Category Archives: exercise

So, about two months ago I started hounding for an elliptical. My treadmill died in the spring after many faithful years of service. Winter was approaching, and I knew I needed something for exercise. I decided to switch to an elliptical from a treadmill because I have problems with my feet – plantar fasciitis to be exact. We start pricing them and are SHOCKED to find out how expensive they are. Who knew? I decided I needed to figure something else out.

Fast forward three or four weeks – Terry surprises me with a Vision Fitness 6200. Hooray for me! I love it. It is a great workout, quiet, and surprisingly compact. I have been faithfully working out 5 to 6 days a week for three weeks now. So, now I feel like I can tell you about it. It is pretty much what I have been doing with my spare time lately. My current goal is to finish up 75 miles before Christmas then after the New Year I am thinking about training for a VERY casual triathlon in early May and to cross the finish line 30 pounds lighter. I need to think about the triathlon part though. It requires swimming, which requires me to find some pool time, which is a tricky thing when I have no time. Maybe I will find a 10K to run instead. Anyway, wish me luck.

What does this have to do with knitting? Well, it has mostly to do with my stash really. I was poking through it the other day. Now my stash is not like most stashes. My yarn has a purpose – I don’t buy yarn willy nilly. I always buy it with a pattern in mind. I just don’t knit as fast as I buy. As I was looking at it, I realized all of it is yarn for me – about four sweaters worth, numerous pairs of socks, a couple vests, and three scarves or so. I have a hard time knitting for myself mostly because I won’t look as good as I would like in it. Really, if you are going to knit for 80 to 100 hours on something you want to feel great in it, right? So, that is what I am hoping to work on. Getting in shape enough to want to knit for myself again. Is that weird? Don’t answer that.

One more pound down, eleven miles covered. It was a pretty good week considering I went down to my folks’ house this weekend where there is ALWAYS food. I am down four pounds total, but I am FULLY expecting to gain all four of those pounds back on during vacation. Not negative thinking, just realistic. No one can eat out pretty much every meal for 10 days without gaining weight, even if I eat “half” meals.

I did run outside this week. A couple of miles total. Oh. my. gosh. I thought I was going to die the NEXT day. Cardiovascular-wise, I was feeling great. No ice means finding a decent pace, but my muscles screamed about propelling this body forward. The next day I was very sore. I plan to keep working out outside more and more. Couple reasons: being outside is nice and my treadmill is dying. Let’s have a moment of silence, please.

I forgot to post last week in all the excitement of Easter and such.

Okay, I have officially lost three pounds. That’s good – a whole pound ahead of schedule, and I will need it for when I go on vacation. My focus is on cutting calories (duh) instead of really following a “diet”. I have had lots and lots of luck with Weight Watchers in the past, but I am sick to death of counting points. So instead I am thinking about whole grains & whole foods and drinking mostly water, which is what they really push. Seems to be working okay. If I stop seeing progress, I will go back to counting points. (I wonder if the trademark police are going to come after me – should probably capitalize Points and use a circle R. My Dad got a nasty letter once from a certain hook and loop fastener company for not using a circle R when he referred to them in an article he wrote for the local paper. Too funny.)

I am still working out. The week before I put in 11.5 miles, and this week I logged in 13.5. My focus this twelve weeks is to keep my running at more than half my weekly miles (quarter miles count, dammit) and to make sure I put in at least 10 total miles a week. In the back of my mind, I want to do 100 miles of running before July 1st. We’ll see.

Happy April! April is a grand month – the sun begins to warm our part of the world again and the snow disappears. Oh, don’t get me wrong, we just might have another snow shower or two, but for the most part it is over. Winter is over.

Runagogo is over too. It went out with a whimper for me. A little over 2 miles this week – on Monday at that. *sigh* It’s okay. I took a bit of a mental health week. No real exercise to speak of. Ate white bread. Drank soda. Put in closet doors. Cleaned the garage. Cleaned out closets. Read books with the boys. Built a lovely Brio train track with Bubba. Painted a Stealth Bomber. Very nice week, so even though I didn’t run very far I feel a lot better about life.

Tomorrow I will weigh myself for an official starting number and start to be serious (again) about losing some pounds. I have been down at my pre-pregnancy weight for a long time which felt good after being the world’s largest woman, but it is time to start losing the weight to make myself feel better in the long term.

I have pictures of Salina progress. My husband hates when knitting patterns have people names. He says it is like I am knitting a person up and not a sweater. When I first started knitting and reading blogs, I was puzzled by why everyone named whatever they were knitting. Seemed cutesy. Then I followed some links and saw patterns in books – “oh, Bob.” (line from French Kiss – we always say it when the proverbial lightbulb goes off).

Stayed the course this week – 13.5 miles bringing the total mileage up to 122 miles. Next week is the last week (I think my update time line is off) and then I will start posting about pounds lost. *gulp* I am horrible at losing weight – will persevere though.

Kristin finished her 100 miles this week! Go tell her what a great job she did because she deserves it. The poor gal not only has been sick and finishing up her coursework before student teaching BUT she also swims. I am sorry – swimming a mile is WAY harder than running or walking a mile. Now she didn’t swim all of her miles, but she swam quite few.

Also, go give Kristina some encouragement. She is trying to reach a goal for the final week and might like that. Of course, she might be cursing me too.

Thanks for all the compliments about Trellis! They were really nice to read and very encouraging. Hopefully he will keep wearing it. Kids sure are finicky about knitwear.

I did it. I completed my 100 miles. 14 miles this week, bringing my total to 102.25. I worked really, really hard this week because I wanted to get up and over 100 miles so there was not a sense of completion with exactly 100 miles. Need to keep working out, this has to be a permanent thing. So what did I treat myself to for completing it? Fiber stuff? Nope. I bought workout clothes – incentive to keep going. I have not bought workout clothes in, gosh, 5 years? A while. I actually like the shorts I already have, but the shirts are DISGUSTING so new ones were definitely in order. I was a little surprised to find the fact that most woman apparently do not wear T-shirts any longer when they workout. Am I the only one who still wants to be somewhat clothed while running? It seemed like everything was a shirt & bra combo thing. Not my cup of tea, the public at large thanks me for it. The funny thing is another lady in the store was having the same problem. She had a frenzied look on her face when she asked me, “Where did you get those T-shirts?” I eased her pain and showed her the rack in the corner.

It is gorgeous here today. One of those days where you can tell spring will come, some day. I decided to run *long pause* outside. Here was my dilemma though – how to run with the iPod? With gloved hands and a dog leash, it seemed treacherous, so I casually mentioned a Shuffle. My husband, giddy with the anticipation of spring, said, “You should go get one.” I sprinted for the door, went straight to the store, and bought myself one before he came to his senses. I already knew it was a completely frivolous and very American of me to rush out and purchase this gadget just because I wanted to run outside today. I love it. It is teeny, tiny. It is spring green. Enough said.

My husband thought it would be fun to post of picture of me all decked out to run. The anorak is very wrinkly. It hasn’t been out of its packable container since I ran outside about three years ago. The hat was overkill – I was roasting by the end of mile 1. Running outside kicked my butt. I don’t care what anyone says – it is WAY harder to run outside for real then on a treadmill. I only made it about 12 minutes before I needed to recover, and I had done about 20 minutes on the treadmill before. It was good to be out and running in the sunshine, and I plan to do it every Saturday or Sunday until the roads are clear enough for me to run with Muskrat. Check out the orange thing-ies strapped to my shoes. Yak Trax. Does anyone else use these or is this an Alaskan thing?

Hey there, hi there. Mileage this week was 11 miles bringing my total to 88.25. Phew. I might actually make 100 miles next week.

Why only 11 miles this week after sounding so smug last week? Well, I worked out just 4 times. On Tuesday, I confirmed the fact that Muskrat’s nap times are no longer workout options because Bubba is not sleeping. Then on Wednesday and Thursday I got up at, just prepare yourselves here, 5am to workout. It is plain and simply the only time that will work until spring when Muskrat can go with me in the stroller while Dad makes dinner. Friday, I rested. Saturday I squeezed in a workout, but it is hard when Terry is home. We hang out. I can knit for long stretches. So, today (Sunday) I was bad and didn’t work out. I knit instead. Talked to some friends on the phone & planned a trip to Seattle with them.

The down side to working out in the morning is the running part. I was doing pretty good running – 1 to 1.5 miles in a stretch a couple times during the workout session. I was DRAGGING to get through 3/4 mile stretches on Thursday morning. Up side to working out in the morning, I get to shower after I workout AND it is done for the day – off my list of things that need to be done.

I rock. Hey, if you can’t be your own cheerleader who will be? I finished 13.25 miles this week. Five workouts. Three around three miles and the other two around two miles. My total is at 77.25 miles.

Workouts ran into a bit of a snafu though. A certain little 4 year old I know pretty much has given up his naps. Around Christmas, we tried it but he was miserably tired, however this time it is official. It makes working out tough. Here is a typical workout this week:

Me: *running and wheezing with headphones on*
Bubba: *says something to me, but I can’t hear him.*
Me: *struggle to get headphones off while still running* “What’s up, buddy?”
Bubba: *doing the best impersonation of Flashdance ever* “I am working out with you, Ice Queen.”
Me: *growing to hate inanimate object I am running on* “You are doing a good job.” *wheeze*
Bubba: *still dancing with enthusiasm* “I am running faster than you.”
Me: “What’s on Little Bear, buddy.”
Bubba: “My name is Maverick.” *bolts from room*

This goes on and on for the remainder of the workout. I think I am going to find a new workout time because I can’t chit chat with him while running. I know, I know I am working too hard if I can’t have a conversation. Sorry. I have never understood that rule – if you are not winded you aren’t working out.