Rabbit - Hope you enjoy the c25k program! I did the Ullrey podcasts and found that so much easier than watching a clock.

hiker - Love that hurts so good feeling. Wish I could be addicted to running, right now I'm still making myself do it because I love what it's doing for me, but I wouldn't say I love doing it.

Managed my bench dips and push-ups on the ball and a few different UB isolation exercises yesterday. I think I really need to join a gym to get anywhere with strength training at this point. I'm just not feeling motivated or focused, and my at home equipment is somewhat limited. $$ is tight at the moment, maybe in the winter when it gets too cold to run outside, then I'll be able to double justify the expense.

Quick 3 mile run tonight.

Hi all.

Having a busy end of summer around here for some reason. I went to a church women's retreat Fri/Sat and had a really good time. The food wasn't stellar, but I managed to stay out of the bowls of candy, nuts and trail mix, and basically ate my meals (sometimes too large a portion though) and fruit. Today is DH's birthday, and he wanted a yellow cake with chocolate frosting (made the frosting at 6 am - absolutely not a temptation ) so I have that to face when I get home. Hopefully, he'll eat most of it....

Rabbit - good job on the running. I use those podcasts to do intensity work on the elliptical. Like Shan says, it's much nicer than watching the clock.

Well shan I think its more that I love that I *can* run than I love the actual running part. I am so excited that I can do it that it kind of tricks me into loving it. Don't tell my conscious mind this I am trying to keep it secret.

Pat, it is so good that birthdays only come once a year. I don't do too well with cake in the house. Usually my kids and husband do their fair share though.

Today I decided to go for intensity rather than distance so I could leave some energy for lifting. So I went for the quick 2 mile cough up a lung run rather than the slow plodding 4 or 5 that I have been doing...it felt good.

I am trying out the 3 day split on stumtuous that kaw posted on another thread. I think I like it. Its a good change.

It is hot hot hot here. Glad I got my workout done in the AM.

Eeeeek It's Wednesday and I haven't seen the inside of the gym since Saturday and even then it was a rush job. Too many balls in the air this week and something is bound to crash. Tomorrow DS1 goes back to school and DS2 begins preschool. I have been pursuaded into chairing the hospitality committee at my son's elementary school and my first job is a "Welcome Back" coffee gathering for all of the parent right after classes start. Does anyone know how to make coffee in those huge urns? Guess I"ll find out tomorrow if I did it right. I also have ordered large trays of pastries and bagels for this event as well. Oh the guilt. I know I should be taken out back and beaten. But I'm not about to make protein pancakes for such a large crowd.

Pat: Speaking of birthdays, DS1 and DS2 both celebrate their birthdays on Saturday. Yeah, I know, we didn't plan it that way and DS2 was two weeks early. Anyway, that equals two cakes on one day. A monster truck cake and a Lego Bionicle cake. Both of which I'm going to attempt to create myself. I'm a do it yourselfer to the core. Then there are cupcakes for the classroom the next week. DH's birthday is on Monday. He'll get a cake too but I'm buying that one. He prefers icing from a certain bakery...I'm so looking forward to September.

Rabbit: Good luck with the running! Keep us posted with how it's going. I keep trying and then my hip flares up and scares me. My goal has gone from wanting to do a half marathon to just being able to become a consistent recreational runner.

Hikerchick: It's been a while since I've looked at Krista's sight. Thanks for the update. I've enjoyed taking a break from all of my party planning to watch these videos. Helps to keep me grounded since I couldn't get into the gym this week.

Mel: The house concert sounds like a fun time. Great job navigating all of those murky food choices.

to everyone else. I need to get some sleep.

Hey L(G)LW,

Been busy busy today, but still managed to carve out some time at the gym for a chest workout. My flat bench numbers are, well, flat (can't really figure that one out), but I'm now adding ten pounds to body weight to do dips. Yay!

I'm really not "lifting" any more weight than when I was ten pounds heavier, but it's certainly a lot more satisfying, mentally, to strap on that belt and attach a weight to it. I felt like the queen of the gym. Granted, this is fairly easy if you're the only woman there.

I remembered too late, though, that the dip goddess prefers her acolytes to be humble; and she will punish arrogance by whacking a 10 pound plate against offending acolytes' kneecaps.

Kim

Welcome back to the constantly bruised club

Yesterday I did my "just wacky exercises" workout. Lots of compound exercises on various balance equipment and plyos. Drew a lot of stares. Then one
time lunging around the track, being lapped by little old ladies.

Lydia- Way to get the birthdays out of the the way all at once Do they feel cheated?

Zoom....

Mel

Tee hee. A week into my reentry into lifting I noticed bruises in the middle of my quads, roughly midway between knee and groin. I couldn't figure it out: I'm used to getting bruises on my hips and shins from being a klutz, but the middle of the thigh seemed like an odd place for a walking-into-something type of injury. At the very least, you'd think I'd remember walking straight on into a table.

Then it dawned on me: that's where the bar hits at the top of a deadlift. Duh. (Actually, I think the bruises may come from wrestling the bar back onto the pegs on the cage more than from the lift itself.)

Have a great morning, all!
Kim

Bruises?! You wanna talk bruises...it is kind of like a club isn't it. Okay, here are mine: inside left thigh just above the knee cap. It's where iso lat row machine hits me when I reach way forward to grap the handles on the first pull, top of the bicep where the crossover cable hits me when I am doing situps on the ball,(looks really ugly so I don't do these very often), outer right thigh where my gym bag keeps hitting me when I'm walking in the parking lot. Haven't dropped one on my foot yet or walked into a stack of weights yet but it's just a matter of time... No seriously, "Queen of the Gym," aka Kaw, that is too funny. Just when we think we are on top of the world from our accomplishments during a workout, we are quickly humbled by our very mortal selves. I've been known to race out of the womens locker room to sign into a cardio machine for a quick warm up only to trip over another machine with a hidden low apparatus. (Another reason they should be eliminated and replaced with all free weights) Shoot, I can trip over carpeting I'm such a klutz. I hope your knee is okay today

Mel: Nope. One big party and everybody is happy. I'm a loon by the time the day gets here with all the prep but it's fun and we wouldn't have it any other way.

Oh, and by the way, the coffee this morning turned out just fine. Boy am I glad that's behind me. I was a good girl, took notes and observed and wrote it all down for next years victim. I was a lot of fun to catch up with many parents who I've missed chatting with during the summer. But by 10:30 I was already in my sweats and climbing onto the elliptical. I had been thinking about it all morning...:

Hi LWL,

Getting into the back to school routine.

Kaw, mel, Hiker, pat, lydia..Thanks for the support on the c2t5k effort. In fact I stopped reading all your posts to do my 2nd session of week 1, but I cheated...I did it on the elliptical with one earphone in, watching TV in my livingroom. Still, I'm dripping in sweat, so I feel I did a good job. With biking to work yesterday, and powerclass on monday, I did excercise all days of the week.

I'm still tired, but at least I managed to slip in the exercise. Further exciting news is that I had the 2nd wind phenomenon again! I'm trying to figure out what causes it so I can make it a repeatable thing. One candidate is excercise in the early afternoon: I had 2nd wind on sunday (when I did my first c25k early in the afternoon) and yesterday evening (when I had biked from work early in the afternoon).

I'll keep experimenting,

Have a great day,
Rabbit

Are we having a bruise contest? Lydia, you sound lovely! The most painful I ever had was from dropping a 45 pound plate straight down on my big toes. I'm told that I'm lucky I still have the toe. Seeing people in the gym in sandals (which is strictly forbidden, but some idiots think they won't ever have a problem) still makes me wince.

The dumbest bruises I ever had (and there were many) were from just before I quit training full time. A client was doing chest presses and I grabbed the db's when she started to lose it. They were heavy enought that I needed to steady them with some other body part of mine, os I rested them on my chest before I re-racked them. Two days later when I was wearing a scoop necked shell under a suit jacket, I noticed the two blue spots about an inch and a half around midway between collarbones and cleavage I didn't take my jacket off the rest of the (hot) day. Then there was the time I stood up into a squat rack....

I'm so much safer just standing on a bosu ball on 1 leg and waving a weight around!

Cardio and shoulders today. My mother returned my heart rate monitor because it was too confusing for her (it has about 3738563734 functions, but I wanted a red one and it's the only one that came in red ). I'm going to be real disappointed tomorrow morning when I discover that my half dead elliptical is telling me I'm burning twice as many calories than I really am
Maybe I won't use it either- it's kind of like switching scales in mid-stream. You just feel bad even tho nothing has really changed.

Mel

A red heart rate monitor? I didn't know they came in any color other than black. Oh wait, you mean the watch part right? Okay, I'm thinking about the band that fits across the chest and wondering why the color red would be important to you. Because uhm, I don't plan on anyone seeing that little device unless I go into cardiac arrest while at the gym.

Rabbit: The second winds are just wonderful! You must be doing a lot of things right.

Elisa: Hope everything is okay and your just really busy right now.

Back from mini-vacation late last night/early this morning. We went to Six Flags and its nearby water park for two days and had a blast! I did everything wrong health-wise and still lost a pound. I got back into my routine today, though, and did my speed/distance treadmill, plus my abs workout.

Lydia, I also have two sons born on the same day, but four years apart. #2 and #3 -- September 13. #2 was right on time but #3 was 6 weeks early. #2 had been saying all along that the new one would be born on his birthday but, oh, no, we didn't believe him because his due date was so far away. We've since hired him out to Miss Cleo's 1-900-Psychic-Child Hotline.

Miss CLEO!!!! thanks for the chuckle! I had forgotten her!

Just enjoying being bad this week, so that I can appreciate being good next week. School starts Monday, but we've been there 3 times this week for the get-ready business. Will resume regular posting then, for now trying to give face time to the kids.

And improve my webkinz scores.

Got in my full body weights today, plus 30 minutes of complete butt-dragging on the treadmill. Saturday is my last day on this workout routine -- that'll make a month on it. So I'll be pulling a new routine out of my butt this weekend at some point...

Chant with me now:

Please let me find an acceptable alternative to lunges.... Please let me find an acceptable alternative to lunges.... Please let me find an acceptable alternative to lunges.... Please let me find an acceptable alternative to lunges.... Please let me find an acceptable alternative to lunges....

Learn to love lunges....Learn to love lunges....
Learn to love lunges....Learn to love lunges....


Try split squats holding dumbbells with your rear leg on a box or bench.
Mel