Category Archives: Training

Today is my Friday

Posted on January 17, 2008 by Terri | Comments Off

and I’m soooo happy it is.

Last night’s trip to the gym kicked my butt. My behind only lasted 3 miles on the bike and then I headed to the pool where I swam the majority of my swim with 5-stroke breathing. I had to slow myself down because for some reason I’ve been getting in a panic that I need to hurry up and get to the wall. I also managed to swim 100 yards without stopping. Kahuna thinks I’m not pushing myself to my limits.

I came home wiped out. Kahuna was supposed to meet me there to swim but he had played golf with his old unit and walked in the door just as I got to the gym. He stood me up. I was starving and was hoping the soup I had made the night before was heating on the stove but he had forgotten about it. We went out.

I had a stash package waiting for me when we got home. Sheepish Designs is retiring so I ordered some patterns I had on my wish list: Ewe Alone, Eagle, Token of Love, Winghaven and a Sunflower Sampling design Home is Best. I can’t seem to find a link to the last ~~two~~ one right now.

I spent my 15 minutes in the office last night cleaning up stuff on the desktop.

So, what am I going to do tomorrow:

Stitch on something – I’ll make a decision on whether to start something new or now. I’ve decided that if I do start something new it will be one of the designs I already have completely kitted. Less trouble, and I really don’t need to be starting something that I have to go and buy floss for.
Spend 30 minutes decluttering my office – I may haul the shredder in there and work on my school file cabinet. It will make room for stuff I’ve been storing on top of my desk.
Spend 15 minutes decluttering another room in my house.
Laundry – it would be nice if I could get it all done and not have to even think about it for the rest of the weekend.
Go to the gym.

Tonight is my last regular scheduled meeting with my personal trainer. We’re going to sit down and decide what I need/want for the future and maybe schedule more sessions.

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Posted in Stash, Training

Stitching Stash

Posted on January 10, 2008 by Terri | Comments Off

The stash that I’ve ordered over the past couple of weeks has started trickling in. Over the past couple of days I have received Au Fil de Reves – Chatelaine Promenade a Bagatelle, Moira Blackburn – Friendship Sampler, and Scarlet Letter – A Parrot, A Leopard, A Lion.

While they all 3 are lovely, I sat and drooled over the Scarlet Letter design for an hour last night. The colors are absolutely beautiful and exactly what I want in our new bedroom. It’s stitched over 1 on 35 count, but I’m going to do it over 2 on 40 count. The cream colored background is also completely stitched, but I’m going to use a cream colored distressed linen instead and save myself all that stitching. I want to start it now, but first I need a trip to the string shop to by DMC. Naturally, the SL design also came with an update to their catalog which showed a picture of The Piping Shepherd, which I fell in love with too. He’ll have to wait awhile though.

Kahuna got a new toy last night. A hula girl lamp. I can’t quite decide if I like her or consider her really tacky, but she was assembled and hula-ing away while I was enjoying my pamphlet. I’ll have to snap a photo. He did give me a bit of a hard time about buying stash, saying something about how he thought I wasn’t going to buy anymore, but I just laughed and said that was last year’s resolution. This year’s resolution is to buy everything I missed out on last year! Just kidding…sort of.

I have an appointment tonight with the personal tonight that I’m looking forward to and dreading all at the same time. I also have an appointment with the bike. 🙂

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Posted in Stash, Training

My derriere is not made for cycling!

Posted on January 3, 2008 by Terri | Comments Off

I lasted about 5 minutes clipped into the saddle tonight. Owww 🙁

Looks like lots of toughening up time is ahead of me. New goal…..6 minutes tomorrow night. Sigh.

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Posted in Training

Thursday, the new Friday!

Posted on December 6, 2007 by Terri | Comments Off

This may very well be the new day of the week that I look forward to. No training today.
All training currently being done indoors.

Swim

Bike

Run

Tuesday

Off

2 miles

Off

The meeting with the PT was a bust. It was all talk 🙁 Next Tuesday will be all work though, and I’m looking forward to seeing what she has me doing. I have some specific goals that are tri training specific. I want my shoulders stronger for the swim, since there’s no kicking, and I want my knees and hip flexors to withstand the cycling and running required. Everything else will be icing. Whatever I did to my abs seems to be clearing up. I haven’t tried to twist and stretch to that side yet, but I have noticed that it’s not bothering me at all when I do other things.
The 2-mile bike was a snap. I didn’t even break a sweat.

Swim

Bike

Run

Wednesday

Warm up
Freestyle 100 meters
Cool Down 50 meters

Off

Walk for 20 minutes

I felt really weak walking last night. I don’t know why but because of that I was dreading the swim. Whatever it was did not affect my swim, because I cut 4 minutes off Monday’s time. Rather disappointing to only be in the pool such a short time. I’m still not able to complete 100 meters, but I’m getting closer and closer.

I’ve decided to kick back into gear the job hunting. I’ve been driving everyday for a month now and I just cannot stand the frelling traffic. I’m probably going to have to go back to full-time, but I refuse to work anywhere again that requires me to leave my house before 7:30 to be to work before 9. Last Friday it took me an hour an a half to get home, in the rain, leaving the office at 3:00. I may have understood if I had been leaving at 5. Tuesday it took me an hour and a half to get to work. Now that we have the fitness center to train in, I’m not so worried about time for that, since it’s open 24 hours a day.

Going to look at a house this weekend that has a lap pool in the backyard. They’re asking more than we’re willing to pay, but it’s in a neighborhood we like and newer than what we’ve been looking at. The realtor wants us to look at it so she can find a happy medium. I really like that she’s working hard for us knowing that it’ll probably be as late as next fall before we actually buy; however, we have told her that if the right house comes along we’ll buy sooner.

More rain expected from tonight through the weekend. Sounds like snuggle and chili weather to me!

Harley continues to want in my lap with Bandit. I’m going to have to get the camera out so Kahuna can show the puppy pile with me at the bottom.

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Posted in House hunting, Training

Let the tri-training begin – ouch!

Posted on December 4, 2007 by Terri | Comments Off

Swim

Bike

Run

Monday

Warm up
Freestyle 100 yards
Cool Down 50 yards

Off

Walk for 20 minutes

50WU with pull buoy, 100 freestyle, 50CD (included backstroke); 20min fatburning program on treadmill, 4min CD

I need to figure out if the treadmill will pick up the signal from my HRM. Holding onto the sensors on the treadmill is killing my hands because I tend to get a deathgrip and then don’t let go until I feel the sweat.

I did mostly inclines on a moderate speed last night, which killed my butt so when I got in the pool my legs were dead so most of my swimming was done without kicking, which of course really worked out my shoulders and upper back.

This morning I felt like an old lady getting out of bed. I would have had Kahuna push me out to save me the effort, but I would have just fallen on my head. I need one of those trapeze things hanging overhead to pull my sorry self up.

Tonight is my first strength training with a personal trainer. I hope she’s gentle with me, because I also have to ride my bike for 2 miles.

Only 21 weeks and 4 days left to train!

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Posted in Training

Have I said, lately, that I'm tired?

Posted on November 28, 2007 by Terri | Comments Off

It’s amazing what 20 minutes extra sleep can do for a body. Unfortunately, not this body! I barely remember driving in to work this morning, my mind drifted so much. And believe me, there’s a lot on my mind lately. Buying a house. Being with the Marine Corps for 3 more years. Am I crazy for thinking I can do this.

I know they’re just tired thoughts.

I managed 3 minutes on the elliptical last night, followed by 15 on the treadmill and then my swim. Same routine (50 WU, 100 FS, 50 CD) but I cut almost 2 minutes off the time. I was beat when I got home….and cranky enough that I snapped at Kahuna and told him I did NOT want to hear how good this was for me. Of course, Kahuna told me as he was walking out the door this morning that he was tired, his lower back was bothering him, and he’d let me know later this afternoon whether or not he was going to swim. I just wanted to smack him. Instead I reminded him that this was good for him.

The fitness assessment last night was a joke. It consisted of me sitting in a chair with a personal trainer who kept telling me that I was doing everything right (on paper), except for my water intake (did you know the recommended minimum is up to 96 oz now?). I’m thinking of signing up for 6 weeks of “training” that’s being offered on special because of The Biggest Loser. It’s less than $10 a session, so it’s really a good deal. She also told me that if I bring in what my tri-training is she’ll work it in. She was really nice, but I think I need someone not so nice, KWIM?

I’m still trying to decide if I want to go the personal trainer route when Kahuna goes to Iraq. I think if I do that, it’ll keep me more on the straight and narrow to not miss any training. I have a lot of time to waffle back and forth on the decision.

It’s hard not being all gung ho and cutting back, and even tougher mentally when I think I haven’t even started the real training, which I still feel like will be going backwards. I don’t know if I can handle 10 weeks of slow! LOL I guess my new mantra will be base training, base training, base training.

No stitching again last night. By the time I got my training clothes rinsed and hung, and dinner taken care of it was time to hit the bed with the puppies and watch The Biggest Loser. Taking a night off training is sounding pretty good to me too, right now. And of course, I’m still thinking that I wouldn’t be this tired if I was a SAHW.

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Posted in Training

What I did on my Thanksgiving vacation

Posted on November 26, 2007 by Terri | Comments Off

I heart 5-day weekends! I know I wrote in an earlier entry that 3-day weekends should be the norm, but man, 5-day weekends are the bomb!

Wednesday was spent doing ho-hum, but necessary, things like laundry, housework and depositing my paycheck in the bank. Kahuna and I headed downtown around 5 to pick up race packages and then we went to this mom and pop mexican food joint that I had been wanting to try. Good eats, followed up by great coffee next door at my fave coffee house. I swear I’ve just about given up on Starbucks after finding this place. Melissa came in later that evening.

Thursday morning the 3 of us headed back downtown after getting up around 5:30 for our pre-race breakfasts. Mine consisted of oatmeal and ibuprofen. I admit to being nervous about eating since I normally go out and do my morning runs on an empty stomach. We parked not too far away from the starting line and by the time we walked over Melissa and I decided to race the 1st race so we wouldn’t have to stand around in the chilly morning. I’m so glad we did, since I got to see Kahuna come in and finish his race (he ran the 2nd one) at a sub-21:00 pace.

The first mile was hard! I remember thinking at the mile-marker that there was no way I was going to be able to finish. It didn’t help much that people were calling out times that were far slower than what I was showing. Right after that was the turning point to head down to the PCH and I remember feeling really good as I ran around that corner. It may have been because I heard Kahuna’s voice and looked up to see him standing all alone cheering us on. That was such a nice feeling. Down, down, down we headed toward the beach. There were a ton of surfers bobbing around and the dolphins were out so it was a nice distraction. And there it was, the finish line! I thought I had finished at 55:20; however, the official times show me at 46:something. Rather proud of myself for finishing and not taking the photographer out who insisted on standing right in my path. Thank goodness he moved at the last minute and I only caught him in the elbow because I was going downhill, there was momentum and I was too pooped to stop! 🙂

After Kahuna finished we walked over to my fave coffee shop to grab some post-race refreshments and walked back to the car. We ended up going out to lunch at Denny’s (thanks again Melissa) because we were all a little pooped. The rest of the afternoon, before Melissa had to leave, was spent trying to nap. That evening Kahuna and I went out hunting for a frozen pizza, a piece of cheesecake and a bottle of wine. Nothing like romantic grocery store fare 🙂

Friday found the two of us deciding to stay put. There’s nothing in any store that I need bad enough to go out with crazy people – my personality doesn’t put up with pushing and shoving and I’d have probably hurt someone. I cooked our turkey breast, dressing, stuffing and deviled eggs that I was supposed to cook on Thanksgiving day and Kahuna tried to go out and do a LSD on the bike, but his legs were still trashed from the day before and I think he was back home in 15 minutes. I did a bit of laundry and organizing in my office and we enjoyed our turkey foods.

Saturday we headed out shopping and bought a new dining room suite and probably picked out new bedroom furniture. We’re probably going to put off buying that until we see what happens with Kahuna going to Iraq and us buying a house.

Sunday was more staying home except for a trip to the grocery store. I did a bit more laundry, bathed the puppies, and stitched for 2-3 hours on French Alphabet Sampler. I put the last photo up on my stitching page at the top. I cannot believe it’s been since February that I worked on it. I plan on continuing to stitch on it until this weekend, then will probably switch over to Justine.

Today it’s back to the grindstone, but I’ve already turned in my request for time off in December. Kahuna and I would like to go back to Disneyland the week of the 10th and I want the week off between Christmas and the 1st.

Tonight starts our working out at the fitness center. I’m planning on getting there before Kahuna and playing on the elliptical (my heel is shot!) and then we’re going to swim. We’re planning on doing this every night this week. Next Monday starts the training program for my first triathlon. I have a 5K scheduled for early February and am wondering if I can beat my 46:something time.

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Posted in Races, Stitching, Training

I'm trying to stay cheerful today.

Posted on November 8, 2007 by Terri | Comments Off

Today is our son’s birthday. He’s not a little boy anymore, but a man of 23 years. I sent him a card, and tried to call him this morning. He doesn’t have voicemail. Since he moved in April we only ever hear from him if he needs something. Usually money, or something to do with the vehicle that’s still in Kahuna’s name. Anyway, this is the first year that I haven’t given him a gift of some sort, including money. I thought long and hard about it and over the past year we’ve given him a lot of money, so we decided to not gift him. Today, I’m fighting the guilt over that. I don’t know why I feel this way. I cannot remember the last time I got a card from my parents. Or a gift. I do usually get a phonecall, though.

I thought about going out to dinner, by myself, tonight to celebrate his birth, but I remembered I’m swimming tonight and don’t want to have to go home, do hair and makeup, then head out again. Yes, I’m lazy. Actually I’m pooped after swimming.

Speaking of which, I really like my coach. He’s a triathlete. Tuesday night’s swim went really well. I was a bit alarmed at first because he was teaching a 3-4 year old little boy to jump off the side of the pool and swim to the side by instructing him to “chicken wings, superman, rocket ship.” I could not imagine what terms he was going to use with me to get me from one end of the pool to the other.

Anyway, I was first pleasantly surprised to find the pool is saltwater. Then I was relieved to find out I was not going to have to jump off the side of the pool and chicken, super, rocket whatever. When he asked me what I wanted out of my lessons he made me feel a lot more comfortable (not) when he told me he was going to unlearn me from everything I’ve done in the past and teach me the new way of swimming. I swear I swam to Mexico and back. His comments after my umpteenth time to the deep end, where I was treading water for my life, were that I swam really well and have a powerhouse kick, but we need to get rid of that since I’m not swimming a sprint, I’m going for long distance.

The one thing I accomplished was being reminded how to breath. Exhaling under water, inhaling above. There were a few times I got it backward while trying to remember to only kick twice between 3 strokes, and then to make each stroke’s rhythm the same as two, or something like that. (When I tried to dry my hair at home – with my head upside down – water poured out of my nose – TMI?).

I was one tired puppy when I got home, and then of course I had to beat off the puppies with cookies. I barely made it through The Biggest Loser.

Driving home I remembered where the 24 Hour Fitness is that Kahuna and I want to check out. We probably shouldn’t join. It’s by the In and Out Burger and Cold Stone and those other evil type places. I can just see us trying to talk the other out of a double double or single scoop. I wonder if their pool is saltwater?

I get to do it all over again tonight! Woohoo! And then I’m going to go home, try to call Son again, and stitch. Yes, I’m stitching again 🙂

Edit: Of course as soon as I post this message Son calls me.

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Posted in Stitching, Training

Oops, I've been neglecting my blog

Posted on October 29, 2007 by Terri | Comments Off

Let’s see. What’s happened since Oct 18?

I’m back to running a bit. My foot still hurts if I abuse it too much, but I’m just sucking it up, treating it after a run and ibuprfen is my breakfast, lunch and supper the day after a run. I’ll rethink what to do about it after Nov. 22.

I’ve been on the bike only the one time, but that’s changing tomorrow. New training schedule posted a bit further down.

This coming Thursday is when I start leaving work at 3:00 (can I get a Woohoo!) and I start swimming that afternoon. Husband is going to be my coach, since I cannot get anyone to take my money.

So, the new training plan looks something like this:

Mon: run
Tue: a.m. strength training; p.m. biking
Wed: run
Thur: a.m. strength training; p.m. swim
Fri: run
Sat: LSD run
Sun: off

After I’ve been doing this for a bit, I may change and add swim to Saturdays as well. Definately will be upping the tempo after the first of the year on the biking and swimming tho, since I’ve decided my first triathlon will be May 4.

I’m still looking for a couple more 5Ks between Nov 22 and Apr 4.

And of course we can’t forget the wonderful state of California being on fire. We never had to evacuate but it was rather hairy Wednesday morning. The dogs got up reeeeally early Wednesday morning and Kahuna came in saying he could see smoke blowing way down the street from us. I tried to go back to sleep after that, but ended up getting up at 2:30, getting dressed and snoozing on the futon in the man room with the TV on. Kahuna got up and dressed not too long after that. I finally felt safe enough to sleep around 12:30 that afternoon. There’s a map on CBS that shows the fire burning to the end of our street.

Other than that it’s been pretty mellow!

Oh wait, one more tidbit. Kahuna has received transfer orders effective January 4 to Miramar Air Base. He’s going to be a air winger again. I have no idea what this means as far as Iraq is concerned but I’m crossing my fingers that it doesn’t interfere with his Half Ironman coming up in March.

Speaking of Kahuna, I just remembered something else. He ended up getting inked two more places about a week after he had his ankle done. He’s now sporting a very fine looking elf script around same ankle that says something about the ride never ending…it’s a surfer thing. He also got barbed wire around his very buff bicep..opposite side, so he’s balanced.

Okay, that’s all. I think.

Nope, one more thang! Huge milestone met during WI at WW yesterday. Yay, me!

Okay, I’m out of here 😉

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Posted in Races, Training, Weight

When w6d2 = w1d2 and a whole bunch of other stuff

Posted on October 3, 2007 by Terri | Comments Off

I’ve had a lot of stuff going on in my head that I’ve wanted to blog about but for some reason just couldn’t bring myself to do it.

First, my heel is feeling so much better. I’ve pretty much figured out that I’m wearing the wrong type of shoe for my foot and for running. I remember when I got them that I told the fitter I needed shoes for walking. I think I remember telling her that I had a high instep; however to be fair to her not everyone knows that a high instep means high arches. I’ve also been wearing an insert and have taken to icing and massaging the area and have been using the time between when my alarm first goes off and the second “snooze” alarm to stretch.

Second, I’ve changed my c25k program. I’m doing the program on the tri board I frequent. It’s a less aggressive program, which is probably another reason why my heel is doing much better. Surprisingly I’m not too upset that this means I still won’t be running much come time for my 5k but it’s not deterring me from continuing on.

w1d1 of this program required me to walk 10 minutes. I cheated and walked longer because I have also signed up for a run challenge for the month of October and I dedicated myself to run/walk 25 miles.

w1d2 required me to walk 15 minutes, but I cheated again. 🙂 Patience is a virtue that I need to work on quite a bit.

Third, I have received the insurance approval for surgery and am meeting with the surgeon this coming Friday. Eek! I’m hoping he can get right on this so I’ll have plenty of time to heal and be able to get right back out there to train.

Fourth, and probably the biggest WOW is that I am going from working full-time to 3/4 time. I have been looking for a job closer to home since I absolutely HATE the 2 hours I lose daily on my commute. What I’ve found is that I’m going to have to take a cut in pay to get one of those jobs and I’ll still be working 9-5. So I asked Boss if I could transition into leaving daily at 3 and keep my job. I really believe in what we do (Plaintiff’s Employment Law) and while there’s a couple more things that I like to complain about where I work, overall it’s a good job. Another employee is being let go and I’m hoping that I can take over some of those duties since they revolve around a program that would look good on my resume. Even doing those duties I still can get everything done in time to leave at 3.

So this coming Monday I’ll start leaving at 4 and then beginning November 1 (when my current train ticket expires) I’ll be back to driving everyday and leaving at 3. I’ll be able to get home by car much faster than by train since there won’t be very much traffic at that time of the day.

I’m sure you’re wondering what I plan on doing with all my free time? I plan on using some of it to get back into cross stitching, but mostly I’m hoping to use it to train for my first triathlon. There’s just never enough time in a day to run, ride a bike, swim and strength train and pay attention to puppies and keep my horrible housekeeping skills honed and love on the Kahuna.

Kahuna is thinking of getting a tattoo today. He’s had a teeny minor surgical procedure that’s keeping him out of the water for awhile so this is the perfect time. He’s also thinking of going to a newbie meeting at the San Diego Tri club tomorrow and I’m hoping to go with.

On the weighloss front I’m still under 10 pounds however since September 11 I have lost 4 1/2 inches off my hips and 2 1/2 inches off my waist. Bring on the baggy britches baby! LOL

Next update should include a picture of my sweet pea Harley Quinn, whom I think I’ve completely lost to Kahuna. Daddy’s Darlin’ is going to be 1 year old on Saturday.

P.S. If any of you have any experience with the Susan Komen 3-day walk I’d love to have your input. San Diego’s 2007 walk is in November, which I’m nowhere near trained to do, but I’m considering putting 2008 on my long-term goals list.