Good Morning! The birds are chirping, the daffodils are blooming...and it's raining! Sounds like April to me

Cardio done, shoulders and PT exercises at lunch.

Cheryl- I promise that I WILL get to extracting your cross fit posts- life has really been crazy here. It may get better in a week or two. Unless something else happens

Mel

LOL, Mel. I'm with you on that one. Something is ALWAYS happening, in my world. That's my excuse, and I'm sticking to it!

I've had breakfast, and I'm drinking the tea. Just letting my food settle before I go in for my butt kicking this morning. I was so worried about oversleeping, after sleeping right through my alarm yesterday morning, that I woke up at 5 this morning and couldn't get back to sleep (trying to get up at 6, but I guess it was close enough).

The scale moved down this week, finally got a new low: 176.4. That's only a little lower than my last low, but I'll take it, after hovering up near the 180 mark for the past 2 weeks. I think I've got the eating plan a little more balanced now, but time will tell. I'm upping the workouts, too, now that the baby CF class is over.

I've got a dog club meeting this Saturday, and everybody is chipping in for pizza. At first, I figured I'd use it as a cheat meal, but I'm finding that I really am not looking forward to eating pizza at all. I will still pitch in, but I think I'll pack my own food for the trip. Just thinking of eating the bread and the cheese is not appealing right now, so it's not worth the weight gain or the carb hangover. Now that keylime cheesecake at the Costco...that's another story!

Cheryl, you are not looking forward to having pizza? I wish I could ever say that. LOL The keylime cheesecake sounds delish, too. I don't think I ever saw it at my Costco ... but truth be told, I do not dare to look at the cakes just in case I am not able to peel myself away. I did buy a mango/raspberry mouse cake last summer for my birthday ... hmmmm ... it was yummy. I saved myself by giving 3/4 of it away.

I am going to the gym in the evening but I don't know yet what I will be doing. The foot is complicating things and I so sore from my yesterday's two classes (my BUTT hurts!) .... I think I will do cardio on the elliptical and save legs for Thursday.
I have been thinking of doing some spinning as cardio, and yesterday, I asked the spinning instructor (the spinning class is just before the Pilates class) if I can join them , as a total beginner, on Saturday. Now I will have to go (well, that was the plan). I imagine I will be like Bridget Jones and my legs will collapse under me when I step off the bike.

Hi guys! I made it out of bed this morning to work out! Woo hoo! I did a lot of work on the ball, then some Weider and dumbell work. I tweaked something in my left shoulder and elbow, not sure how. I'm thinking it was from the lateral raise, but could have been something else and I didn't notice it until the lateral. I also feel a little twinge in the left knee - noticed it running Sunday but hadn't had any trouble since then. I'm wondering if my stance was a little of and I put too much pressure my left side in general... Hmm... Will see how I feel tomorrow. I really need to find a trainer I can go to for a few sessions without having to join a gym...

Mel - raining here again, too... I completely forgot it was April until I saw this thread title!

Cheryl - I feel you on not looking forward to pizza - DH has a friend coming over this weekend (unless he cancels again...) and they want pizza. They both seemed surprised when I said I would get something else and let them do the pizza thing!

Alena - spinning... I can't decide if I think it would be fun or not, it just looks evil to me... hope you enjoy though!

Hmmm, pizza. My DH - aka Mr. Skinny - doesn't like pizza, so we don't have it out ever. He will eat my homemade, which is lots of veggies and lots less cheese. I eat it less and less, even out with GFs. I often order something else. I will eat a slice if we have an early city council meeting - they provide food when we do - if that's the choice. I like it better when they have make-it-yourself sandwiches. I can have a plate of meat, lettuce and tomato, or an open faced sandwich. The trick is to skip the chips and cookies....

Spring, what is that? We still have plenty of snow on the ground, and it was 10F this morning. But we have tons more daylight now about 13 hours 20 min! Yesterday was cool but bright and sunny.

My flight didn't go again last night, and since they couldn't rebook me til sometime this weekend, I've cancelled my vacation. I've already missed the major events (a 60th b'day and a show) that we were going for. At least DH got to be there. Speaking of which, he's due home tonight, and he just called. His plane out of Boston was delayed for maintenance, then cancelled. Delta has managed to rebook him so he'll make his connection in Salt Lake. Just that planes will fly into Anchorage tonight.

There was a huge pizza lunch-training session at work yesterday and I can honestly say that it didn't tempt me at all. I knew how puffy and fat I'd feel for 3 days. I ate PILES of salad with walnuts, feta and cranberries. Now that was good!

Short cardio done, off to work. My mother and step dad arrived last night, but I couldn't get time off because it's TAX SEASON. Yuck!

Mel

Pat, sorry to hear that your trip is now definitely cancelled. I guess I tried to live vicariously through you - I love New England.

Yesterday, I was browsing the Exercise forum and the stickied '10 Most Ineffective Exercises' caught my eye. I am sure I had read it in the past but I decided to read it again and I was glad I did - I was thinking about doing upright rows and I was grateful to read Meg's comment that she was sure that's how she ended with a torn rotator cuff.
Speaking of the devil - where is Meg these days? Haven't seen her post for a while.

Alena

Apparantly we are all dodging pizza landmines this week. I've been exposed to pizza 2 times in as many days. Came out unscathed!

Pat, I saw 2 snowflakes here yesterday and was NOT amused. This morning my sprint intervals were influenced by sprinklers at the park, frozen grass and slick pavement. Where is summer?

Midwife, it's early APRIL! That's too early for summer. LOL
As far as I am concerned, summer can wait for another 3 months. I am perfectly happy with a slow long spring. If only it rained! We are getting no rain and when it does rain, it's over in 5 minutes. I would like to see some green grass.
I spoke to a customer in Virginia the other day and apparently it's been raining cats and dogs for a couple of weeks. Rain, please move up north!

So far this week, we've had snow, lots of rain, a sort of rain/slushie combo, and one day where it was just blowing/raining sideways all day long. However, spring will not be stopped by such foolishness! The daffodils are in full bloom, the tulips are peeking out here and there, and my idiotic cala lilies keep trying to grow, though they get burned down to nubs every time it freezes. The chickens are learning to fly and about ready for college. Hopefully the sun will peek out one of these days and start warming things up, so I can get the chickens out of the bathroom before they start laying eggs, lol.

So, I did not get to report on the Crossfit adventure yesterday. It was a pretty low-key workout, as the boss man was the only trainer there, and had about eight of us newbs to get round to. We were doing 3 sets of 3 reps each for Power Snatch and Power Cleans. Deadlifts were on the menu, too, but we didn't get that far before our trainer had to go to work at the day job. The snatch ends up overhead, arms locked out, wide grip. The cleans end up in the same position as you'd use to do a front squat, with the bar racked on the shoulders in front, elbows high. The "power" means that the bar starts on the floor, but you catch it in the power position, which is a partial squat, like a quarter squat. Normally, this would be a pretty heavy lifting session, but I hadn't done these with weight before, so the trainer basically just started me out on the girlie bar, and moved me up each set. It was a fun workout, being all lifting , and I met a few more people and learned a few names. I'm not great with names, but I'll get it eventually.

Last night (Weds night), my boy was gone overnight to his aunt's house, so I was able to hit the adult skate at the rink with a couple of friends. I arrived late to the public session (which is right before the adult session), just in time to catch the races. I had no chance to warm up or anything, but I gave my friend K the roller derby treatment, and got a very respectable second. Normally, I play it clean in the races, no contact, but K has been hugging the cones the past few weeks, basically it slows everybody else down and makes it impossible to pass her, so when I saw my chance, I got inside and pushed her cheating self out on the turn, then ran for my life, lol. It was all in fun. It took me about 30 minutes after that to skate normally, since my legs were jellified from doing the cold sprint, lol. We got about 4 hours in, total, though the last half hour my feet were toast and my butt was broken (of felt like it was), so we got the butt-scooters out and took turns pushing each other around the floor. The new DJ has finally got the hang of what music to play for the adult session, so it was a great workout, pretty much nonstop jamskating for 3 hrs straight.

Since I got home late and didn't get to sleep till 1, I was not super enthused about getting up this morning at 6. I tried, but didn't make it. I woke again at 7:30, lay there another 15 minutes trying to think of a good excuse to skip the crossfit this morning, but in the end crawled out of bed and got out the door.

This morning's workout was more evil.
3 Round of:
30 Push Press (40# for me)
Run 400 meters
20 Pull-ups (jumping pull-ups for me)

My time was 20:11. The Push Press weight was heavier than I would have chosen for myself, if I was working on my own, but it turned out well. It was a good butt-kicking workout, but I surprised myself by being able to keep up the running on the last round. It wasn't fast, but in the past I'd have dropped to a walk. I'm getting better at breathing, which probably sounds funny, but I'm learning how to suck in enough air on the runs to recover from the lifting, get my heart rate down a little, so I can keep the run going and come back ready for the next thing. Anyway, great workout!

I've got to take care of my morning chores here, then I'll come back and see what I missed on the personal replies. Oh, I got a new low today, not surprising after the 4 hour marathon skate session: 175.2. My first time hitting the 175s probably since 1994!

But Alena, Midwife lives in Arizona! It should be summer for her by now - now she knows how the rest of of us feel.

Cheryl - great job on all the exercising/skating - and the new low!! WOO - WOO!

DH came is as scheduled last night. He said they put a bigger plane (767) on the flight to accommodate more of the stand-by folks. We didn't get home til 2 am though, so I took a few hours off this morning.

New Mexico---but close enough. I am all about the desert. But today ended rather warm, a little windy, but I was happy!

Glad DH is home, Pat, but sorry about your trip.

Congrats on the scale victory, Cheryl!

Whoops, well at least I was in the right neighborhood! I've not been to NM, though I have been to Arizona, Utah and Colorado, so I've been in the desert. I liked it, though I'm not sure I'd want to live there. But, I do live in a place that lots of people like to visit, but not to live.

Hey peeps!

Well, had a little GI adventure first thing this morning. Note to self: forgetting to eat the veggies is wrong! After that and barfing my guts up, I was feeling fine, but not fine enough to eat breakfast, so I grabbed some water and headed to the gym. I was debating whether to go this morning, since I have a long skate session tonight, but I thought, "we did running yesterday, so it will probably be lifting or rowing or something leg-friendly". Yeah. Famous last words, lol.

I get there and look at the white board, it says:
Run 1 mile
Rest
Run 800 meters

After running through all the cursewords I know (in my head, cuz there were children present), I got over it and went for a walk, a little jogging, squatting and stretching for my warm-up. At least it was only a mile and a half, so NBD, really, I just thought it was ironic! I figured all those crossfitters would leave me in the dust, because I am NOT a sprinter, and some of them did, but I was somewhere in the middle for time, which surprised the heck out of me! I got a PR (personal record, that's like a personal best, just PR is the crossfit term) on my half mile, but not on my mile. My PR for a mile is 11:20 so far.

My times today:
(1 mi.) 11:35
(800 meters) 5:11

I took off too fast on the mile and totally gassed about 1/4 mile in, out of air. Had to walk for about 45 seconds to get the breathing back in check, then was able to run the rest of it. I did better on the half, steady pace where I could still get enough air for most of it, then sprinted hard the last 200 meters or so. That's about the limit of my sprinting capabilities right now.

After recovering from my 800, it wasn't time to close the gym yet, so I got in a little pull-up practice (I've almost got the kip going with the rubber band...I was able to do a couple but couldn't string them together). I also practiced my overhead squats with the pvc...I think I'm getting better with that one, now that I've fixed my grip width (I was holding it too narrow at home).

Thanks, all, for the good words on the new low weight! I was pretty stoked about that. Hopefully, I've got the diet dialed in now, except for my little blip from yesterday's eating. I was just being lazy yesterday, so I snacked on cashews and ate easy stuff, like the ground turkey that was cooked up, but forgot to make sure I got some veggies on the side. Lesson learned, lol. I've got the dog club meeting tomorrow (the pizza one), but I've decided I'm taking my own food. We're having it at one musher's house, so I'm going to call her today, see if it's okay if I nuke some food over lunch. I'm pretty sure she'll be cool with that.

Oh, Sunday, I'm going sailing! Woot! Maybe we'll get lucky and the sun will peek out, but I'll settle for wind.

Hi all,

WOW cheryl, just reading about your activities makes me feel exhausted!

Weekend has started and spring broke early this week! The sun has been out for a couple of days. I have some yard work waiting for me, and a house to clean and run, and work to do. Probably I'll be busy with the work for the whole day, but I'm still going to enjoy myself over the weekend.

It looks like I'm in trouble at work again, but I'm very glad that I now have many other interests and goals in life. I have not lost weight in the BFL challenge, but I am developing muscles in my upper arms, and I was able to run for 8 minutes yesterday !!!!! My long term goal...in 10 years from now I want to be a hard bodied 60 year old!!!.

And another goody... I read in a book on the female brain that after menopause, we sort of loose the "caregiving" hormones. Well, I guess I'm in that situation now, and workwise I have so had it with these guys that I'm just thinking its your problem, you go sort it out yourself. I might be turning into a mean old lady over this one.

have a great weekend all,
Rabbit