catching up

Tiger

Handsome isn't he? He belongs to Scott's mother.

Wow - finally a bit of time to unwind!

Thanksgiving was good - - mostly.

Saturday morning I slept in a bit. Did some stuff around the apartment. Did some laundry - a load of jeans......and my cell phone. jeez. so not good.

Went to Scott's - watched some hockey.

Sunday we went grocery shopping - got a turkey breast and all the other fixings. Picked his mom up at the nursing home around 5pm. Soon as we got to the house she wanted to nap - didn't eat much. When we were getting her ready to go back to the home she had a bit of a panic as she was too tired to walk to her wheelchair.

Monday: Scott and I had breakfast, dropped him off in town so he could spend the day with some friends. Then I headed back to Toronto - had to work a 1/2 shift. Yep - loads of fun on the holiday!

Tuesday was a double shift: 4:30am - 7pm. The operator who usually does the early shift was working on the election show so I had to do her shift. Very long day! Voted after work.

Wednesday - another double shift! Went and got a replacement phone.

Today - regular shift at work. Very relaxing!

Not a lot of time spent at the gym. Have done some stretching. Also did some walking, but no running. Was careful with my eating up until I went to work on Tuesday. Still not eating clean but am working on it. haven't done a weigh-in since I don't have a scale at home.

Thanksgiving

Well - the week of evening shifts is over. Thank god. No matter what I tell myself and how I plan I usually end up not eating well. Seriously - I had groceries and everything but I still managed to go off plan.
And this is so the wrong weekend to continue. Monday is Thanksgiving here in Canada. Despite that I have to work a 1/2 shift, then because of the Election on Tuesday I have to work two 14 hour days in a row. Yep - going to be fun. Not only that but I've switched a day off with Brian so it looks like I'll miss another week of training. But I have been working out - just not as much as I need to.

Other good news? I managed to wash my cell phone! Am letting it dry out now and hoping it will be o.k. If not then a new toy for me! Possibly a Blackberry - because on iPhone is just too expensive up here.

And I've baked 2 pies today. What surprised me is that they've got fewer calories/fat/carbs (and more protein) than I thought - considering how much butter and sugar goes into them. It is a crustles Cranberry pie/desert.

I'm off to Scott's now. We're doing Thanksgiving tomorrow and apparently, we have to go shopping!

Wednesday

Well - the work schedule is still undergoing revisions. Partly due to Peter quitting, partly due to switching shifts with Brian while his partner goes overseas (B needs to work the day shift so he can be home with their daughter in the evenings). I had switched several shifts when I remembered TFC's final home game. Hated having to un-switch the shift but he didn't seem to mind too much.
Also - because of the election on Tuesday it seems I have to work a couple of double shifts. 4:30am to 7pm. So not fun!

As for exercise: didn't work out yesterday because I thought I just needed a day off. My shins were a bit sore from all the running on Sunday and Monday. So Tuesday was "lay about the apartment until the last possible second before leaving for work" kind of day. Which was nice - read a bit of the Smithsonian magazine.
Also on a good note - my arms weren't that sore from the work-out on Monday, just a little around the shoulders but that was it.

Today was a session with the trainer. Arm & leg work today: 4 X 12 reps of 30 lb (switching with 20 lbs) while on a Bossu ball, bicep curls with 15 lbs, 40 degeree leg press (190 lbs) , step work and some other stuff. Finished with 4 X 10 sit-up on the bench.
No session on Friday as he's on a day off, on Monday because of the holiday - Wendesday doesn't look good either because of the double I'll be working. And the following Friday is one of the days I've switched with Brian. And I'm pretty sure I'm on a double again the following Monday. yikes! I don't know what is scaring me more - the doubles or missing training sessions.

After the session I ran 2 miles on the treadmill. I didn't push myself too hard as my shins were a bit sore. Stretching afterwards.

Monday

A little bit sore from yesterday's run because I didn't stretch afterwards.

Had a session with the trainer this morning. Today was arm and back exercises - pretty good stuff; but I just know I am going to be really sore tomorrow.
Also ran on the treadmill - almost 3 miles. Not too sure since I accidentally stopped it when I dropped the top to my water bottle. I know I was just under 2.75 miles but I forgot the time. I did the first mile in 16:15, the second in 15:00. I think mile 3 was going to be less - - but....
Oh well.
But I did do some stretching afterwards so hopefully I won't be too sore.

Weight is pretty well the same. Which is good since I didn't have a good food weekend. I've signed up at MyPlate and according to their charts I'm eating too many carbs. so that's what I'm trying to keep track of now.

C25K

I've been running at the gym - usually over 2 miles (intervals) in 30-35 minutes. I've heard about the C25K program so I thought I'd try that while runing outdoors.
Of course, being me - I wait until autumn to do it - but what the heck? Beats running in the heat, I suppose.
So - looking at the program I see that the first week of training has you run/walk (intervals of 60 seconds:90 seconds) for about 20 minutes. I do almost double that (with a longer running interval) every day. You know where this is going, don't you?

This morning when I woke up I thought I'd try the C25K run at a park near me. Got there around 8 a.m. and did the first training run. It was a bit tougher than I thought it would be - - uneven path, having to deal with the iPod, water and keys, and just the fact that I tried to push myself as hard as I do in the gym - with out the luxury of having anything telling me how fast I'm running or walking.
But I made it thru the first run and still felt pretty good. I was on a main path for a while but did several loops in an empty parking lot. Ended up doing the 5 min. cool down walk on an uphill.
Made a few adjustments: used the drawstring on my pants to tie my keys down, put the iPod in my bra.

Then I did another run. This time I took it a bit easier - didn't try to walk as fast and relaxed when running. Found another parking lot at the base of a really steep incline. Instead of running up that I opted to do loops in the parking lot. Even the slight incline at one end of the lot was noticable to me. So I did 6 of the 8 running portions in this lot and on the 7th run I started back towards my car. Had a slight incline but it felt pretty good to run that.
At the end of that run's 5 min. cool down walk I was still a good distance from my car. So I thought "What the heck - I'll do another run."

This run was a slower but still pretty good, I thought. I was really relaxed but not tired. No soreness or difficulty breathing.
so - I did a week's worth of suggested training in one day. yikes! Will start Week 2 of training later this week. If the weather is good I'm going to do it outside again. And I'll only do 1 training run per day!

Had breakfast when I got home. Off to see if I can get my haircut. Have to work this afternoon.

Friday

I was so sore all day Thursday! I hadn't lifted weights for over a week because my trainer wanted me to concentrate on cardio while he was on vacation. But Wednesday we worked on upper body. I felt like such a wimp because I had the darndest time doing reps on the easy exercises. And I really felt it on Thurs. - my poor arms! At bedtime I just put some A535 on and popped a Tylenol.
However - my neighbours decided to have a drunken screaming match at 2:30 a.m.! Somehow I managed to fall back asleep only to wake up at 6:30 a.m. when I heard my cell phone. My trainer had texted to cancel our 9 a.m. session.
did I get up and get an early start on the day??? No - I managed to fall back asleep for a bit - then I listened to my iPod until it was time to get ready to go to work.

There was store bought cake since it was Peter's last day. Chocolate and vanilla - not a lot of taste but yet still very sweet.
Lunch was Japanese.
The afternoon was pretty slow - until an hour before the shift ended when it seems I just got slammed with a ton of stuff. Come on people! It's Friday for God's sake!

After work I just wanted to go and curl up in bed and read or listen to my iPod. Instead I went to the gym, did a warm-up and some stretching and then ran for 2 miles. If I had been able to keep that pace up I would have been able to do 3 miles in 45 minutes - down 2 minutes from yesterday. But I was just bagged. So I took a very long hot shower and headed home.

Called my sister. Read a bit. Talked to a friend.
I even lit some candles - quite a nice touch to the evening.

3!

Today was a strange day. I felt a bit off (perimenopause SUCKS) and the weather didn't help - cold and rainy and overcast. I didn't make it to the gym before work so I packed my kit and took it with me, figuring I'd go after work. However, during work I kept thinking that I didn't want to go for a run...or even go to the gym at all.
But that kind of thinking is the one that got me into this big fat blobby mess so when I finally got done work (I had to do some overtime) I went to the gym, did my warm-up and some stretching and hopped on the treadmill.
The first few minutes went by a lot faster than usual. At 35 minutes I was going to stop but thought I'd add another 5 minutes. At 40 minutes I looked at my distance, saw I was at about 2.5 miles and thought "I'll see if I can do 3 miles." So I did. The last few minutes were tough but I did it! 3 miles in 47 minutes - not that I'll win any races with that but at least I can do it.

Took a quick shower and headed home. Tonight there are 2 things worth watching on tv - the Canadian Leaders debate (the leaders of the 5 main parties) are having their English language debate (last night's debate was in French) and of course the U.S.'s Palin/Biden debate.

217 - running

Didn't make it to the gym yesterday morning so I went after work. It was a tough run - only 25 minutes but it seemed to last longer! Some stretching and I was out of there.

Watched The Biggest Loser and surfed around a bit. Went to bed shortly after midnight but I couldn't fall asleep until after 2 a.m.

Awake at 7 and got ready for the gym.

A good work-out with the trainer - upper body stuff. Such a weakling!
Had a 35 minute run afterwards. Much better than last night - I even kicked up the speed a bit. Friday's work-out is at 9 so maybe I should do my run before.