Progress!!! I have lost 6 lbs in the last month (and that includes going up a few lbs the first two weeks and then being good again). I also have lost inches (crap, I forget the exacts) and gotten stronger. I can lift higher weights and do more core exercises and have a bit more stamina. (Not much...I need to work on that...haha) Oh and I tell ya...my core is so much stronger. I'm still much weaker than I want to be, but I can see how far I've come. So everything is great! I really like doing the Personal Trainer sessions, but unfortunately today was my last one for a bit. I can't afford it right now. But I'll go back, I'm sure.
So my plan is I'll just keep going every Wednesday at the very least and having it be my weight day. While I'm doing Ragnar training I think I'll go in on Sundays since Saturday is my long (or multiple) run day for my 2nd weight day of the week. I know the exercises well enough that I can do them. The only drawback is I'm positive I won't be as....motivated to do the weight and reps I know I should. It's also really helpful to have someone there watching you to make sure you don't get lazy. And to mix it up. But it will do for the meantime.
Now onto running! And Ragnar training.
Last night I did a hill program for 4 miles on the treadmill which is the first time I've done that. It went better than I expected it to. I was quite happy about it. I just ran a little slower and it was fine. My first leg of the Ragnar is an AVERAGE 5.3% incline for about 2.5 miles of it. Ya. And actually it ranges from 4 to 7%. Last night my max was 1.5%. I have a long ways to go in the next 7 weeks. But I am positive I can do it. Run, walk, crawl.
Today is my first day in the training where I run 3 times total. So this morning I went to the gym before my PT appointment. And of course, all of the treadmills were full. I waited around for a few minutes and after I felt stupid enough for just standing there I did 15 minutes on the stair climber at a higher level than I had last week. (Progress!) When I was done with that, most of the treadmills were open. Go figure. haha I was supposed to do a 5 mile run but I didn't really have time so I did a 5k instead. Which is fine - I'm sorry, the stair climber totally counts.
My plan is actually in three weeks I'm going to simulate my first leg of Ragnar on the treadmill by changing the incline when I reach the same mile. I mapped my Ragnar legs on mapmyrun.com. I just want to see how I do. I know it won't be great...but I will finish it even if I have to walk.
So for instance the first .5 miles I'll do 4% incline, the next .5 miles will be 0%, then for the rest of it I'll do about 5% for most of it, but will throw in a couple of big hills of 7% and 6%. Holy shit.
Until then I'm going to gradually raise my hill training - at least one day a week at the gym on the treadmill (which totally sucks...) but it's the best place for me to get the slow increase in hills I want. And I'm also going to try to tackle the outrageous hill that's by my house in the next month. It also is a 7% incline at the very end. It goes 2% for most of it and then the last 7% bump. Which scares me even more because I know how incredible that hill is at the end... haha
God, this was boring. This is like when people talk about Poker. "I had a 2 and 5 of hearts, then a blah blah" STFU. But now I have the plan written out! This will work! This is insane! Wait, even more insane is that I PAID to do this... But it's gonna be fun! I'm getting excited.
Edit: Wow...I read through this again and realized that just LAST MAY is when I started running. Seriously...one year. One freaking crazy roller coaster year! How far I've come from the girl who couldn't run for 30 seconds without crying. Think of how great I'll be a year from now! Not bad for a soon-to-be 37 year old, huh? ha!
Saturday, April 30, 2011
Friday, April 22, 2011
Did that week really happen?
I just completed week 2 of my new job. I have to say that I'm having a lot of fun. I like the people in that office for sure. It's kind of back to what I'm used to. That is my being one of just a few girls surrounded by lots of guys in a totally geeked out environment. The last job was unique for me with mostly girls. It was actually hard for me in the beginning to adapt to hanging out with a bunch of girls versus guys. You really have different types of conversations. Thankfully I get along well with either. I'm a chameleon! Oh no...that song...
This week was filled with quite a bit of stress - but only because I had so much information coming at me all at once and I had to somehow process it quickly and help fix everything that was going wrong. I just happened to show up right when a bunch of things suddenly went very wrong. They don't fuck around in that place! lol
But everything turned out really well and I'm super happy. I thrive off challenging and stressful - to the verge of tears - situations. Because once they're resolved it's a huge feeling of accomplishment. Even if all I did was babysat. I still helped. :)
So the office is by the airport. And the location is great because it's 10 minutes away from so many great places to eat. haha We have downtown SLC, Bountiful and West Valley. My favorite restaurant is downtown. And of course we went there my first day!
Oh ya, did I mention I like the people? Really truly - it's a small group of people and everyone is so nice. I didn't think I'd hate them by any means. I knew a few people before starting there. But they make me happy by being awesome and fun.
And now, I'm going to bed early. I really need it.
This week was filled with quite a bit of stress - but only because I had so much information coming at me all at once and I had to somehow process it quickly and help fix everything that was going wrong. I just happened to show up right when a bunch of things suddenly went very wrong. They don't fuck around in that place! lol
But everything turned out really well and I'm super happy. I thrive off challenging and stressful - to the verge of tears - situations. Because once they're resolved it's a huge feeling of accomplishment. Even if all I did was babysat. I still helped. :)
So the office is by the airport. And the location is great because it's 10 minutes away from so many great places to eat. haha We have downtown SLC, Bountiful and West Valley. My favorite restaurant is downtown. And of course we went there my first day!
Oh ya, did I mention I like the people? Really truly - it's a small group of people and everyone is so nice. I didn't think I'd hate them by any means. I knew a few people before starting there. But they make me happy by being awesome and fun.
And now, I'm going to bed early. I really need it.
Saturday, April 16, 2011
Half Marathon Report
Well I made it across the finish line for the SLC Half Marathon. I didn't do it in my goal time but considering I had shin splints AND asthma/allergy issues to contend with the last three weeks, I am just happy to have made it at all. I still beat my previous half marathon time. I won't know for sure my time until tomorrow so I'm not going to say by how much.
Overall it went well. Of course getting to the race was a little slower than anticipated. Thankfully you are timed by when you go across the start line. I was happily standing in line for the porta potty with my friend Brooke when the race started. It was cloudy the whole time except for about 5 seconds of sun that peeked through. And yes, of course, I took my prescription SUNglasses instead of my regular glasses. Right now, outside, it's bright and sunny! It only sprinkled a couple of times during the run as well which was a welcome event anyway.
The first part of the race was fine - I did pause at about .5 miles in to stretch the shins (a very necessary thing for me) but after that, the next 7.5 miles was good. Feeling strong and fine.
At 8 miles though two bad things happened. 1) Stupid me accidentally pulled out my Nike+ connector from the iPod which stopped my run. *sigh* So I had to start that back up again for the last 5 miles. But also my legs started killing me. Mile 8 was okay...but mile 9? Holy. 10, 11 & 12? *cry* Especially since they decided to throw in a nice up-hill stretch for three miles - which did not help my leg pain in the slightest. Mentally and physically from the waist up, I was fine! It was the pain in my legs that didn't let up. So, unfortunately, I had to walk quite a bit. Especially during the three mile up-hill stint because my right achilles and both of my IT bands went totally nuts on me. Oh ya, and my left knee kept getting a sharp pain. Ah ha...typical pain points on me when running.
I was NOT ready for this run. Remember my shin splints & asthma issues that stopped me from training as well as I wanted? Ya...I didn't have the mileage to suddenly push it that much more. But it happened anyway. I don't have the power to stop time. I need to put in a request for that in my next life. I am just happy I crossed the finish line. Run, walk, crawl - Just finish.
Post race consisted of icing my lower legs & achilles, a nap and then a trip to Wasatch Running where I purchased (with the help of a wonderful group of prior co-workers who supplied a nice gift card for me) a strap for the achilles tendon. I have it on now. Hmmmm....support. I also bought some more KT tape, some Body Glide (omg heat rash...in an omg not so nice place...) and two reflective vests for Christine and me to use during Ragnar in 9 weeks!
Overall it went well. Of course getting to the race was a little slower than anticipated. Thankfully you are timed by when you go across the start line. I was happily standing in line for the porta potty with my friend Brooke when the race started. It was cloudy the whole time except for about 5 seconds of sun that peeked through. And yes, of course, I took my prescription SUNglasses instead of my regular glasses. Right now, outside, it's bright and sunny! It only sprinkled a couple of times during the run as well which was a welcome event anyway.
The first part of the race was fine - I did pause at about .5 miles in to stretch the shins (a very necessary thing for me) but after that, the next 7.5 miles was good. Feeling strong and fine.
At 8 miles though two bad things happened. 1) Stupid me accidentally pulled out my Nike+ connector from the iPod which stopped my run. *sigh* So I had to start that back up again for the last 5 miles. But also my legs started killing me. Mile 8 was okay...but mile 9? Holy. 10, 11 & 12? *cry* Especially since they decided to throw in a nice up-hill stretch for three miles - which did not help my leg pain in the slightest. Mentally and physically from the waist up, I was fine! It was the pain in my legs that didn't let up. So, unfortunately, I had to walk quite a bit. Especially during the three mile up-hill stint because my right achilles and both of my IT bands went totally nuts on me. Oh ya, and my left knee kept getting a sharp pain. Ah ha...typical pain points on me when running.
I was NOT ready for this run. Remember my shin splints & asthma issues that stopped me from training as well as I wanted? Ya...I didn't have the mileage to suddenly push it that much more. But it happened anyway. I don't have the power to stop time. I need to put in a request for that in my next life. I am just happy I crossed the finish line. Run, walk, crawl - Just finish.
Post race consisted of icing my lower legs & achilles, a nap and then a trip to Wasatch Running where I purchased (with the help of a wonderful group of prior co-workers who supplied a nice gift card for me) a strap for the achilles tendon. I have it on now. Hmmmm....support. I also bought some more KT tape, some Body Glide (omg heat rash...in an omg not so nice place...) and two reflective vests for Christine and me to use during Ragnar in 9 weeks!
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
New! New!
I have finished my third day at the new job. Hmmm.... it's going to be fun. I'm quite impatient however and am chomping at the bit. It's hard not to have direction when you're brand new and not really sure what you NEED to know or work on. And that's the pro and con for this group. You are trusted to make things work on your own, but then you end up in my type of situation.
So I have a plan. I am setting up meetings with people to teach me things. I have a To-Do list as well as a Questions list. Most of the questions list is going to be given to Jason, machine-gun-style, next week. I do hope he's ready for that. I'll try to get rid of some of them before the meeting. But for the rest of this week I kind of want to concentrate on finishing up my online training and going to a few sites to check things out. So I don't think I'll get a chance to ask most of them.
The To-Do list on the other hand....poor Mickey. haha That one is much longer. Not everything will go to him, but most of it will be things he'll have to help me with.
Hmmm, I guess it's good that I am self motivated! haha I think that might be a big reason why I got the job because I can handle it.
Some of the things that I miss from my previous job (other than specific people)... Cafeteria, able to wear jeans any day I want, knowing what I'm doing..., people around me (see below) and ummm...is that it? Maybe! Oh ya, I can't use Facebook at work. lol No big loss there.
The things I love is how welcome everyone makes me feel, that I get an iPhone 4 as my work phone, someone wonderful makes coffee every morning, there's so many new things for me to learn, did I mention someone makes coffee??? and more! It's also quieter...until the guys start talking about geeky things. It's kind of amusing really to go from a group of mostly girls and their girl talk to a group of guys.
But I am lonely. Let's see, in close proximity I have just a few people. It's almost isolating. Plus huge walls around me. I knew this would happen of course. I was well aware of the fact that I was losing my social network. But I didn't know it would be quite this bad with so few people. Not to say there aren't people around. Just not many and they're not viewable...I could stay in my cube all day and only see maybe one other person (Mickey if he's there). But this is a plus too because it seems like we're all a big happy family...even if I only know about half of their names to faces. I got all of the faces...thank goodness they have badges.
But yes, no regrets. I'm happy with this move. I just wish I could install a chip that would teach me everything I need to know so I could get going!
So I have a plan. I am setting up meetings with people to teach me things. I have a To-Do list as well as a Questions list. Most of the questions list is going to be given to Jason, machine-gun-style, next week. I do hope he's ready for that. I'll try to get rid of some of them before the meeting. But for the rest of this week I kind of want to concentrate on finishing up my online training and going to a few sites to check things out. So I don't think I'll get a chance to ask most of them.
The To-Do list on the other hand....poor Mickey. haha That one is much longer. Not everything will go to him, but most of it will be things he'll have to help me with.
Hmmm, I guess it's good that I am self motivated! haha I think that might be a big reason why I got the job because I can handle it.
Some of the things that I miss from my previous job (other than specific people)... Cafeteria, able to wear jeans any day I want, knowing what I'm doing..., people around me (see below) and ummm...is that it? Maybe! Oh ya, I can't use Facebook at work. lol No big loss there.
The things I love is how welcome everyone makes me feel, that I get an iPhone 4 as my work phone, someone wonderful makes coffee every morning, there's so many new things for me to learn, did I mention someone makes coffee??? and more! It's also quieter...until the guys start talking about geeky things. It's kind of amusing really to go from a group of mostly girls and their girl talk to a group of guys.
But I am lonely. Let's see, in close proximity I have just a few people. It's almost isolating. Plus huge walls around me. I knew this would happen of course. I was well aware of the fact that I was losing my social network. But I didn't know it would be quite this bad with so few people. Not to say there aren't people around. Just not many and they're not viewable...I could stay in my cube all day and only see maybe one other person (Mickey if he's there). But this is a plus too because it seems like we're all a big happy family...even if I only know about half of their names to faces. I got all of the faces...thank goodness they have badges.
But yes, no regrets. I'm happy with this move. I just wish I could install a chip that would teach me everything I need to know so I could get going!
Saturday, April 9, 2011
WTF, OMG, ICBINB!!!!
I need to know what the hell I've been thinking this week!!! I have a half marathon in ONE WEEK and I didn't run all week! All I did was stress eat. :( The last run I had was Sunday. I didn't even think about it all week. And I CAN'T run a lot this week because I need to 'taper off'...if you can call it tapering from nothing to less...
So I think I'll try to squish in a 5 mile run this afternoon and then do a 10-11 mile run tomorrow. Then, I'll need to do a 4 mile run on Tuesday or Wednesday and a 2 mile run on Thursday. Then 13.1 on Saturday!
Is there any limit to my procrastination?
The next week is when I need to get serious about hills. Ragnar is in 10 weeks and my first leg is an average of 5.3% INCLINE which well...if you're not strong on hills can be suicide. (3.7 miles of it). The other two runs are nothing compared. ha I can do hills...nice, rolling hills on the Parkway for instance. But that's the extent of it. I'll be fine. Worse case scenario is I walk....as fast as possible.
So I think I'll try to squish in a 5 mile run this afternoon and then do a 10-11 mile run tomorrow. Then, I'll need to do a 4 mile run on Tuesday or Wednesday and a 2 mile run on Thursday. Then 13.1 on Saturday!
Is there any limit to my procrastination?
The next week is when I need to get serious about hills. Ragnar is in 10 weeks and my first leg is an average of 5.3% INCLINE which well...if you're not strong on hills can be suicide. (3.7 miles of it). The other two runs are nothing compared. ha I can do hills...nice, rolling hills on the Parkway for instance. But that's the extent of it. I'll be fine. Worse case scenario is I walk....as fast as possible.
Friday, April 8, 2011
Out with the old, in with the new
Today was the last day of my working at Intermountain. And Monday is my first day of working with a new company. I think my brain hasn't fully accepted that I am not going to the same building Monday morning. It's almost like this is an adventure and a little bit of a field trip.
ha! My supervisor said to me today, "You know, you have 6 months to come back before you have to start over with your seniority". That's good to know!
I realized tonight that I've forgotten to do things like submit my payroll hours, after hours time, etc. And I'm sure more things will come to me as the weekend moves on. I did log in to my email (not disabled yet) and sent an email to the admin & supervisor. So I have a part of that fixed. We'll see how I can handle the rest - hopefully tomorrow.
The hardest part of leaving is the people. I really am a community/people type of person. I need people - even if some of them can drive me crazy. I spent about an hour today walking around, talking to everyone I could. But also, it's the job itself that I love so much. It's mostly because I am so comfortable with it and know what the hell I'm doing.
And here's the best part - after I had turned in my laptop and was just hanging around, I actually helped a co-worker with a couple of her calls. lol Seriously....I just couldn't let it go. Oh Tandem Non-Stop, how I'll miss you. Why can't every company use the same exact program and hardware for their business? "Why yes sir, you can pilot your planes with this program! And yes ma'am, HELP will dig the foundation and build your house in a jiffy!" Jiffy. lol
So here I am - unemployed for ... oh, about 58 more hours. Cool. Wonder what kind of trouble I can get into? But at least I've stopped panicking and am now just really excited.
ha! My supervisor said to me today, "You know, you have 6 months to come back before you have to start over with your seniority". That's good to know!
I realized tonight that I've forgotten to do things like submit my payroll hours, after hours time, etc. And I'm sure more things will come to me as the weekend moves on. I did log in to my email (not disabled yet) and sent an email to the admin & supervisor. So I have a part of that fixed. We'll see how I can handle the rest - hopefully tomorrow.
The hardest part of leaving is the people. I really am a community/people type of person. I need people - even if some of them can drive me crazy. I spent about an hour today walking around, talking to everyone I could. But also, it's the job itself that I love so much. It's mostly because I am so comfortable with it and know what the hell I'm doing.
And here's the best part - after I had turned in my laptop and was just hanging around, I actually helped a co-worker with a couple of her calls. lol Seriously....I just couldn't let it go. Oh Tandem Non-Stop, how I'll miss you. Why can't every company use the same exact program and hardware for their business? "Why yes sir, you can pilot your planes with this program! And yes ma'am, HELP will dig the foundation and build your house in a jiffy!" Jiffy. lol
So here I am - unemployed for ... oh, about 58 more hours. Cool. Wonder what kind of trouble I can get into? But at least I've stopped panicking and am now just really excited.
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