Oops!!

I was so tired after swimming last night that I totally forgot to write a post!  I realized it just as I was dozing off in bed.  Obviously, it didn't bother me enough to wake back up and type anything!

It was so good to be back in the water.  I ended up swimming about 1 1/2 miles.  There was a lot of pulling (no kicking, just using your arms).  I think there were about 600 yards total.  With my arm challenge, it was all I could do to finish.  My arms were so sore.  My stroke was really sloppy at the end, but I made it.

On Sunday I finished the first week of the running training.  I'm doing 4 minutes walking/1 minute running 5 times fairly easy.  On Sunday, I forgot (yes, again) to start my watch, but I thought it was interesting that I finished almost 2 minutes faster and I was only short .05 miles.  I was surprised by that.

I was supposed to start with 3 minutes walking/2 minutes running 5 times today.  That's a big change!  I was so tired this afternoon that I took a nap.  By the time that I got the dogs walked, I barely had time to get to the bank and the pet store for dog food. I feel like it's just an excuse that life got in the way.

Now I'm trying to decide if I get up early in the morning and do the run and then swim in the evening or if that would be too much.  It's hard when you don't want to put pressure on yourself, but you want to make your goals.  This is an example of am I nicer to myself and give my self a break?  Am I doing to much with the four trainings that I'm working on?

Here's my current schedule:

• Monday - Swim & arm challenge
• Tuesday - Run & arm challenge
• Wednesday - Swim & arm challenge
• Thursday - Run (arm rest day)
• Friday - Warriors game - arm challenge (normally this would be Swim & arm challenge)
• Saturday - 22 mile bike ride & arm challenge
• Sunday - Swim, Run & arm challenge

What do you think?  When I write it out, that is a lot that I have going on.  Basketball will interrupt swim days, but I will still be able to get the run in.  If I was ambitious I could swim at 6:30 in the morning.  For those of you who know me, that would be a challenge!!

Hope your week is going well!

Deb

The Moment of Truth

Well, I was scared, but I did go to WW this morning.  I did screw up with the time, but I still got to weigh in.  The moved the time up from 10:30 to 9:30.  I sat through part of the meeting.  I'm not sure if I like the leader or not.  He's lost over 100 pounds, but he wasn't as personable as the Saturday leaders.  The last time I weighed in was October 26th.  I was 257.2.  Today I was 263 - a gain of 5.8.  Part of me says that isn't too bad since I haven't followed the plan for over 2 months.  The other part of me is worried, intimidated, nervous, scared of failure, etc....  All those feelings are back.

One day at a time.  One meal at a time.  That is what I need to remember.

On the exercise front, it was a great weekend!  I met the Feather Pedals (a part of the Valley Spokesman bicycle team) for the first training ride for the Cinderella Classic in April.  The ride was just over 15 miles and it felt great!  It was mainly flat, with some ups and one hill.  I was so happy that I didn't have to get off of the bike and walk!  Even better, I wasn't the caboose!  This really seems like a good group so I'm looking forward to next Saturday.  We have 22 miles then.

I'm also happy to report that I finished the first week of the running program and on day 5 of the arm challenge.  I really like the arm challenge.  I'm going to have to break the workout up soon so that I get all the dips & push-ups in!

As I wrote earlier, one of my goals this year is to be nicer to myself.  Things seems hard right now.  Overwhelming.  But I need to look at how I've done.  I was nervous about WW, but I went.  I've kept up with my arm challenge.  With the run training.  It may only be a week, but I've kept it up.  I was worried about the ride, but that went really well.

I just need to breath.  I have a plan, so I just need to follow it.

One day at a time......

Have a good week!

Deb

Twice in a row!!

Yes, it's true - I'm back on track.  This is my second post of the new year!

I'm not quite back on track food wise yet, but at lease there was a lot of activity.  Finished day 2 of the arm challenge.  Let me tell ya, I was struggling with the push-ups & dips today!  I'm in trouble!  It's sad when I'm already looking forward to a rest day (Sunday). 

I also started the running plan.  4 minutes walking with 1 minute running.  By the second one, I thought I was going to die.  The third one was much easier.  Of course it didn't click that the first 2 were up hills!  At least I found a good route.  It's one of the longer ones I do with my dog.  I did 1.83 miles in 32:03.  I know that doesn't sound like a lot, but for 5 sessions of running (I did the last 7 minutes as a cool down).

Since I messed up the days on my calendar, I will do this again tomorrow. 

Saturday is my first bike ride with the feather pedals.  I'm getting really excited about it. It's 15 -  23 miles long.  I hope I can keep up!

I'm even more excited to start swimming again on Monday - yea!!!

Hope you are doing well with your goals!

xxoo

Deb

Happy New Year!

Yes, I'm still alive!  The Brazil project has gone live - we have many smaller future releases to go, but at least the largest part of the project is live.  It has been non-stop for the last few weeks/months so I've been avoiding any non-work related Internet activities.  Unfortunately, this blog has suffered.  My eating & exercise has also suffered. 

With a new year, there are new goals.  The first being that I need to get back on WW and start the new year on track.  I'm planning on hitting the 9:30 meeting on Friday.  I have several activity goals for this year:

• I'm planning on the Cinderella Classic on  April 5th.  It's a 65 mile bike ride in the Easy Bay.  To prepare for this, I will be joining Saturday conditioning rides.  It's been a long time since I've been on endurance ride!
• I really miss swimming, so I need to attend a swim at least twice a week.  Three if at all possible.  I'm allowing myself to enjoy things so if I need to miss a swim because of social activity that's ok, but it's not ok if I miss it because I need to work or am too tired.
• The other big thing I'm working on is a training plan for our bookclub.  We are planning to do the Rock 'n Roll in Las Vegas in November.  I've created several training plans for the group, but I'm going to work on trying to run.  We are planning on doing The Color Run in March and the Bay to Breakers in May as our first races.
• To be specific about the events that I would like to do:
• an endurance bike ride - Cinderella Classic - 65 miles - April 5th
• a sprint tri
• an olympic tri
• one half - Vegas?
• RUN a 5k - The Color Run - March 15th
• RUN a 10k - Bay to Breakers- May
• an open water swim - Alcatraz? Kona - swim the Ironman leg - February?
• To keep myself honest, my goal is to blog at least 5 times a week.  This will keep me honest about my workouts & weigh ins!
• My last goal, while not activity based, is to be easier/nicer to myself.  I'm not very good at that.

To help me get started on all of this I'm going to also do the Arm 30 Day Challenge.  I found it on  one of the blogs that I read.  I have no clue which one, so I can't give them credit - I got this from Pinterest!  Do you want to join me on this?

If anyone is interested, here are the training plans that I came up with.  They have been based on the Spark People Couch to 5k plans.  The walking (W) and walking/jogging (W/J) plans were only 5 weeks long, so I changed this around so they would be as long as their rookie running (R) plan.  All credit goes to Spark People on this - I just retyped it.

January
Day 1	Day 2	Day 3	Day 4	Day 5	Day 6	Day 7
W: walk for 15 min W/J: walk for 4 min, run for 1 min repeat 5 times (25 min total) R: walk for 4 min, run for 1 min repeat 4 times (20 min total)	Rest or cross-train	W: walk for 1 mile W/J: walk for 4 min, run for 1 min repeat 5 times (25 min total) R: : walk for 4 min, run for 1 min repeat 4 times (20 min total)	Rest or cross-train	Rest	W: walk for 1.5 mile W/J: walk for 4 min, run for 1 min repeat 6 times (30 min total) R: : walk for 4 min, run for 1 min repeat 4 times (20 min total)	Rest
W: walk for 25 min W/J: walk for 3 min, run for 1.5 min repeat 5 times (27 min total) R: walk for 3 min, run for 2 min repeat 5 times (25 min total)	Rest or cross-train	W: walk for 1.75 miles W/J: walk for 3 min, run for 1.5 min repeat 5 times (27 min total) R: walk for 3 min, run for 2 min repeat 5 times (25 min total)	Rest or cross-train	Rest	W: walk for 2 miles W/J: walk for 3 min, run for 1.5 min repeat 6 times (31.5 min total) R: walk for 3 min, run for 2 min repeat 5 times (25 min total)	Rest
W: walk for 30 min W/J: walk for 3 min, run for 2 min repeat 5 times (25 min total) R: walk for 3 min, run for 2 min repeat 6 times (30 min total)	Rest or cross-train	W: walk for 2.25 miles W/J: walk for 3 min, run for 2 min repeat 5 times (25 min total) R: walk for 3 min, run for 2 min repeat 6 times (30 min total)	Rest or cross-train	Rest	W: walk for 2.5 miles W/J: walk for 3 min, run for 2 min repeat 5 times (25 min total) R: walk for 3 min, run for 2 min repeat 6 times (30 min total)	Rest
W: walk for 40 min W/J: walk for 3 min, run for 2 min repeat 5 times (25 min total) R: walk for 2 min, run for 3 min repeat 5 times (25 min total)	Rest or cross-train	W: walk for 30 minutes W/J: walk for 3 min, run for 2 min repeat 5 times (25 min total) R: walk for 2 min, run for 3 min repeat 5 times (25 min total)	Rest or cross-train	Rest	W: walk for 15 min W/J: : walk for 3 min, run for 2 min repeat 6 times (30 min total) R: walk for 2 min, run for 3 min repeat 5 times (25 min total)	Rest
W: walk for 30 min W/J: walk for 3 min, run for 2 min repeat 5 times (25 min total) R: walk for 2 min, run for 3 min repeat 6 times (30 min total)	Rest or cross-train	W: walk for 2.25 miles W/J: walk for 3 min, run for 2 min repeat 5 times (25 min total) R: walk for 2 min, run for 3 min repeat 6 times (30 min total)	Rest or cross-train	Rest	W: walk for 2.5 miles W/J: walk for 3 min, run for 2 min repeat 6 times (30 min total) R: walk for 2 min, run for 3 min repeat 6 times (30 min total)	Rest

February
Day 1	Day 2	Day 3	Day 4	Day 5	Day 6	Day 7
W: walk for 40 min W/J: walk for 2 min, run for 2.5 min repeat 5 times (27 min total) R: walk for 2 min, run for 3 min repeat 6 times (30 min total)	Rest or cross-train	W: walk for 2.5 miles W/J: walk for 2 min, run for 2.5 min repeat 5 times (27 min total) R: walk for 2 min, run for 3 min repeat 6 times (30 min total)	Rest or cross-train	Rest	W: walk for 2.75 miles W/J: walk for 2 min, run for 2.5 min repeat 6 times (31 min total) R: walk for 2 min, run for 3 min repeat 6 times (30 min total)	Rest
W: walk for 40 min W/J: walk for 2 min, run for 2.5 min repeat 5 times (27 min total) R: walk for 1 min, run for 3 min repeat 7 times (32 min total)	Rest or cross-train	W: walk for 2.75 miles W/J: walk for 2 min, run for 2.5 min repeat 5 times (27 min total) R: walk for 1 min, run for 3 min repeat 7 times (32 min total)	Rest or cross-train	Rest	W: walk for 2.75 miles W/J: walk for 2 min, run for 2.5 min repeat 5 times (27 min total) R: walk for 1 min, run for 3 min repeat 7 times (32 min total)	Rest
W: walk for 45 min W/J: walk for 3 min, run for 3 min repeat 5 times (30 min total) R: walk for 1 min, run for 4 min repeat 7 times (35 min total)	Rest or cross-train	W: walk for 3 miles W/J: walk for 2 min, run for 3 min repeat 5 times (25 min total) R: walk for 1 min, run for 4 min repeat 7 times (35 min total)	Rest or cross-train	Rest	W: walk for 3 miles W/J: walk for 2 min, run for 3 min repeat 5 times (25 min total) R: walk for 1 min, run for 4 min repeat 7 times (35 min total)	Rest
W: walk for 40 min W/J: walk for 3 min, run for 3 min repeat 5 times (30 min total) R: walk for 1 min, run for 4 min repeat 8 times (40 min total)	Rest or cross-train	W: walk for 2.5 miles W/J: walk for 2 min, run for 3 min repeat 6 times (30 min total) R: walk for 1 min, run for 4 min repeat 8 times (40 min total)	Rest or cross-train	Rest	W: walk for 2.75 miles W/J: walk for 2 min, run for 3 min repeat 6 times (30 min total) R: walk for 1 min, run for 4 min repeat 8 times (40 min total)	Rest

Here's to a great 2014!  Do  you have any specific goals for the year?

xoxo

Deb

I am Alive!

This will be shocking, but I am alive.  Work has been very intense.  I've had to be online/available 24x7 for almost 2 weeks now.  I haven't had time to go to the grocery store, swim or do much of any thing.  It's been pretty horrible.  The first week I was driving to San Jose every day.  This last week, I ended up spending most of the week at home because I had a fever, sore throat, and cold.  Not good.

After all of that, they ended up delaying the release for three weeks.  So we got to take the weekend off.  It was wonderful to have a few nights with 8 hours of sleep! 

Needless to say, this hasn't been a good time in terms of eating or exercising.  I'm lucky if the dogs are getting two short walks in if I'm at home or one medium walk if I head to the office.  Since I have no food in the house, I've had delivery - chinese or pizza.  Not the best for a diet.  What makes it worse is when I'm in the office, there are bagels every morning, they bring in lunch (actually a few of them).  On they way there & home I end up on calls and I have to do a call shortly when I get home so there isn't even time to stop then......

Hopefully, this delay won't be too bad.  We have another release in January, so I'm hoping they don't want us to work over the holiday shut down.

Anyway, I feel like I'm whining.  I hope everyone is doing well.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed that things will be better this week so I can take care of myself!

xxoo

Deb

Work, Work, Work

It wasn't all work today, but it was too much of it.  The sad part of it is that I should have done more.  This release is going to kill us all!  I don't think it will ever be done.  I was very grateful for the extra hour of sleep this morning.

If you are in the Bay Area and want to start cycling, I highly recommend the clinics by Savvy Bike.  I took the 101 - Basic skills clinic Saturday and it was wonderful!  I still can't ride without hands, but I am a lot more comfortable on my bike.  I've even signed up for the hills clinic in February. 

I'm not sure if I mentioned in my last post, but I decided to sign up for a Cinderella Classic bike ride in Pleasanton.  It's 65 miles with some hills.  Hills scare the crap out of me!  I know if I train I can do the distance, but the hills.....  I was looking a bike groups and Velo Girls has a group that will be training for the ride starting in January so I went ahead and signed up.  The first ride is 15 miles and the second is 20 so I'd better get riding!

Swimming wise, I'm very glad that I can swim three nights this week.  It was really hard for me to only swim one night last week.  My mental health needs more than one night!  I found an open water swim on January 4th from Alcatraz, but I'm not sure if my surgeon will clear me for the swim.  I'm having my dog ears taken off on December 20th and I can't swim for 2 weeks.  The swim is 15 days, so that might be a bit too close.

Somewhere in here I'm going to start the couch to 5k.  I haven't figured that out yet.  I updated the app today so I'm ready to go.  I have 10k on Sunday that I'm totally not trained for.  I'm just going to join and enjoy the walk.  If I can run a little in there I will, but if not, that's ok too.

I'm still looking for a tri next year.  I just can't find anything until September/October.  I didn't really want to wait that long, but I guess I can if I have to.

Do you have any goals for next year?

Food wise, the weekend hasn't been great.  After the clinic yesterday, I stopped at the Lobster Shack and had a lobster roll - they are sooooo good!  And I had a tri tip sandwich at the Warriors game.  Trena did help - an It's It sounded really good, but I didn't REALLY want it so she talked me out of it.  Tonight, I ordered a pizza.  After finishing the slides, I just didn't want to be in the kitchen. 

Hopefully I can plan meals for the rest of the week tomorrow.

Hope you had a great weekend!

xxoo

Deb

Happy Halloween!!

I can't believe that it's Halloween already!  That means it's already November....  Sadly, my only tricker treater was the UPS man. 

I know I've said it too many times before, but it still surprises me that work is getting crazier and more intense.  At some pont someone needs to make a decision and we either need to stop testing or restrict what we do when we go live.  We just need someone higher up than I am and with enough balls to say it!

It also helps that I set some goals for next year.  Swimming wise, mom wants to have a family vacation in Hawaii so we will be in Kona in February.  I want to do the swim leg of the Kona Ironman.  I also want to do a swim from Alzatraz.

Swimming is my main stress relief, but I need something that I can do on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays or Sundays.  Since I want to do more tris, I really need to work on the bike.  The bike is my worst leg.  I'm just not comfortable on the bike.  Some of it is my size.  I think that makes me really slow, which makes me uncomfortable.  The smaller girls should make things easier.  So I'm going to take a class on Saturday morning to brush up on my skills.  There is an afternoon class on hills, but I think that may be a bit too much for one day

Then in January there is a kick off for a Cinderella ride in Pleasanton in April.  It's 65 miles will about a 1,465 feet rise through the course so it shouldn't be too bad.   I was hoping to do the same tri I did last year in June, but it looks like it won't be held until October.  I've spent the last 45 minutes searching for alternative races so now it's time to finish this up & head to bed!

Walking/Running wise, I'd like to start doing some more run/walking for an extended period of time.  I'm hoping that my book club group will do the Rock 'n Roll Half Marathon in Las Vegas next year.  That will get me training in all three of my sports!

So much for getting to bed early this tonight!  I have early calls in the morning so I'm hoping I walk up in time.  I need to hop in the shower by 6:30 (which  is REALLY early for me) so I can be outside of WW for the 7:30 call.  There is a meeting at 8.  I'm hoping I can be in and out for my 8:30 call; home for my 9 am call and then the rest of the morning is full of calls. 

Tomorrow night we are getting foot massages and dinner with the book club girls should be really fun.  I have to be really good and get home early so I can make it to Redwood City by 8 am for the bike class Saturday!  Let's hope I can get a nap in before the Warriors game Saturday night!

I'll let you know how I do tomorrow at WW.

Have a great Friday!

xxoo

Deb