy. But exhausted.

The Lumpy Saga

2009-12-13T11:08:00.000-06:00

About 3 hours before the picture above was taken....

This picture was snapped...

It may not look so bad, in all honesty it didn't feel that bad either. Yet. But it was broken. The pain would come. At the time, it seemed it might have been worthwhile but in retrospect, NOT.

For 8 long weeks I wrapped that little finger in tiny ace bandages and kept a hard plastic splint on it except for the 5-6 times a day I had to take it all off and exercise it lest I lose flexibility which is common with this injury apparently as I was warned by the Dr. , her nurse, and the physical therapist.

After 8 weeks the Dr. cleared me to stop wearing the splint but when I asked how much longer it would hurt she said "Oh, at least a year probably and especially when it's cold." That is not what you want to hear in October. I could handle the news that my knuckle would never be the same, it would always be bigger. But this pain thing...not so much. Good news is, I have great movement and flexibility but it hurts like the dickens. Especially in the cold. Arrrrggghhhh. It's going to be a long winter.

So the other day, J looks at my hand and says "That finger is kind of lumpy, we should just start calling it Lumpy." Thus, Lumpy was born. I expect she might even have her own stocking this year. It will be filled with coban wrap, ibuprofen and bengay.

Excuse me,Lumpy and I have to go sit out on the porch in a rocking chair and predict the weather by her pain.

Friday Fitness Follies

2009-12-11T10:56:00.000-06:00

I have no reason to title today's post as such, I just appreciate alliteration.

Sunday- I can't even remember but it seems we did a whole lot of hanging the house, putting up a christmas tree and lights (the poor tree STILL doesn't have ornaments) and some shopping.

Monday- back to reality
A good warm up with core work and mountain climbers
20 seconds of work, 10 seconds of rest (read that MOVE your lazy butt to where you need to go next)
8 intervals of each = 4 minutes total time at each station:
box jumbs 12"
full sit ups
plate push 25lb
push ups

I felt the need to punish myself with a 9th round of box jumps, sit ups and plate pushes at 4 intervals/ 2 min
Didn't think I could do more pushups but squeezed out 2 sets of 5 before collapsing :)

Tuesday - Nada. SO busy at work and home. Late night from visiting Central High School thinking we might send the small one there next year.

Wednesday- Sprints. OMG I HATE sprints. Mostly because I have no speed and I suck at them.
15 sec x 10 @ 10mph, 15 sec x 5 @ 11 mph
Then we had a "competition". Whoever came off the treadmill first had to do 5 burpees. We had 3 women today, I lost all but 1 sprint- and I'd RATHER do burpees than run!! Hear me!

Thursday-missed my morning class but hit 15 minutes on the treadmill walking hills and 25 minutes of step aerobics at work before I had to bail out for carpool. Add in about an hour of Wii Fit- we tried the Biggest Loser game tonight. I think the decision was the family likes the hula hoop game on Wii Fit Plus more than anything else. I should post video. Joe Daddy has the high score in super hula hoop right now.

Friday Friday- core work to warm up and a little treadmill warm up
3 circuits of:
20% incline sprints at 7mph x 15 sec
plyo jumps @ 100lb x 15
box jump 18" x 15
single leg box jump 6" x 15
plate push 25lb x 15 yd
tractor tire flip x 15
no rest between sets!

I know I need an endurance workout this weekend but it's so cold. I just don't know. Does marathon house cleaning count?

Christmas in Candlelight

2009-12-07T20:29:00.003-06:00

Christmas in Candlelight at Washington State Park was absolutely awesome again this year. This year we were a quartet, having invited one of the small one's friends along for the ride. The girls had a busy morning of placement testing for High School. Terrifying Tales of Adventures in Arithmetic and Literacy kept us entertained thru a quick lunch before we left Little Rock for the drive to Washington. A lecture on reading instructions before beginning a test was served up for dessert.

The first thing the girls found inside the old courthouse was this checkerboard. While J and I were perusing the gift shop and visiting with folks we only see once in a blue moon, the girls took on a marathon checker game. We had to go prod them out of the seats and force them out into the very cold but sun filled day.

One of the small one's favorite things in the park is this beautiful old Magnolia tree. I know it might not be proper grammar to capitalize Magnolia but look at it? It deserves a capital M.

It was planted in 1839 and is on the Register of Historic Trees. I know, I didn't realized there was a registry for historic trees either.

This lovely maid has "knees" that surround her, keeping her upright, and leaving enough room for a multitude of children and adults to play in her shelter.

Go ahead and say "WOW".

Just WOW.

In the evening, more than 3000 luminaries line the sidewalks all thru the park. It is absolutely breathtaking.

I don't have any night time pictures to post because we were oh so busy doing things like this. Shoveling EarthQuake Cake in our mouths following the dinner of ham, dressing, potatoes both white and sweet, corn, green beans, mmmmm biscuits and 2 count them 2 kinds of gravy at the buffet at Williams' Tavern. Before and after dinner we were serenaded by a quartet and a choir. Lovely! Last year there were carolers in period costume singing while we waited.

Lest you think it's all about food, because I know that with our family, it sometimes is...

Elsewhere in the park is a working blacksmith shop, several historic homes, a candleshop and a print shop that contains some very old and interesting printing machinery. They have a press that was actually unearthed in Murphreesboro that people thought was a headstone because the only part showing above the earth does indeed resemble a tombstone. Cool. There is also a weapons museum at the park and the park is home to a School of Bladesmithing.

In the evening hours, many of the churches and the old WPA gymnasium play host to school and church choirs. The small one had a friend singing in the Bryant High School Choir so we stayed to watch their performance.

Oh my Lordy, peeps!

Our evening would not have been complete if we had missed these Gentlemen (notice the improper use of capitalization again, and again, it is deserved). The Hempstead County Melody Boys made our evening. In the middle of their set, the small one leans over with her iPod Touch in hand and on it is this note:

"The Banjo Player is the BEST Thing EVER."

Bless you Mr. Charlie Webb, wherever you are tonight.

Personal Note to The Park Wife herself...we're so sorry we missed out on fun and fellowship while we were in your neck o the woods. So to The Park Wife, Big Buckaroo and the little Buckaroos- NEXT TIME!

Weak Week

2009-12-05T22:52:00.000-06:00

The workout schedule was weak this week.
Monday:
4 sets of 6 hang clean- 2 sets @ 45lb to warm up + 4 x 60lb
superset Straight Single Leg Deadlifts w/ 20lb dumbell + Walking Lunges w/25lb plate overhead to 60 reps each
Finish with 1 mile run with call outs. Which meant that every few yards at irregular intervals, C would call out "push up" or "mountain climber" or worse..."squat thrust" and we'd have to do those until he yelled "UP" again. The run was outside. It was chilly.

Tuesday: warm up with 75 full sit ups
superset Push Press, Dumb Bell Chest Press, and Front Plate Raise to 75 reps each
      Push Press 1 x 15 x 45lb, 2 x 15 x 55lb, 3 x 10 x 60lb
      DB Chest Press 5 x 15 x 20lb
      Plate Raise 5 x 15 x 25lb
THEN we had to walk boxes. 8 boxes from 8-24 inches set up in a pyramid style. first 4 with hands on floor and feet on boxes- do 3 pushups then move feet to the next box without getting up- repeat- in the center, change hands to boxes and feet on floor and do the same-
at the end do pushups to failure. Which for me was 1. :) I was lucky I didn't face plant on the box pushups.

Finish: Shoulder Complex with 10lb dumb bells 7 lateral raise, 7 front raise, 7 rotator cuff, 7 shoulder press. OMG

Wednesday: Would it shock anyone that I skipped Wednesday?

Thursday:
Warm up with killer Abdominal work led by Chris the Hun.
20 Dead Lifts @ 95 lb     run 400 m outside in the frigid air
20 Kettle Bell swings @ 20lb     run 400 m
20 Overhead Squats with PVC bar     run 400 m
20 Burpees. I heart Burpees.      run again.
20 Pullups. I can't do pullups. I jump, I strain, I try to get there. It's the best I can do.    I ran again though.
20 Box Jumps     run 400 m
20 Dumb bell Squat Clean 5 x 15lb, 10 x 20lb, 5 x 15lb     LAST RUN!!

Friday: Skipped Again. Don't pretend to be shocked. I planned a workout, but I got too busy.

Saturday involved exercisin my table muscles at Subway and William's Tavern at Historic Washington State Park.

Sunday's Plan: RUN! Outside, in the cold, on the hills.

What Happened to the Work Out Blog?

2009-11-28T09:01:00.003-06:00

I lost my workout notebook last week. I'm heartbroken. It had 3 months of workouts, notes, and statistics (which maybe I could live without) but I'm missing being able to look up my "max" weight for lifting workouts, I can't remember everything. I'm missing my notes to self about which workouts were hard, made me sore-what I did or didn't do afterward that contributed, etc. So to catch up THIS WEEK:

Sunday- Beer Fairies. 1 ten mile loop of single track did NOT make up for the morning playing Fairy Duster.

Monday-
Abs- 1 min ea seated twist, toe touch w/10lb plate, leg extensions and scissors
3 sets, 5 sec rest between exercises, 30 seconds between sets, do as many reps as you can in 1min for each:
Sumo Deadlift with High Pull 45lb (bar)
Wall Ball 10lb - deep squat and throw the ball up to an X on the wall, catch, repeat
Box Jumps on 12 inch box
Push Press 45lb (bar)
Burpees

Tuesday-
Abs again, I don't remember exactly what we did because I have blocked it. It was hard.
Push Press x 50       1 x 10 @ 45lb (bar) 4 x 10 @ 55lb
Front Plate Raise      1 x 10 @ 25lb
Partner Curls (pass the bar between partners) 1st turn is 10 reps, then 9, then 8....down to 1. I had a spot w/45lb bar
Static 21's 3 x 21 @10lb Dumb bells held straight out in mid bicep curl position- one arm 7 reps up, switch arms, 7 reps down, switch arms, both arms do full curl   OUCH
Rope Tricep Push Down 1 x 15 @20lb

Wednesday- plans shot and ended up with a short 2.5 mile walk/jog with the dog

Thursday- 15 mile bike ride, some road and a lot of "flat" whoop dee doo singletrack FUN

Friday- a whole lotta yard work and cleaning up. Made homemade tomato soup today, it's getting chilly and I love soup in cold weather.

Saturday- well that's today. As soon as the temp is over 50, heading out to my favorite gym

OT from Visitor's Center up to East Summit, up-over and around the West base trail and back to the VC. It was a good 1 hour and 45 minutes or so. I could have done another lap. Or at least a couple more miles. Maybe next weekend I'll hit it hard.

Who came dressed as a pumpkin muffin?

2009-11-27T22:30:00.003-06:00

Thanksgiving. What a boring holiday. As if I need an excuse to overeat? We did have a pretty good time this year. J and I went for a short bike ride, then we joined the small one for some monopoly and bocce ball. In the evening we went for a late turkey dinner at a friend's house. And ate too much. As usual.

There was all the usual fare, ham, turkey, dressing, potatoes both mashed and sweet. Pioneer Woman's Wild Rice and Corn Casserole was a big hit, at least with my family, they gobbled it. Then there was homemade pecan pie and raspberry pie. We had no pumpkin pie yesterday- but we did have pumpkin muffins. I made them from the pumpkins we managed to save from the cannibal pumpkin in the picture. He wanted to eat them all.

You never know what to expect when you invite people over for Halloween.
This is Pumpkin Pie Spice. Looks more like Scary Spice to me but....

Poor Pumpkin Pie Spice Girl. She had a terrible time fighting the men off all night long. She's sooo hawt...impossible to resist. I think her real name is Shawnda.

Bat Chips and Squash "Brains" Yummy Mummy!

Boogers on a Stick and Ghosties, sweet.

Luckily, the night did not end this way for any of our ghoulish friends. Except for the pumpkin.

Beer Fairies: Figment of the Imagination?

2009-11-24T12:26:00.000-06:00

This past weekend was the end of the Arkansas Mountain Bike Championship Series with the Atilla the Hun race at Cedar Glades Park in Hot Springs. I have never participated in, nor have I even been a spectator at this race but I've heard good things about it. We love Cedar Glades. It's one of the first trails I ever rode and it has grown and changed by leaps and bounds since then. The trails are well kept and always in great shape. There is plenty of technical difficulty and some sweet rolls here. It also has a disc golf course, BMX track, climbing wall and a remote control airfield. Nothing like getting buzzed by small (very small) aircraft while riding a bike.

There was a rumor that the famed Arkansas Beer Fairies would show up at the race. I think they have become the stuff of legends.

The fairies situated themselves at the top of a hill that back in the day was known as "Heart Attack". The trail has been changed somewhat and the hill isn't quite what it used to be but it's still a climb. Imagine the surprise those poor souls got as they start pushing and working up that hill and they hear cowbells and fairy voices screaming "huhp huhp, get on up here, we've got your beer!"

It seems the fairies weren't the only ones in wings that day. I think the wings made him ride faster. Wings and Fairy Beer. The stuff champeens are made of.

Post Race- the Fairies took a lap on the course, alas, they once again became the elusive creatures they're meant to be and no one could capture a picture. How do they ride in those tutus?

Anti Bullying Week Across the Nation

2009-11-20T19:09:00.001-06:00

This week is Anti Bullying week at schools all over the country. As an assignment from the Student Council Mentor (and awesome composition teacher) The small one and her friends put together this video. No one, especially not their parents, expected what came of it.
The kids were interviewed by the local news tonight on KTHV. They were phenomenal. Congratulations to my small one Miss Mc, Alex, Lauren, Hannah and Lizzie!

Pioneer Woman Part Deux

2009-11-20T15:13:00.003-06:00

Now I can "finish" my Ree Drummond book signing story. When I heard she was coming to Little Rock to sign her cookbook, I knew I had to go. If not for myself, for my S-I-L Julia. She is a fantasmic photographer and was enjoying Ree's photography and tips. She introduced me to Ree's site for the recipes because she knows how much I love to cook. I have often gone to The Pioneer Woman for recipes. Of all the recipes from her site that I've attempted , not a single one has been a failure. Most have been wildly successful in fact. Which brings us to the story of .... duhn duhn duhhhhhhnnn

The Great Bourbon Sweet Potato Disaster of '07

Thanksgiving 2007. My S-I-L and her 2 precious small ones were driving about 7 hours to spend the holiday with us. I was frantically searching for recipes because...I couldn't possibly dream of having a "typical" turkey dinner with comp'ny comin'. I found what looked like an easy sweet potato recipe that did not involve marshmallows. Nothing against that gooey goodness, I was just trying to be ummm I dunno, sophisticated? The recipe called for GOOD bourbon. I don't know what that means. I bought cheap stuff. I figured, the recipe calls for only a little bit and it bakes out right? Smarty pants that I am, I put dinner together the night before so it would be less hassle the next morning. Oh no. Huge mistake. That cheap bourbon clung to those potatoes like a silk suit in summertime. Even after baking them, those sweet potatoes smelled up the entire room like a drunk tank at 4 a.m. on a Sunday morning. They had to go in the trash. Outside. I have not lived that one down yet! Probably never will.

So I had to get Ree to sign that cookbook because even 2 years later...I am still trying to make up for those potatoes.

Needless to say, 2008 meant the dinner was traditional in every sense. Well except that I had to cook the turkey on the grill because my oven is too small (I have a 70's era kitchen people!). I greased that bird up good with some rub from Williams Sonoma, no scrimping on the good stuff, unlike the bourbon. It was delish.

Thanksgiving 2009 plans? The Chinese Buffet. Fa Ra Ra Ra Ra Folks, it's all good!!

P.S. Everyone knows I'm not a good photographer. The pictures were taken by my S-I-L, THANKS J!

A Mother's Guilt

2009-11-18T20:07:00.001-06:00

I'm a mom. I feel guilty. A lot. For what I give my daughter, for what I don't, for the way I talk to her and for not being able to ease my frustration.
This past weekend I grounded her from going to anyone else's house because it seems she is always gone on the weekends. Teenagers, right? She told me her friends were working on a video for school. It is anti bullying week and the girls wanted to make something special.When I asked if it was an assignment she said "no" so I didn't let her go. I heard her on the phone on and off all weekend. I heard her say "I'm sorry but I really can't come over" and things like "that song is perfect".

THIS VIDEO is what she and her beautiful friends were making. I feel guilty that she had to be involved over the phone. I feel, like a bully.

When I stop crying, I will apologize for not listening.

5:00 a.m. is Early You Know

2009-11-16T14:10:00.000-06:00

I started back at Arkansas Sports Performance Center this morning. The workouts are intense, usually shorter than your average cardio or sculpting class because there is little time wasted on resting. Oh my poor body! Short, tough, circuit training style. I really like em. Every day is something different and I never worry I'm going to get bored with a "routine" because there isn't one.

This morning was my first day back after almost 10 weeks because of the Syllamo. And my finger. The first thing is warm up. An absolute necessity! Once the workout begins, you need to be able to hit it hard.

Todays workout:

4 sets x 8 repeats of 3 in1's: Hang Clean, Front Squat, Push-Press

All in one fluid motion, or at least an attempt at fluidity. Mine weren't pretty every single time but I tried. I alternated between 55lbs and 65lbs. I found that my finger still doesn't like to grip heavy things.

30 seconds each Plate Push and Walking Lunges for 10 minutes

For this we push a weight plate (I used 25lbs) across astroturf. Hands on plate, butt up and run. Not as easy as it sounds. Then after 30 seconds we lifted the plate overhead and did walking lunges with Chris yelling to get deep and hold proper form! 30 seconds and back to pushing, repeat for 10 minutes. The trick was, you could not put the plate down. If you choose to rest you have to hold on to it. It wore me out but it wasn't impossible. I wonder if a 35lb plate would have made it impossible?

2 Dinners and a Show

2009-11-15T21:11:00.002-06:00

Friday night we had some old friends over for dinner. I met T about 7 years ago when she was a summer intern where I work (still) and she was trying to get in to Pharmacy School. She now has that Doctor of Pharmacy degree and has returned to LR after 4 years away.

This is lovely T and her husband M on their wedding day. Isn't she beautiful?

When J and I were married, we knew we didn't need the whole church wedding thing but we wanted our friends to come celebrate with us. We decided to have a big party, serve food we love, and dance the night away before we left on our honeymoon. We had a middle eastern restaurant do the catering and T gave us a fantastic wedding gift: she danced at our reception. T has been studying middle eastern dance ("belly" dancing) for several years. She was such a hit, I think it's the thing most people remember about our reception other then the raging storm that night. I have some great pictures of her dancing and wowing the crowd but they're on another hard drive, perhaps I'll have to hunt them down.

Friday night we had them over for dinner because we hadn't seen them in a long time. We needed to catch up.

We had a great time over the risotto dinner and a couple of bottles of vino. Tonight, T's dance company had a show at Taziki's restaurant in LR. We went to support her. She's still a beautiful dancer, a joy to watch, and J and I got to spend another evening of food and vino with M. Thanks!

Beautiful
as always,
with a megwatt smile.

Love my girl T!

How could I not?

My Favorite Gym

2009-11-15T09:34:00.000-06:00

We are so lucky to have this park in our back yard. Well, a 15 minute drive from our backyard. The 223 mile Ouachita Trail starts (or ends) here. We have so many hiking or running options: follow the OT for a couple of miles then head up Pinnacle or around the base trail or continue to follow the OT out for as many miles as we can stand. For Thanksgiving 3 years ago, we took the small one on her first overnight backpacking trip along 21 miles of this trail, ending at Pinnacle Mountain.

11-06. I can't believe that little girl is now taller than I am.

Yesterday was a beautiful fall day in Arkansas. Temps in the upper 60s by mid day, sunny, gorgeous. J and I headed over to my favorite outdoor gym. We started at the Visitor's Center and the OT trail head then picked up the East Summit Trail up and over the mountain. We stopped to chat with a friend just as the steep boulder climb starts, I am always up for a chat with a friend but I HATE getting passed. This guy comes flying by taking those boulders like they were office bldg stairs. RRRRRR, it's ON! I didn't catch him of course, but it did give me someone to chase.

At the top...I stopped to help a family take pictures. A set of 3 siblings that grew up in LR but had spread to Texas and Missouri with one staying put. And kids galore. Oh my. I hope those photos turn out, it was tough to get that many people in the photo, kids had to be wrangled, the wind was whipping and I am not a great photographer!

In the time it took the family to get situated, J had made it up and decided to take a picture of me taking a picture. Yes, I had 2 cameras-it was a big family remember?

This workout was turning into a social event! On the way down we ran into an old friend of mine that I hadn't seen in 4 years. He was taking his 7 an 9 year old girls and 2 friends up the West Summit. That's a tall order for one man! By the time we hit the bottom and turned onto the Base Trail I was ready to run again and I went for it. I often fall on this trail. I think it's because I was doing it early in the mornings for a long time. Once I even jumped the gate at 6 a.m. to get on the trail. Ssshh don't tell on me. I din't fall today! I can do it without being a total clutz!

Ah the end is near, but it involves up. This is always tough no matter how long or short the hike has been. This one was shorter than my normal "alone" route. But it still hurt in the end. We stopped in at the VC to clean up a little and to start gift buying for Christmas. Ozark Soaps are great as small gifts or included in baskets. I knew that lady at the gift shop thought it was a bit gross that I washed my face in the rest room, then when I came out and J was talking to her about what we had been doing all morning, she said "Oh no wonder you were washing up!" Yeah, sunshine, dirt, and running kind of make that necessary.

Note of apology to everyone in Fresh Market and IO Metro: I'm really sorry you had to smell me. I promise I don't always look or smell like that. You always see me that way because your stores are on the way home from Pinnacle and I feel compelled to stop no matter how gross I am.

Fallen off the Wagon

2009-11-13T15:20:00.000-06:00

Or the mountain bike. Whatever.

I think I've been trying to block out this little tidbit. In rediscovering my much neglected blog, I realized I wrote an entire post about our trip to the Syllamo without mentioning something very important.

The Syllamo Broke My Finger.
So I had a little accident about 3 miles into the all day ride. So what. I have little oopsies all the time right? Unfortunately, this one involved getting my pinky finger stuck in a pile of wood debris while sliding head first down an embankment. It's not as bad as it sounds Mom, I promise. Except for the breaking the finger part. Really, it dislocated then snapped back into place so I thought it would be okay. When we got back to the car to stop for lunch I just had J buddy tape it and we rode the rest of the afternoon. The next morning my finger was swollen and blue so I went in to the Dr. to be safe. I had an avulsion fracture. I really wish I had the x-rays. So cool! This little bone fragment floating out there in my knuckle space was causing all the trouble. It didn't hurt when I did it or during the night but man was it hurting by day 2 after all the poking and prodding. Splint and compression bandages for 8 weeks, no weight lifting and I couldn't really grip all the way or straighten it all the way without pain so no more crossfit workouts for a while.

Excuses. I luv em. I used the broken finger as an excuse not to workout. But I cooked and cleaned and even did an Adventure Race (without training for it of course) and had an awesome Halloween party that deserves its own post. And then I got the croup. Maybe the flu, maybe just a nasty cold. Whatever, it kicked my butt for a week and a half. Better now. Playing catch up.

Tonight: Pioneer Woman's Red Pepper Risotto
Tomorrow: Garlic Smothered Chicken with New Potatoes. And I'm going to attempt this. Yes the cooking bug is back in full force. I am so happy to have family and friends that can appreciate.
Excuse me, I have to go infect cells with a nasty cow pox now. Later.

Good Grief Charlie Brown

2009-11-11T10:44:00.001-06:00

Forgive me, it's been 2 months since my last confession.

Life has been pretty busy. Okay maybe I just figured I'm talking to myself so much of the time that it wasn't worth it. I mean seriously, when I have 2 maybe 3 people who read my drivel while the pioneer woman gets like 2 bazillion comments a day, it really does bring things into perspective. I don't post pictures, mostly because I'm not the one who usually takes them and I rarely take the time to "fix" the ones I do have access to in order to post them here. I could talk about cooking but since I broke my finger ahem 2 months ago, I haven't been getting the cooking bug as often as I used to.

I have been reinvigorated though. Because Monday night the Pioneer Woman herself was appearing at my local WalMart to sign her book. I had to drive the bus that day so I couldn't possibly leave work early. I hurried from the parking lot and was making good time until I saw the flashing blue lights. There were accidents in 2 places on my route to The Wal Marts. A 20 minute trip took 50 minutes. Aaarrrgh. So I got in line at the BACK of the store. And didn't move for over an hour. My sweet Babou even decided (after much begging and whining) to come up and keep me company for a few minutes, bring me a camera, and a happy meal lest I fall down from hunger WITH A COOKBOOK IN MY HANDS. J didn't stay long. It was estrogen ocean. There was one lone Asian man in line with a nice camera but I think that's another story. By then I had managed to befriend a couple of women in line and it was getting to be mighty entertaining. We got to meet Malboro Man, the Pioneer Woman's main squeeze. I always figured she only posted the most flattering pictures of him, his forearms, his butt in chaps, etc. Nope, he really is that handsome in person. And rather charming. Big surprise, right?

3 and 1/2 hours later I was finally headed home for the evening. When my sweet babou said to me "did you see what our daughter wrote on Facebook while you were gone tonight?" First I said "she's not supposed to BE on facebook on a school night!" then I read the post. And had to forgive her.

" Dear Family, So I squished this bug. And it is STILL twitching. It's guts are kind of coming out of the sides. Mm, tasty..... Yes, I'll probably get in trouble for: A) Leaving it sitting here.B) Staining the carpet with its guts.C) Killing it with a perfectly good notepad.or D) All of the above!Sorry about the stain...Love, Your Kid."

That was a note I wrote to my parents.
Aren't I just so considerate?

It was a good night.

Experiments in the Kitchen, AKA- Mom's Science Fair Project

2009-09-17T15:46:00.000-05:00

So the other night I had this 5lb pork loin that I had thawed with no real plan as to what I was going to make with it. Somewhere I had recently seen a recipe for a slow cooker pork roast with amber beer. Hmm. J had some questionable amber beer in the beer and deer down in the garage and I had a pork loin. Perfect. But where did I see that recipe? Never mind, I'll just wing it. So I looked in the spice cabinet and see my collection of Dizzy Pig rubs. PLUG warning: I love these rubs! I coated my lovely loin, the pork I mean, with Dizzy Dust BBQ seasoning and let it rest while I did some chores. The lovely loin, as it will be known henceforth, was then browned in a big skillet with oil. Then I caramalized half a sweet vidalia onion in the oil. I made the gravy with lots of Dizzy Dust mixed in with the flour and used a bottle of amber beer as the liquid. The lovely loin and the onion and some fresh slices of garlic (about 3 cloves) and the rich, dark beer gravy went into the crock pot for 4 hours on high. Of course I have no pictures. I do have testimonials though they are unintelligible because they were grunted with mouths full of lovely loin and mashed potatoes.

I hope Chris doesn't sue me for using his Dizzy picture.

Pie, Strudel and Earthquake Cake. Oh and Bikes.

2009-09-11T14:31:00.000-05:00

Wednesday morning with gatorade, a cold pasta and foccacia lunch packed, coffee and breakfast cookies in hand, J, my sweet Sarah Smiles and I headed out toward Mt. View, Arkansas for some trail ridin' fun. I've never ridden on the Syllamo trails so this was going to be a new adventure.

The trails still have some issues from mother nature's wrath during the winter and spring. I caught a bad spot and somehow managed a bad fall early in the day, turning my pinky finger into a Z. Some tape and 4 ibuprofen fixed it enough to Man Up and Ride On.

There were definitely parts of the trails we rode that I really liked. There was some hikeabike. I don't know anyone who will say they like hikeabike. The trail Gods provided us some nice views and some moderately difficult technique building areas that gave us a good workout. There were some nice rocky areas that were challenging but fun to play on, some sweet downhills sweeps and some sand. I do not heart sand but it does test your mettle. I had a good time despite the injury and came away thinking I've managed to improve my skills this last year even though it's been tough to find enough time to ride hard trails.

But the day seemed to be more about the food. With us, it's ALWAYS about the food. We had this really cool dude along for the ride, a travel writer. Who happened to also be working on a story about Pie. Pie. I love pie. Sarah loves pie. Our new writer friend, loves pie. We talked about pie and streudal for hours. Okay, Sarah talked about strudl for hours. Apparently if you haven't been to The Pantry in Little Rock for strudel, you are missing out on the sweet mystery of life. We rode, we talked, we even sang a little. Sarah and I found a soul-mate in our new friend who happily sang along to our bad TV theme song rendiditons. After 20 miles, a few hours, a couple of injuries and countless horsefly bites, we got off those blasted bikes and went to find pie. Sweet Glorious Pie. We went to Cody's in Fifty-Six and had pie. It was okay. Then we needed to drop our writer friend off at the Ozark Folk Center State Park. We can't stop there and not eat at The Skillet. They have green beans that are like crack. I don't know what they put in them but I could eat them all day long. That and the tomato/onion relish. Oh my heavens. Between the 4 of us we had grilled trout, chicken fried steak, catfish, baked potatoes, fries, mashed taters, green beans, carrots, homemade hush puppies, biscuits and cornbread and then....TADA Earthquake Cake. Now I've heard tell of Kaye's cooking afore. I hear she is one mighty fine country cook. I want to adopt her. Even though it would seem silly to adopt a grown woman, I'd do it anyway. Just for the recipe for the banana earthquake cake. See, she won't give out the recipe but I figure if I'm her momma, she'd have to give it up, right? Right.

Excuse me, I have to find a dessert. Fast.

Facebook Has Taken Over

2009-09-04T10:59:00.000-05:00

I've been pretty busy lately. Work and Home seem to be hopping along and free time is at a premium. Because my family seems to be addicted to Facebook, I am required to be also. That's my story, I'm sticking to it.
Last weekend were were here.

Devil's Den State Park in Winslow, Arkansas. It's quickly becoming a family favorite. There are miles upon miles of wonderful hiking trails, mountain biking trails and about 60 caves and countless crevices to explore. Usually, we are tent campers but this weekend...my sweet boy rented me a cabin. A CABIN! With a jacuzzi tub and a real kitchen! Oh my heavens it felt like the Ritz Carlton in comparison to our camp cots, 2 burner propane stove, ice chest and sharing a bathhouse with an entire campground adventures.

J and I were there to do the last of the Adventure Sprint Races put on by the Ozark Extreme Team and the small one came along hoping for a caving adventure with the bats. J has been very ill the last several weeks and we're just getting back into training together. He was a trooper. The race began about 10 a.m. with a super dooper trek thru some of the best trail areas in the park. We hit checkpoints across several different trails (and roads) on foot before getting to the mountain bike portion of the race. About 2 miles into the bike, my chain broke. J fixed it for me but pretty soon, the whole rear derailleur broke free from the frame and I was forced to "scooter" my bike. Eventually the decision was made that we couldn't possibly finish with me pushing my bike and we had to "quit" after 4 hours of hard labor. That was a tough call. Very tough. I felt like we were doing well especially considering J had really Manned Up for me after being so sick. Oh well. At least it was during a short race and not the "big one" coming up.
Later that evening we took the small one for a 2 hour guided hike with the park interpreter Casey. She appreciated it because it meant a slow hike. We, are not slow hikers. In the end we stayed back to explore a cave and got mulitple bat fly-bys! So cool.

The next morning we had that yummy french toast in the picture and headed out for another hike on Yellow Rock trail. What a gorgeous day we had. We could not have asked for better weather. I mean seriously, August in Arkansas and it was PLEASANT. That just doesn't happen people.
And now, back to the regularly scheduled program...a busy life.

A Month of Crossfit

2009-08-11T13:18:00.001-05:00

I completed 4 full weeks of crossfit, missing one day each week except last week, I made all 5 days. It makes me sweat. It makes me tired. It makes me feel pretty good about how strong I am. Weekends have usually involved at least one endurance workout, running or biking for at least an hour, preferably 2 or 3. I've been tracking workouts and some of my favorites are days when it's a long list of exercises that you have to rotate thru as quickly as possible. This morning for instance, started with a bench press/hang time set.
Bench press at
80% of your max 1 x 6
84% of max 2 x 5
88% of max 2 x 4
between each set you have to hang from the pull up bar with your knees up, thighs parallel to the ground for 30 seconds.
THEN the workout started.

3 rounds
chest press x 8 30lb ea arm

farmer walk (walk all the way across the gym carrying heavy dumbells) 45lb

walking pushup for 10 yards (10lb dumbells in hands, do a pushup, extend an arm out without moving your feet is harder than it sounds, spider crawl up and do another pushup) this was the hardest thing on the list, I swear.

incline flies 8 x 15lb
flat flies 8 x 15lb

punching bag 30 seconds

start another set. If you can't, you have to hold a plank until you can start the next round.

Every day is something like this. I am really enjoying it. Except on days that involve running. Sprints blow.

A Week Without the Small One

2009-08-11T12:58:00.000-05:00

This week I am recieving daily (or almost daily) updates from Wisconsin and Minnesota. The small one was offered a very, very generous vacation via accompanying her sweet friend Al, her brother, Dad, Gma and Gpa in their MotorCoach from LR to Duluth. I haven't seen her pictures yet, but since she called me to ask what the procedure was if you see a bear in the woods, I'm guessing there might be some real doozies. They stayed a couple of nights in a cabin on the Wisconsin edge of the lake. Hence the request for bear knowledge to be imparted. Apparently there were good trees to be climbed and she was told to make sure she didn't climb one with a bear already in it. I wonder if she ever climbed a tree after that warning?

A's Gma told me they were going to visit this bridge and take a lake cruise. This is gorgeous, I hope the small one remembered to take her own pictures.

The Trip, capitalized because it is a Trip not a trip, also included 2 nights in a suite inside the Mall of America. Oh me. Oh my. The phone call today at noon revealed that all but pocket change of the money she started out with has now been spent. Mostly on clothes. Ugh. I hope SOME of the lecture about buying things that will last as memories sunk in and it isn't all consumables. And what is this Minnesota Sushi she's raving about? Something about smoked walleye and some kind of roe that she can't pronounce. Only a 13 year old girl can go from Urban Outfitters clothes to smoked walleye in the same breath.

I am ready for her to come home. She has 4 more days. And no money. Ha. She must learn to budget someday. I hope.

The Start of Something New

2009-07-12T12:23:00.001-05:00

Last week was my first attempt at multiple Crossfit workouts.

Monday:
general w/u
6 x 10 sec sprints
set 1: 6 x 6 ea
hang clean 65lbs
push press 20 lb DBs

set 2:
50 hang snatch
go to max rep then drop to plank until you can continue
I did 6 x 6 reps then 2 x 5

had little time to stretch and it hurt the rest of the day and into the next workout

Tuesday:
general w/u
4 rounds repeated:
800 m run ( tight and slow)
95 lb bench press to max (2 + 2 with spot was about it for me)
chair push ups to max (on toes, max for me was 4-5)

GOOD stretch, much better than Monday

Wednesday:
general warm up + 1 min run at 7.4 mph
12 x 10 sec sprints with 20 seconds rest in between. If more than 20 seconds is needed- do 5 pullups.
Did 7 sprints, pullups, only finished 3 more sprints, I was toast, 5 pullups.

In the evening I went out for a 2 mile trail run/hike on the quarry trail at Pinnacle.

Thursday: Rest day. Did 30 minute walk on treadmill at 3.7 mph intervals 2-8% incline.

Friday:
general w/u with 800 m jog
5 round repeated of : 5 pullups, 10 pushups, 15 squats
warm down 2 x 400 m jog with 30 sec rest in between
core work, roman chair w/ 10 lb plate, plank, side plank, toe touches, leg lifts, etc.

Sat: yard work
Sun: 18 mile bike ride, no big hills, avg 18 mph

A WEAK of no Blogging

2009-06-30T10:29:00.000-05:00

This several days have been less "active" than usual, mostly due to heat and my general dislike of gyms.
I have managed a couple of treadmills workouts, an early morning short hilly run but no bike. J's been sick, too sick to do any working out and I find that I won't ride without him. Didn't say don't because I can, could if I wanted to, but I choose not to.
Last Friday I met Sweet Sarah Smiles for a foray into the world of Crossfit. Apparently there is a sports performance center here that does uber athlete training for speed-agility etc. that also has crossfit programs in the early a.m. and early evening.
1st workout involved a repeated circuit of :
400m run while holding a 6lb medicine ball OVER head
12 plyo jumps with 110% body weight
sprints on a whack treadmill that likes to spit people off the back all while a pit bull barks at our butts. Not kidding.
sprints-no idea what the settings were but basically the first round was 30 seconds at a good incline then by the 3rd set the incline was WAY up but it was 12 seconds. the speed was consistant, the time and incline changed. Whew.
THEN came the ab work. It was the only part of me that was sore the next day. My abs hurt for 3 days.
Then I drove to work, worked half day, drove to Vicksburg and chowed down at a seafood buffet at a casino. Noice.

Today went back for more torture at Crossfit to determine whether I not I want them to consistantly torture me for money.
5 repeating circuits:
800 m run
30 x 15lb kettlebell swings (ouch)
pullups (admittedly with rubber band assistance) to failure

Disappointed in that last one. My best circuit was still only 6 and by the 5th I couldn't do 1. rrrrrrrghhhh
Yeah, I'll be back. With Money. To pay for my own torture.
When I got home I parked the car in front of the house which means I'm opening my door against a hill. I thought I might let it slam back into me my arms are so tired.
youtube of crossfit fire explanation

Off with a BANG

2009-06-25T10:03:00.001-05:00

Saturday afternoon the small one complained of an earache. Sure enough, Thursday's trip to Wild River Country with her lovely cousin Tricia (the DLI educated Korean speaking Air Force member one) not only provided her with what I hope are good memories of her cousin but a raging case of swimmer's ear. We were scheduled to leave LR at 9:30 a.m. on Sunday to meet sweet sweet Cari, not to be confused with sweet sweet Connie, about halfway between our respective homes 5 hours apart. Instead we were in the after hours clinic at Arkansas Children's Hospital getting a scrip for antibiotic/steroid drops and instructions from Dr. Simmons. We have never had need of this clinic before but since the small one's pediatrician retired a few months ago, I daresay we will use this facility again. We had the most pleasant Dr's office experience there. Kudos! We were done, had our scrips and even ate lunch before leaving LR only 2 hours behind schedule!
I have recieved one nightly phone call each evening this week so far. All short and to the point. Having a GREAT time, loving life, enjoying camp and making friends. So far they've done the physics thing building egg cases and popsicle stick bridges, done some GPS orienteering and today they are working in a genetics lab in the a.m. and a robotics lab in the p.m. This ROX! I want a robot too! I'm taking a half day off work tomorrow so I can drive down to Vicksburg to see her projects from the week and attend an awards banquet. Okay BBQ banquet, it IS Mississippi ya'll. I've missed the little bugger and she's home for a week and then off again to her 3rd week of being away from home this summer for Camp Mitchell. At least she'll be surrounded by friends, forced to GO PLAY OUTSIDE!, and only an hour away from home for that one.

Oh dear- Back to the subject of Fitness:
Got a treadmill walk/jog/hill repeat workout in on Monday. A short but hilly and hot walk on Tuesday but we got soft serve in the middle so I don't think that counts.
Had a nice 3.2 mile very hilly run yesterday morning before it got too hot. It was only 80 at 6:20 a.m. It really felt good and made me wish I'd timed it.
I've been invited by my Sweet Sarah Smiles to join her for a Crossfit class tomorrow at 6 a.m. Oh my. I like a torturous workout now and again but this might be pushing it.

Weekend Drives

2009-06-21T11:09:00.000-05:00

Friday started off good with a nice 2 hour workout in my favortie gym...Pinnacle Mountain State Park. Heat was a bit heavy even at 9 a.m. but worth every drop of sweat.
Left LR about 3 for the drive to Fayettville. Dinner with the oldest (and tallest of our little family unit) on a lovely early evening on the patio of Hog Hause. We had one short cry over a spilt beer knocked over by wind and an errant menu but oh what yummy food! After dinner we were on to see a play where I completely obliterated my workout with a piece of opening night cake and a box of cracker jacks-oh yeah! BLEACHER BUMS is a play about a group of fans watching a Chicago Cubs game. The audience is facing the bleachers on stage as if they are on the field looking back at the fans. The Tall One was the head Scenic Designer for this play. Oooh Aahh. Well done! I had to ask how she made plywood look exactly like cement bleachers but she wouldn't share much of her secret.
Afterward we met some friends for more fun and frolick but mostly people watching on Dickson St. I am very thankful that The Tall One has mentioned she doesn't spend much time down on Dickson except for the theater and the bookstore since I watched many young women her age stumble, fall, sit on the ground and/or generally make asses of themselves. Very proud of her maturity.
After a very fitfull night of sleep due more to J's painkiller induced snoring than the bed lovingly provided by our friends, we drove thru Rogers to see the new Visitor's Center at Hobbs State Park-Conservation Area on Sat morning. WOW- they did a fine job and I highly recommend a stop if you're up near Rogers or War Eagle. We're already planning a backpacking trip on one of the many trails up there. I've only mountain biked a tiny little portion of what's available. Now you can catch the multi use trails from the parking lot of the visitors center. Noice.
Heading out for a trip to drop the small one ( but not shortest one ) off to go to Math and Science camp for a week. Hope she learns something!

Not a single picture

2009-06-18T12:35:00.000-05:00

Spent a lovely weekend in Memphis and have not a single picture to show for it. That we took. So I am pilfering from the interwebz. Soon after the flight arrived bringing our smallest one home from a trip to see Grandparents, we headed straight for Blues City Cafe on Beale Street. For some reason our children all think that Memphis means Ribs at Blues City and bowling at Jillian's. Jillian's at the Peabody Place is now a 21 and over sports bar so that was out. Disappointing. But ribs and tamales at Blues City was ON.

The next day we intended to go to the Zoo and to Graceland but dawn arrived with thunder and lightening and high winds. We stayed at our hotel for a long relaxed breakfast and then spent part of the late morning at the Rock and Soul Museum. We were concerned that the rough weather wasn't over and wanted to be close to shelter if necessary. It turned out to be a gorgeous day. We had a great time introducing the small one to music she hasn't heard often enough. I thought maybe she wasn't paying attention or wasn't enjoying it but when we got home she asked if she could watch Blues Brothers AND if she could buy Sam and Dave's "Hold On, I'm Comin'" for her ipod. So she WAS paying attention!

We also took the tour of the Gibson Guitar Factory next door. I think it would have been better if it hadn't been a Sunday because there were no worker bees. It was still interesting to hear the hows and whys of the place even if we didn't get to see much actual assembly.

In between the museum and the factory, we got hungry and wandered to find a place we haven't tried before. We found Automatic Slim's Tonga Club on Second and Union close to the Peabody. We sat outside on this patio even though the inside looked beautiful...it was too nice a day after all the rain in the a.m. They were serving brunch so I had crawfish eggs benedict and it was the BOMB. J was craving salmon and they had a salmon hash that was also tasty. I thought the small one was going to cry when she found out she couldn't order off the "regular" menu but when her soup and sandwich came... she was all smiles. The chowder was most excellent and she tried to name ingredients for me suggesting I should attempt it at home. :) right.

This isn't what we ate but isn't it lovely? I think this place deserves a return trip next time we're near Memphis.

Busy Bee

2009-06-11T14:18:00.000-05:00

I know I've been busy but seriously...I think this is the longest lapse in posting.

Fitness? What fitness? I know I've had a few multihour excursions since mid-May and no pictures because well, I don't stop long enough to take any. I was hoping someone else would post pictures from the Ozark Extreme Adventure Race that we did last weekend at Village Creek State Park but so far I got nada.
We had a good time. Well, I had a good time. Joe has not been feeling well and it really showed on this race. I tried not to push too hard. I didn't FORCE him to run. I couldn't very well not wait for him on the bike, there's RULES about that. I think he's broken. Luckily he's going to the Dr. today. I hope he's better soon, we have racing to do.
I mentioned to a friend who lives in Marianna that I might want to do the MidSouth Marathon in November. She volunteered to drive around to different points on the course to throw water on me. Apparently that's what people do to runners in Wynne. :) I have good friends.
I absolutely have to get out of this office. I'm going for a quick run. Right now.

Wild (life) Wednesday

2009-05-13T13:45:00.001-05:00

The sun is shining the sun is shining! After days on end of rain and dashed hopes as the sun merely peeks thru the cloudes for mere minutes before tongues are poked out at the silly animals below and the pretty yellow ball disappears again, we have sun. Oh, and it's going to be 87 degrees today. And humid.
4 mile flat run. Windy and hot. Man was it slow! The hip screamed for the first 1.5 mile then let up some. Distance measurements were not exact, it was somewhere around 4 miles and somewhere AROUND 42 minutes. God I hope it was more than 4 miles. Argh.

The weekest link...

2009-05-08T21:39:00.000-05:00

Last week I managed:
1 aborted run followed by 45 minutes of circuit workout
a cinco de kilo run on cinco de mayo
a stressful day at work followed by a nice 2.5 mile evening walk
another stressful day followed by a shorter slower walk...for soft serve
another stressful day with 25 minutes of fast but hard stairmaster, mowing the lawn, sweeping and bagging some lawn mess and dun de dah dun laundry :)

I had a good title in my head this morning...

2009-05-01T19:16:00.000-05:00

But I can't find it now.

I took a mental health day off work today and was WAY busier than almost any day at work. Actually the day started off with work when I had to drop some items off at the hospital. THEN I got to go workout. Headed for my favorite Urban Outdoor Gym...Pinnacle Mountain State Park. Again. I had a GREAT workout there on St. Paddy's day. Today started off okay- the skies threatened rain and man was it MUGGY. Ran the base trail to the East Summit trail head, took the summit and came down the West side and around the West Base Trail. Saw 3 blue tail (juvenile 5-line) skinks, one broad nose one and a chipmunk that came out and stared me down. I was a little frightened of him. I hit the summit hard but on the way down (where I would normally be moving as fast as possible, if not running) I was trying to be careful because it was so wet. I slipped anyway and felt my hip pull so I pretty much walked the West Base trail back around. I did NOT want to quit so I headed back up the E. Summit for another go but as I got to the boulder scramble the bugs were just relentless and after several bites, I decided to go back down the trail and started running. Ran most of the East Base Trail back to the parking lot. Almost exactly 2 hours of movin.

Because it's a tradition when I'm totally gross...I stopped at Fresh Market for groceries. Picked up some beautiful strawberries and apples so I made a fruit and cheese tray for our dinner tonight with some Breton mini crackers. Yummo.

Mowed the yard, bagged some nasty pollen piles, made an appt for a haircut, picked the small one up from school, went to the library to pick up a video of "To Kill a Mockingbird", and started painting the hallway downstairs took a break to make dinner and start a load of laundry. Whew. I should be sitting on the couch. But SOMEONE wants to go to Target.

LOSER!

2009-04-28T11:17:00.000-05:00

Monday was a biggest loser boot camp day. I thought I'd try putting it at the beginning of the week instead of the end because it usually makes me a little sore. Things I've figured out from this DVD- sometimes holding a position lower instead of midrange is less stressful.

10 minute cycle workout waiting for someone else to get out of the aerobics area
45 min of workout
3 x 9 mph sprints...30 sec on, 30 off
I tore a butt muscle. Somewhere about 20 seconds into the 3rd sprint I felt a pull. So today it's all about, "ow my butt"

Didn't stop me from rushing home, digging in the garden for a few minutes, taking M to piano lessons, shopping for organic pizza crust and pesto while she played, making homemade pizza for dinner, polishing off what seemed like a pint of cherry tomatoes, doing the dishes, reading the paper, watching a few minutes of TV, trying to rid my hair of gray (good luck), and finally falling into bed. All after 5:45.

Will Walk for Ice Cream

2009-04-27T12:37:00.000-05:00

Friday night I came home from work to find two 13 year old girls at my house instead of just one. This...means trouble. After a very quick beat down for not doing required chores in spite of having company (I don't care if you've got company: the dogs need to eat!) , I managed to feed them enough to shut them up for a few minutes. Then I in my best "I'm the best mommy ever" voice say "Who wants ice cream?". Of course, everyone wants ice cream. So I say "Fine, but you have to walk for it." Oh the humanity! It was a 4 count them 4 mile round trip to Baskin Robbins, exactly twice as far as it is to get the less fattening soft serve cone at McDonalds. insert evil laugh here.

Saturday morning we got up and J loaded our bikes while I stumbled about trying to find proper attire and somehow pour coffee down my throat at the same time. We headed over to Burns Park where the Ozark Extreme Team was conducting a clinic on Adventure Racing. Now I've done a few races but I always leave the navigation part up to J. He's good at it. But he's irritated by my impatience with navigating. So I thought it might be a good idea for me to learn how to do it from someone who I don't have to share a house with afterward. J taught me how to plot UTM coordinates on a map a long time ago so a refresher was a good idea. Plus, the last few races we've done had points plotted in advance so only the actual navigation was necessary. What I don't get (and to some degree still struggle with) is Topography. Each time I try I learn something new so it's time to try more often. We spent some time in the woods chasing after checkpoints. J went with me to make sure I didn't get lost or eaten and I did okay on my own until the very last point. Frustration set in. There was cursing involved. But I did figure it out finally. And discovered a big weakness...judging distances while off the trail. Work is required on that one. After a quick lunch and an even quicker short mountain bike ride I had to bug out to take the small one to a school thing and by the time I got back, the riding was over and the bike maintenance class was underway. Learned a lot...have a list of weaknesses to work on. Oh boy.

As usual, pictures were taken but I don't have access to them yet.

Sunday I thought we'd be doing a ride or hike but instead...we took the little one to the zoo. The last couple of years she's thought she was "too big" for our little zoo. We had a good time though. We made sure to check out the winged wonders show before leaving. It was pretty cool. I have to say though...people please...if you are instructed to stay seated, STAY SEATED. And keep your kids seated too. And sit on the outside edges if you want the full experience. But not if you have little kids who scream if animals come anywhere near them.

After shopping for plants, paint supplies and groceries, the night ended with an epic Dutch Blitz card game. Noice.

Another bad food day with hot dogs, funnel cakes and homemade shortbread. And no training. yikes.

It's not quite Friday yet

2009-04-23T15:58:00.000-05:00

Bummer.

Yesterday was a walk, a nice brisk 3 mile walk in the sun.

Today was a jog. A nice brisk 3 mile jog in the beating sun. That made me wear sunscreen. And a hat. And made my tummy churn and tell me "you don't have time to do 4 at this pace you slow poke" And a little strength work/cardio circuit inside in the stuffy air conditioning that only prolonged and encouraged the stinky sweat.

Tough Tuesday

2009-04-22T09:19:00.000-05:00

It is my week to drive 30 someodd people to work, 45 minutes each way, in a big bus. It makes me tired. And stresses me out.

Yesterday I fit in a whole hour of Biggest Loser workout DVD (counting the 5 minutes of brisk walking warmup I did hoping it would help me be less sore after the DVD, it didn't).

After dinner (fish tacos! yummy) we took the dogs for a long walk, over 2 miles round trip, to McDonalds where the people got soft serve cones and the dogs got loved on by a stranger or two. Glad it wasn't the other way around. I love soft serve.

Just Way too Much Info

2009-04-20T13:09:00.000-05:00

Are we addicted to putting personal information out there for all to see? To what purpose? To keep others we don't see often enough updated on our mundane lives? To get feedback, willing to take the negative but always looking for the positive? Some sick need to put ourselves out there for the world to look at?
Whatever. I thought this would make me accountable...but it isn't the area that I "hide" anyway. What I need is someone to get in my face and scream at me that jogging 5 miles is not in any way going to come even close to making up for eating hot wings smothered in bleu cheese dip and fries with salt, sugar and ketchup. No way.

K. Complete lack of updating actual workouts which have been moderately consistent but lacking length and the hurt factor. A couple of good brisk walks with hand weights, a few jog/runs but mostly flat which was a real wake up call when I tried to jog a hilly route yesterday, and a bit of strength work in there too. Yesterday's jog was 5 miles and didn't really feel like it but I hurt the rest of the day. Tight hips. As always, it is the hand to mouth action that is at issue. I sometimes wish I didn't like to cook. It would make raw food diets so much easier. I like my food hot. I don't even eat cold breakfast much. Why? Is it habit or preference outweighing the knowledge that a little cold cereal or yogurt wouldn't kill me?

2009-04-13T21:29:00.000-05:00

Easter Weekend fun at White Oak Lake State Park

The Easter Bunny found his way out to the lake early on Saturday and hid eggs in the strangest places. Note the tribute to said bunny in the head gear worn by the egg investigators.

Rockin on the dock

The girls were the first to discover that this dock had great sway. I had to join in.

An evening hike in the woods...native azaleas oh so much prettier than those things we buy at home depot to plant in our front yards. We found a cache along this trail and saw an albino squirrel. At least I think it was an albino. I have never seen a white squirrel before???!!!

Trail Blazin

There was a cache along this trail that we wanted to get at and then we even hit a little bit of single track. Found out that the small one is not a big fan. She needs more saddle time to be ready for trails like that but this section was great.

Friday night I ran 3 miles, mostly singletrack and about a mile like the above pic along the lake. Saturday after we rode with the girls slowly for a few miles, J and I went back out and rode the 9.8 mile Fern Hollow Trail in an 1hr 7min. As usual, I felt like I was just warming up toward the end...the burn was going away and then...we stopped. And ate chili mac. Discovered that ground beef plus velveeta shells and cheese plus a can of zesty chili style tomatoes makes for fantasmic camp dinners.

Long Time No Blog

2009-03-30T15:01:00.000-05:00

March 17th? Seriously?

The past 2 weeks have been full. I'm sure I can't fill it all in. After the run at Pinnacle I tried to moderate my workouts because Saturday the 21st was our first Adventure Race of the year. Since J and I have really not been doing any (we did 1 last year and none the year before that), we are trying hard to get back in the game. Ozark Extremes Adventure Sprint Series seems a good place to start. A couple of slight missteps on the orienteering, due mainly to my impatience I'll admit, we still managed to come in 1st in our division ( 2 person co-ed) and 4th overall of male teams and solo men. Cool. During the following week I managed to get in a couple of short runs (3 miles or less) and a couple of strenth training days.

Sunday we got back into the endurance arena with a mountain bike ride. I wish I had a map to show elevation. We rode from our house in Leawood, thru Foxcroft to the Big Dam Bridge, up the switchbacks at Emerald Park, down the road at Ft. Roots, across the Main Street Bridge over to the Deaf School and up THOSE hills working our way North of Kavanaugh for a ways but popped back out in time to stop in at US Pizza for lunch , salad supreme yummy, and back down H street and Evergreen to get home ending with the climb up Mountain. Yowza. 22 miles that felt like 40. Hills, Hills and more Hills. Did I mention there were hills?

I am not working out today. Could, but not going to. :)

Indulgences, Repentance, and I'm not even Catholic

2009-03-17T18:21:00.000-05:00

This weekend started off with trip downtown to volunteer with the Little Rockers Marathon. Kids who run/walk 25.2 miles before Marathon weekend get to run/walk/skip the last mile downtown and get a finishers medal. Fun stuff Maynard.

After packing everyone up and adding an extra girl to the 2 I had on hand, we dropped them at Gma's and headed out for Ft. Smith. Had to make an exercise pit stop on the way for a short but intense trail run at Petit Jean Mtn. It was supposed to be a 4 miler but the rain in the a.m. said we might get muddy, we might trip and hurt an ankle, blah blah blah according to J. I guilted him into a 2 miler steepness stakes chase down into the bowl on Cedar Falls trail and back up. I did some stair repeats at the top.
Saturday night saw us at an Italian place in Ft. Smith called Taliano's. I'm just sayin' folks, if you want a nice dinner- hit this place up. It's in a restored Victorian house, the food and service were both phenomenal and I think I'm still recovering from the butter infusion I got from my Salmon Amadine with buttery sauce. Ateries...hardening...
Sunday we got up and I had a sweeeet breakfast of an egg white/garden omelet and fresh fruit. Then we went out on the Ben Geren trails for about 10 miles. It was only about an hour of actual riding. There's a bit of something for everyone out there. Sweet technical curves, sweeping rollers and a couple of good nasty climbs. I wanted to repeat a section we did that had me brushing shoulders between trees for a couple of miles, very tight turns with endo penalty for depth perception misjudgment.
Then there was more indulgence. FOOD. I had a philly cheesesteak with onion rings. And drinks. A few of them. And breakfast at 1:45 a.m. I did manage to order an egg white omelet (but with the sausage, sigh)
Monday I did NADA. But I attempted to get back on the healthy eating wagon with limited success. Anyone know that you can make rice crispy treats with stale fruity pebbles and it's still awesome?
Today, has been a decent food day so far and plan to keep it as such. I punished myself with a trip out to Pinnacle Mountain. I ran from the visitor's center to the East Summit trail and went up. Usually we go down the west side but I decided to go back down the East side, it's harder. Then ran around the East Base trail (mostly ran it) to the West Summit trail, did it the same way and then finished around the West Summit Base trail back to the OT and the visitor's cntr running on and off. I don't know how many miles that was. It was about 2.5 hours of moving though. My legs are officially tired.

What did I do?

2009-03-13T13:01:00.000-05:00

This week for workouts:

A 2.5 mile walk with hand weights and 15 min stationary bike workout
a 20 minute morning stroll with an hour of mixed walk/jog/incline work on the treadmill
a biggest loser bootcamp video workout
a 3 mile run with upper body/ab workout for 20 min

today's plan is a repeat of the hour long mixed treadmill workout. May reduce to 45 min with increased intensity and do some strength training

Weekend plans include a 4 mile trail run and a mountain bike expedition. We'll see if the weather allows.

Picture is worth how many words?

2009-03-09T18:51:00.000-05:00

30th annual Run Thru History 10K in Vicksburg Military Park

We started the race by being late and having to run uphill about 1/2 mile to get to the start, just as they were singing the Star Spangled Banner. Nice timing. Just enough time to check shoelaces and turn on tunes. I was not ready for the heat or the hills! Now I can't wait to do it again.

yeah, not the time I had hoped for but...I felt great at the end and didn't want it to end just yet. I waited just a few seconds so Cari and I could finish together. As usual I came away going...I din't even come close to leaving it all out there.

After the race we stayed in the park, which is beautiful by the way and wandered thru the memorials, monuments and battle fields. It was a beautiful day but then the call of the wild was heard...the small one needed FOOD. Look how happy she is!

Until she realizes she can't possibly eat this.

Cari and Mike had no trouble finishing theirs. They were smart and shared a NORMAL size piece of pie. Rusty's Rocks.

Feeling it yet?

2009-03-05T14:09:00.000-06:00

Tuesday- 45 minutes of moderate tempo riding on the trainer and a little light weight work during Biggest Loser watching.

Wednesday- 45 minute brisk walk outside holding 2lb pilates balls. My arms were TIRED.

Thursday- I'm headed out now for a short run and probably some upper body lifting depending on how the run feels. I'm shooting for 2 slow miles and then walking 1/2 mile. My legs have just felt so fatigued but I can't point to any workout that I can blame. I would rest today and tomorrow but I usually fare worse by resting too much than keeping a slow simmer going.

Friday afternoon we are headed for Vicksburg, Mrs. Ippi to visit our friends C and M who moved there a few months ago. We're going to do a run while we're there because well, we're weird. The 30th Annual Run Thru History at the National Park there along the River on Saturday morning. I hear tell it's a hilly wonder of a course. J will be running the 5K and C and I will run the 10K and the small one will be waiting for J so they can cheer us or tell us to "Hurry up so we can go home"

Weekend- a REAL one!

2009-03-03T07:49:00.000-06:00

I did get that 60 minute treadmill workout in on Friday-it was good. Not pounding, can't walk the next day good-just thumping good.

The weekend weather was just plain ugly. It rained Sat a.m. then turned to snow and the ground was still wet even though the sun came out on Sunday. The mountain bike ride got nixed. Saturday I walked around a garden show with my mom for a few hours. Sunday I got in a VERY light cardio/strength workout while Joe was on the trainer.

Monday- 6 mile run/jog. Felt pretty good after mile 3. Typical.

RRRRRRRRR

2009-02-25T08:52:00.001-06:00

It took about 3 weeks of inattention and suddenly, the scale is 5lbs heavier. How the heck does that happen. So now with the first "race" of the year less than 2 weeks away, I'm in terrible shape, everything hurts, and I'm fat to boot. So it's back to writing down every friggin morsel I put in my mouth. Or chaining the fridge since writing it down I can ignore if I really want to. Lack of committment. Complete Lack of Committment.
WHEN I lose that 5 lbs I gained plus the 3 to get to a certain # that is a worthy goal, I will reward myself with the kilt riding skirt I saw at Chainwheel on Saturday.

Monday got nuthin.
Tuesday- 4.25 mile jog, slow and heavy but the last mile felt really good. In the evening I did about 20 minutes of light cardio and "toning" exercise while watching TV.

Add on:
Wednesday- I can't remember now. Why can't I remember? I know it involved time on the elliptical and ab work.

Thursday- 3 mile walk, brisk. 2 miles carrying 2lb weighted balls and 3/4 mile uphill 2-6% incline.

Friday- the PLAN is for 60 minutes on the treadmill (it's rainy) intermittent walk, jog with climbs 2-8%. Should be a good interval workout.

Tired Legs

2009-02-23T08:52:00.000-06:00

Friday- A biggest loser bootcamp workout for 55 minutes in the morning and a 1.5 mile walk in the afternoon trying to keep the soreness at bay. It kind of helped, but my legs are still toast.
Sunday- 27 miles of road cycling with a (slow!) climb up Ft. Roots in the middle. I haven't felt that bad on Roots in a long time. The legs just would not go.
I think I need a leg rest so if I fit in a workout today-it will be upper body.

The diet is still what's killing everything. I have no self control. Just because I made cheese dip and cake for the small one's birthday party doesn't mean I have to eat it.

Losing Track, or Focus, or Both

2009-02-18T15:48:00.001-06:00

I'm not sure what I did Thursday and Friday last week. I know I did SOMETHING. All I can pull up in my memory is the making of many mini cheesecakes and the all you can eat chinese buffet.
Saturday- several hours of yard work and then...eat and party and eat and party.
Sunday we had planned on a bike ride but...dint.
Monday I got all of 10minutes of running...long story
Tuesday I got back on that stairmaster for 40 minutes. I was enjoying the torture, something is wrong with me.
Wednesday- 3 mile run followed by 5 x 15 second wind sprints and a follow up .5 mile jog ending with butt kicks, side jumps, yoga stretching and 15 minutes of Ab work.

Work Out Ketchup

2009-02-11T13:57:00.000-06:00

or is it Catsup. Oh well

Saturday J needed to go "walk" around one of the parks looking at potential mountain bike trails. I decided that I needed more than a walk and I have a new back pack that hasn't been tested so he helped me load it with somewhere around 25 lbs of weights and towels. 90% of the trekking was completely off trail so balance etc was a workout of its own making. Only did about 3.5 miles but that was plenty.

Sunday went out to Pinnacle Mountain (AGAIN), one of our favorite places to get a workout. By starting at the visitor center and heading down to the East Summit trail, up and over, down the West and around the West Base trail and back up the OT to the visitors center we got in 5 miles. I tried to run as much as possible, I didn't run up the East Summit Trail or the stairstep finish at the OT but most everything else was at a run.

Tuesday wanted a run when the sun finally came out but the legs said "no way woman". I didn't hurt, they just felt so darn heavy. I went for a very slow jog for a mile then headed indoors for some upper body/core strength training and finishing with hills 5-8% on the treadmill at a fast walk for about 10 minutes and a minute of butt kicks.

Wednesday was 30 minutes on the stairmaster doing random intervals. Haven't done this in a while and it felt pretty good. Then into the weight room to work upper body not worked yesterday (back mostly).
But then...I made a yummy dinner of grilled fish tacos with chili lime cream and baked fudge. I ate 2 ramekins of the fudge. Well, there were 4 and only 3 people...someone had to do it.

Looking for the Weekend

2009-02-06T15:25:00.000-06:00

Wednesday- 1.5 mile run with another .5 mile of wind sprints finishing with a jog to about 2.5 miles

Thursday-
scorpion pushups x 20
dumbbell fly on body ball 10 x 12lb
leg extension 20 x 40lb, 8 x 50, 6 x 60
jump squat to failure (12)

single arm decline dumbbell press 12 x 20lb
V cable fly x 15
squat thrust x 20
side lunges x 10 ea side

close grip push up x 12
plank 2 x to failure
jump squats x 15
one leg squat x 10 ea leg
jumping jacks 1 min

military shoulder press 10 x 15lb
wood chopper x 15 ea side
static lunge w/ lateral raise 10 ea leg x 8 lb
reverse crunch x 10
hanging ab twist x 10 ea side

30 sec on, 30 sec off x 5 repeats at 9 mph
jog to 10 minutes at 6 mph

Weekend not so much Warrrioring

2009-02-02T09:05:00.000-06:00

Friday got a nada, Saturday got a little bit of yard work and a walk with the doggies.
Sunday: A trip to Cedar Glades! I haven't ridden Cedar Glades in a long time. I think we might be measuring in years instead of months even though it used to be one of our regular rides. I missed a turn right in the front end of our ride and got caught one foot clipped in and one out, I think I pulled a butt muscle. Didn't feel it till I was off the bike, that was good. I was surprised by all the new trail, had a good time riding places that I remembered TRYING to ride on my old hardtail. Managed a good 13 mile single track ride.
The fitness gain that might have happened from that was completely obliterated by turkey burgers and Ruby Relaxers at Ruby Tuesday with S&A. It was SO worth it to be able to sit and catch up. I miss having good friends around.

Biggassed Loser Workout

2009-01-29T09:08:00.000-06:00

It was darn cold this week and I couldn't bring myself to run outside and I HATE the treadmill so yesterday I did the biggest loser Boot Camp DVD. Finished it this time so it was 55 minutes. I'm a little sore this morning. Those workouts kick heinie.

oops catching up

2009-01-25T22:11:00.000-06:00

I've been terrible about logging workouts this past week. Okay

Sunday- a short mountain bike ride at CAMP, about 8 miles.
Monday- some hole diggin in my yard
Wednesday- indoor climbing gym but most of my workout came from belaying two 12 year old girls.
Friday- 4 mile run
Saturday- power shopping (ha)
Sunday- 17 miles of mountain biking. Now THAT's worthy of mentioning as a ride.

Fun Friday

2009-01-16T15:54:00.000-06:00

I tested out the 2nd Biggest Loser workout DVD today. All I can say is, if these are the kinds of workouts they do on the Ranch-the show doesn't cover the half of it and no wonder these people can lose double digit lbs in a week. Once again, I only finished workout sections 1 and 2 (20 and 15 min respectively) with a 5 min warm/cool on each end. My arms are noodles and my legs won't obey the signals from my brain. I was soaked, sweat was dripping onto the floor.

Man-I wasn't sure about Bob's workouts but he kicked my tail

Warrior Pose

2009-01-15T12:23:00.000-06:00

THIS ^ is not warrior post but I will never think of Warrior Pose as a nice stretch, ever ever again.

Last week I bought 2 DVD's from the Biggest Loser folks. One is a boot camp workout with Bob. I also bought Bob's Yoga weightloss DVD. I thought...it's yoga, it will feel good. Oh. No. It has a warm up, 3 workout sections and a cool down to total 55 minutes. It was late and I wanted the small one to do it with me so we were going to leave out the last workout section (only 10 minutes) Mc quit on me within the first workout section and sat on the couch watching for a while. And laughing now and then. The first workout part had my thighs burning, legs shaking and arms on fire. This is NOT your mother's yoga DVD. It's not anywhere near as in your face as Jillians 30 Day Shred workout and I'm not sore today but man I couldn't believe how weak I felt doing that workout. Can't wait to try the boot camp one.

Weekend Warrior

2009-01-12T13:18:00.000-06:00

This weekend was FULL. The plan for Sunday was a long mountain bike ride that ended up being a long trail run.
8 miles around Pinnacle Mtn including out and back on the Quarry trail down the Ouachita trail to Pinnacle's Base trail and all the way around and back to the visitor center lot. I tried to run as much as I could. J was feeling the time off from the surgery so I ended up running about 5 miles of intervals so I could stop and make sure he was behind me before I started again. We walked the last 3 miles together as fast as we could go. Man did I sleep good.

Thirsty Thursday

2009-01-09T13:33:00.000-06:00

Went out for a run and started off thirsty. Bad idea. Did 4 miles though and tried to push myself whenever I felt like I was settling into an easy pace.

New Year's first workout

2009-01-07T14:59:00.001-06:00

On the friggin 6th?? I'm feeling almost normal. Not quite, but close.

1.5 miles on the treadmill, fast walk (3.8 mph) intervals up and down between 3-7% incline
25 fast body weight squats
2 x 10 pushups
2 x 10 x 90lb ea close stance, wide stance and calf presses on the Hip Sled

attempted to do hammer curls on a balance board but could only squeeze out a couple without losing balance- dropped weights and played on the board for a minute then picked the weights up-and decided it was better than the nothing I had been doing, don't push it, and went back to work

No New You

2009-01-06T12:19:00.000-06:00

Immediately following the last post on New Year's Eve, I got a nasty stomach bug that has kept me either sick and/or weak myself, or taking care of sick, weak people who got it after me. I thought I'd be over it but it's a rough go.
The only exercise I've gotten so far this year is a few trips running up and down the stairs and blowing into a homemade respirometer/pH meter for the small one's science fair project on CO2 output during exercise. Fun stuff I say, fun stuff. I am going to try to carve out time for a walk today and a workout tonight or tomorrow.

New Year, New You?

2008-12-31T14:02:00.001-06:00

The past week has been full of work around the house mostly, with a 22 mile bike ride around the River and up Ft. Roots and a 4 mile jog/run in there somewhere too.
Today Lisa is feeling bad. She thinks it's from the salad bar in the cafe yesterday. Gross. Wash your hands people! Oh no, maybe it was my own funk that made me sick.
I will be taking it very easy tonight. A bit bummed that it is necessary but I'm a grown up. I can handle it.

Will the new year bring a new me? For those hoping I mean a personality change, good luck with that. I am not one for New Year's Resolutions. I do like goals though. Goals are good. I'll have to organize my thoughts on those.....tomorrow.

Christmas Rush

2008-12-26T22:56:00.001-06:00

The days leading up to Christmas are always hectic. This year was not as bad as some but because the sweet man I married 5 years ago had a great anniversary present planned-I had to figure out how to be away from home right before the "big day" and still get everything done.

Last week, I did manage a couple of mixed up workouts-treadmill cardio and light weights. Cmas Eve, the man and I were still up on Mt Magazine after a cold, windy and icy evening spent toasting the last 5 years in front of a fire in our private cabin. We went for a 6 mile hike on some trails neither of us had been on before (that's often a tough bill to fill) even though it was in the low 30's, windy and low visibility for most of the hike.

Christmas Day had us back out in the woods but not on trails-we were bushwhacking around Pinnacle looking at Mountain Bike Trail options. I hope those become a reality by next year.

Snow and Ice and Cold oh MY!

2008-12-19T08:34:00.000-06:00

The planned workout for Tuesday was delayed by heart palpatations caused by driving on ice. Arkansas just rarely gets snow, it's always just a bit too warm so we get ice. I will be happy if that's the only cold precipitation we get this winter. I know, wishful thinking. Wednesday's workout involved getting up from the table to hit the buffet at the chinese restaurant. Farewell parties for colleagues can hardly be ignored.

Thursday:
I learned that I've been assigning a VERY wrong weight to the bars on the cybex crossover machine. Ugh. Now I feel wimpy.

5 min warm up on the elliptical

DB press on body ball 10 ea arm x 20lb
DB fly w/crunch on bb 15 x 8lb
squats x 50
1 in run @ 7mph

plank 10 sec
close grip push up x 5
side plank w/inner thigh raise x 10
close grip push up x 5
rpt side plank other side
Burpys x 10
suomo squat x 50
1 min run 7mph

frog pushup x 20
squat thrust x 20
chair pose x 30 sec
W shoulder press w/ leg extension 10 ea leg x 10 lb
jump rope 1min

bench dip x 20
rope tricep press to failure (this is where I figured out my math mistake) 1 x 20lb, 10 x 7lb
static lunge w/lateral raise 10 ea leg x 8lb
mountain climbers 1 min
boat pose 30sec

bicycle crunches to failure
extended plank to failure
30 sec 7 mph then another min @6.5, 1min @6, 1 min @5.5

Monday Monday

2008-12-16T16:26:00.000-06:00

Started running out of time so I hit the gym for a treadmill test. I hate the treadmill. To entertain myself, I pushed all the buttons!
4 minutes of warm up walking, hit the incline up, up and up again, took it down to 2% and jogged, then ran, then walked and ramped up the incline again, repeat for 1/2 hour. You get the picture.

Drop sets for back:
Lat pulldowns 3 x 50lb 6 x 40lb 10 x 30lb
seated row 3 x 70lb, 6 x 60lb 10 x 50lb
wood chopper 10 x 30lb each side
tricep rope pulldown 3 x 35 6 x 25 10 x 20

Catchup

2008-12-11T22:17:00.000-06:00

Sunday: 10 miles on the road - lame but J needed to take an easy ride to be sure he didn't hinder recovery
workout plans were thwarted by real world work every day until...
Wednesday night I managed to fit in a home workout while catching up on Biggest Loser but all I had was one set of 12 lb dumbbells and a large body ball

warm up - general jumping around, marching in place

rows x 20
lunges x 20 alternating legs
dead lifts (lame with 12lbs but whatever) x 20
jump squat x 10

low row x 15
lateral raise x 10
squat swings x 10
jumping lunges to failure

military press x 10
supermans x 20
squat w/ bicep curl x 15
rock star jumps 2 x 10

hammer curl x 10
ball crunches x 25
hack squats x 10
mountain climbers x 45 sec

some other random ab work

Thursday: 3 mile run followed by ab work using captains chair and a db between my feet :) ouch