Or trying to at least!

I went running on Monday at lunch. Yeah, I know… I’ve tried this running thing before. I have a love/hate with it. I want to do it, I’m just so bad at it.

This time I’m going to try and go about it the right way… Tho what is the right way?

In the past I’ve totally been the cause of my own failure. I know my body has impact limitations due to some injuries yet I pushed it. Probably too far. There was a point I was doing 6 mile runs 3-4 times a week (with 3 mile runs other days). That’s cool for some people. Apparently not for me, at least as fast as I ramped up to it. I compounded this excessive running with NOT stretching as much as I should. I’m old, I’m feeble due to gymnastics… I should know better. I certainly know how to stretch well. I’m not sure if it was just laziness or the fact that since I am still so flexible that I figured I didn’t need to stretch. Either way I was dumb not to.

I wasn’t eating enough so I fatigued myself. I totally aggravated the labral tear in my hip. I was running the most boring route possible, Miramar Road. I mean come on, I live in San Diego, I’m sure I can find some place a bit more scenic to keep it interesting.

Until this past Monday I hadn’t run for several months. During that time span I’ve changed my diet to be way more balanced. I’ve rested my hip enough to where it rarely hurts. And I’ve been walking at a fast pace to keep up some form of cardio.

Maybe this is just a better way since right is different for each person? Well whatever, this is the cardio plan:

• Run 2x at lunch during the work week
  • stretch, stretch, stretch damn it!
• Walk 2x at lunch during the work week
  • stretch, stretch, stretch!
• Buy single spin class passes and do that once at lunch during the work week (if I choose not to rest that day); or if it’s raining
• Hike or run with Brandon on the weekends if we don’t go surf or something else

The run on Monday was nice albeit hard. I lose endurance so quickly it’s pathetic. I went with a coworker and we ran 4.15 miles, I won’t share the time because it’s embarrassing. It was a nice scenic run in Del Mar past a bunch of houses I will never have enough money to own and we looped back once we reached a highway that overlooks the ocean. Much better than the 18-wheelers on Miramar. Check out the evil hill:

I’m still sore but it’s all muscle soreness which I’m fine with. It probably didn’t help that I went home and did a ton of lunges during my evening workout! There was a little kink in my left ankle for some reason half way thru the run which I’ll pay particular attention to before the next time I go. The hip feels great!

I’m interested to see how this plan affects me along with my evening workouts. There are so many different philosophies about where your heart rates should be for different results. My runs will put me in my max range, the walks will put me in my fat burning range, and the evening workouts vary depending on which I’m doing but it mostly focuses on strength anyways.

I just need to remember to push myself within my healthy limits and keep in perspective that I am not a runner. I’m not training for races, not trying to beat my times or anyone else, and not trying to rack up crazy amounts of miles. I just run.

I’m feeling positive about this about this more relaxed approach.

Oh how I hate the gym. Though every year I seem to consider it again. I have no problem working out on my own and honestly don’t need a gym… Except for the fact that I want spin classes. I get a decent amount of enjoyment out of them.

I’ve been through this 3 times now at L.A. Fitness. I’m getting emails from them currently for no initiation fee and $20 a month. All classes are included in this fee. The problem is I can’t get there to spin at lunch w/o taking nearly a  2 hour lunch. To go in the evening meant I’d have to get there at least 30 minutes early just to wait in line to make sure I got a bike. So again a 60 minute spin class turns into a 90+ minute ordeal.

No to mention some of their instructors were not what I liked. I don’t want to punch air on a bike.

I used to do the 5:45am classes and would consider those again… But just not at L.A. Fitness. I think 3 chances are enough.

Across the street from where I work there is a nice gym. I called them up the other day to inquire about classes and membership. They said I would have no problem getting a bike at lunch, the evenings I should come a little early, but Saturdays are the really busy spin day. I’m fine with that, I’m not spinning on a Saturday.

Price? Well here is where I need to start wondering if the fun I get out of it is worth the price. It’s $95 a month for a membership and unlimited classes or I can pay a flat $125 for 10 spin classes only, no other gym usage. Honestly with that break down I might as well just pay the monthly membership. But is spinning really worth that? It would be a better experience than at L.A. Fitness for sure…

Seems kinda pricey… but maybe it’s inline for a smaller more people oriented gym. I’ve never tried a non-chain gym.

Worth a shot? I dunno. There’s a lot I could do with that $95, none of it would be useful of course. I was having this chat with a coworker the other day and said that’s $1200 a year on a gym! He responded some people spend that same amount on Starbucks…

I guess I should see if I can pay for just one class and see if I like it. Maybe I’d make use of the rest of the gym, who knows. I just know I have a free one in my apartment building that never holds my interest because I’d rather do other forms of workouts.

Maybe I’ll stop by there during lunch and chat with someone today.

I like tracking, it gives me something consistent to work on.

Last night I made Almond Maple Salmon. I was tentative to cook salmon myself but I was assured it was easy enough. One little 3 oz. fillet drizzled with a maple syrup/orange juice/lemon juice/soy sauce mixture and topped with chopped almonds. Quite yummy. Fish has been the other thing I’ve been trying to incorporate into my week somewhere. I guess I can’t live on turkey forever!

Here is the recipe:

servings: 4
ingredients

preparation

Obviously I cut that down to make just 1 serving which is easy with my awesome FoodSaver.

I love that feeling. You’re stumped trying to figure something out for a significant amount of time and then at some random point, sometimes not even thinking about said issue, it dawns on you. And everything makes sense. And I had one of those moments last night. So, hooray!

My lunch walk today is in jeopardy, not sure when to get it in since we have an “all hands meeting” at 11am at work and at 12pm I have an appointment at Fidelity to make me rich.

Yesterday I did a neat circuit when I got home. Eight rounds of 4 different exercises and I was surprised how much it kicked my ass. That was a nice feeling. It was mostly stomach and cardio. Stomach is the only thing that I rarely get sore from. That frustrates me because I equate sore with doing it right and getting stronger… But I don’t think I’m doing anything wrong! So who knows.

Here is my big problem with doing two workouts in a day. I run out of sports bras… I have 4 pairs of shorts that I’ll walk in and I have several other random types of bottoms to use in the evening… But I own just 4 sports bras. So basically I have do to laundry every other day. That began to frustrate me so I started just hanging the sports bra after my walk to air dry and use it again in the evening! Ya, that kind of sucks too imho. So the appropriate solution would perhaps be to purchase more sports bras. Too bad they always seems to be one of those most expensive items when it comes to fitness clothes. $30-$40 or more depending on brands. Ya you can grab some for cheaper but there is such a quality difference between some off brand and say Nike or Adidas. And forget Lululemon. The day I pay $60 for a sports bra is the day I’ve lost it and might as well suicide. Oh well, I guess it’s the same reason why bikinis are around $70. Stupid.

Oh well, I guess my current method isn’t so horrid. I knew guys in jiu jitsu who’d roll in the morning, air dry their stuff, and use it the same afternoon. At least with my scenario it’s contained to just my sweat. They had like 5 other dude’s grossness fermenting for hours before they put that stuff back on. See, gotta look at the bright side to everything!

Tuck was in an odd mood last night. I often wonder why goes through his little brain. Generally he goes to bed around 3-4pm and sleeps through the night. Last night as I’m watching TV and eating dinner I hear some frantic digging sounds and next thing I know there is a tortoise up and about starting at me in the dark. He crawled up on his half log, paced a few times, sat in his food bowl, ate a little fresh food I gave him, then went back to bed after staring at his log for about 5 minutes. Tortoise nightmare?

Oh and last thing. I signed up for a photography course at UCSD. It doesn’t start until April unfortunately but I am definitely looking forward to it. Now I’m debating if I want to hold off getting a 7D or if I should just bite the bullet and do it. I’m going to want it even more after the class anyways, haha.

So I had a small catastrophe in the kitchen last night. Marshmallows were harmed. 16oz of them to be exact… all dead and down the drain (which was also slightly catastrophic for a short period).

My goal for this week was to make fondant for a cake. I tried marshmallow fondant (MMF like the title says) since I hear that is easy and tastes better but I made a slight error an while mixing in some of the powdered sugar I decided to do this with my hands… sans Crisco. I ended up with 2 giant blobs of marshmallow gooeyness covering both hands. Oops, next time I think I’m doing this with the dough hook… That should work if I grease the hell out of the bowl and hook… Perhaps this will be a Wednesday project. However I count my baking goal for the week as met already since there was a valid attempt. I will buy some store bought shit tonight too just so I can mess with covering a cake too.

This past weekend was awesome! Friday we went and saw the new Harry Potter. I’ve never seen any of those before so B was concerned I’d be lost and while I don’t know the full back story I felt I was able to keep up enough with the plot to get enjoyment out of it.Great looking production.

Saturday we went surfing. After a few more pointers from B I was up and catching my little white water consistently! He is so awesome. And that evening we rewaxed our boards while we watched Coraline. I must say I was quite disappointed in Coraline. I really thought there was going to be more to it but honestly I had a hard time paying attention. That cat was cool at least.

Sunday morning we went surfing again and I was able to stand up tons of times. I love my board. Next time I’ll go out further and try and catch a real wave perhaps! I’ve been reading this site about shark activity on the Pacific coast… I can’t tell if this is smart or stupid yet… it’s definitely interesting tho! Check it out.

My arms and shoulders are still sore from this weekend! As well as my feet and legs because the new place we surfed has a 1/2 mile walk down hill to get to (which means a freaking 1/2 walk UP after surfing). Really… it’s a steep hill… I’m not trying to sound wussy! I really like this spot because there are less people trying to kill me around.

I’m curious how many calories are burned surfing… I looked it up and found several different estimates online. I guess I’ll choose somewhere in the middle of the numbers which would be about 200/hr.

We ended all of this activity with some Coldstone (why do I even bother wondering how many calories I burnt..lol)! I forget how great that place is sometimes. I think my favorite ice cream place is this little soft-serve shop in Pacific Beach where I can get it chocolate dipped but Coldstone is a close second! mmMMmm Oreo Overload. Heaven in a cup!

Speaking of ice cream, I read a post on SparkPeople by someone mentioning how awesome Skinny Cow desserts are. I’m try not to keep snacks and stuff in the house but I was curious and since these didn’t look too horrible I picked some up over the weekend. Damn, they are pretty awesome! I got their Cookies n Creams sandwiches. Quite yummy and not horrific on the nutrition label. So that made me happy. I like stuff that comes in little single serving portions.

Still need to take some pictures… I must remember to bring my camera with me to work tomorrow and head down to that skate park. I did order some new microfibers, lens pen, and battery for my camera. Those should be coming in by the end of this week. I really should take a class at some point to learn some basic skills and how to maintain my gear. Maybe I’ll do that once the decorating classes are over. Tonight we make more horrible flowers in that class… Stupid flowers! Hard little suckers!

Wow… Tuck just let a huge turd loose live over the internet… if you are reading this I guess you missed it. Your loss… Sorry, I am typing this up while watching him on TuckCam and just happened to catch that moment…

I was too sore from the weekend to run Monday… I hope to at least get a run in Wednesday tho and perhaps Thursday.

Anyways, I’m ready for the weekend… Is that a bad thing to say on a Tuesday?

Interesting….

It did it’s job. I actually only made it thru 40 minutes instead of the full 60ish… Tho I think a lot of that had to do with me not being able to start until 9:30 and I was mentally tired from the day. Still got rid of 300 calories and again I didn’t push myself probably hard enough. Actually the percentage of fat was much higher than I have burned ever running (which is should be with this kinda workout) so it’s kinda nice to A) see the workout is doing the right thing and B) that my heart-rate monitor works too!

Decorating class was also intersting… I’ll definitely learn stuff in it which I am excited about. The instructor has like decades of experience, but she certainly seemed like a complained… Like how your grandma complains about aches and pains, which just struck me as odd but whatever. I have to go out this weekend and get some more tools for the class. I like tools.

Actually I am quite excited about my homework for the next class. Make a cake, fill, crumb coat, and frost. She definitely showed the more professional way of getting a nice smooth looking cake. I see much cake in the future of both work and cute guy’s life!

My eyes are feeling mostly ok at this point. A little blurry at times because they dry out still but only been like 4.5 days since they *zap*. Looking forward to the weekend tho of not having to stare at a computer because that totally wears them out. Hopefully I’ll get to do something fun this weekend with the cute guy.

Man, I so badly want to go to Bed Bath and Beyond and Great News! and have a field day in their baking sections. Same with the places I am taking a class since they sell several things… The only thing I don’t care for is the recipes they are having us use. I like real buttercream and we are making our frostings w/o butter. I know it’s to keep longer and that makes sense, but since I have no intention of making wedding cakes I would like to use the real thing. Especially since Crisco doesn’t work well anymore and I need to buy a special shortening to replace that out that still contains trans-fat. Bummer.

Man I got up early, already ate and finished this blog. Time to chill out a bit before I go to work!

Ok, this is pretty fucking yummy. I had some left over batter from the s’mores cupcakes I made the other day so it made a thin 2 layer cake. I mostly wanted to try out this frosting recipe, chocolate buttercream. There is about equal amounts of cake to frosting, hehe. I love the frosting, it’s so damn yummy. I just threw some milk chocolate morsels on it for decorations. This frosting would be awesome tho with some fresh raspberries or strawberries. That just was too expensive for this thin little cake, hehe. This is the first slice of cake that I’ve ever tried from my own little kitchen.

My computer at work died. So I’m sitting here contemplating life. Not really a ton I can do without my comp. They were talking about setting me up on a visitor one but honestly I still can’t do shit. So hopefully they fix my stuff fast.

I went running last night. First time in over a week. took it REAL slow. I walked a ton. I am so not the runner that even apparently after a week I lose a lot of endurance, or well maybe more just body endurance, I wasn’t near out of breath. But my hip aches a bit today and I figured it would. Friday will be much better tho. I was still snotty yesterday too. Congestion usually sticks around for awhile with me.

I think I will go quit L.A. Fitness tonight. Save $30 a month. I’m quite happy with the running and I should do some weights but my apartment gym is perfect for that. I just can’t keep being forced to get to the gym 45 minutes early just so I can sign up for a class. Waste of time…. I’m 3/4 of the way thru a run in that time and with more calories burned. Even my shitty little run from last night burned equal calories to what I do at the gym.

CHEEBURGER!!!!!!! That’s where I’m going for lunch. It’s a splurge day, I’ve been doing so good lately. The real test will be Friday night tho, I need to cut that night back a little, haha. I must figure out something yummy to get that isn’t like a ton of food. So no pizza night Friday. Maybe McDonalds! I haven’t been there in like 4 months.

This weekend is fondant weekend. Time to try it. This chocolate cake I made the other day is dense enough for me to be comfortable with as a first attempt to cover a cake. So I’ll go to Michaels probably Friday night or sometime Saturday and get all the ingredients to make it from scratch. I should get a rolling board, I only have little ones. The bank account it a bit thin this weekend from getting my hair dyed and a bunch of long term baking items I purchased. But whatever, I am very excited to try this out so it will be worth it!

So apparently 58 degrees is cold. It was a miserable run yesterday evening from 6pm – 7pm. I was mostly running to calibrate the Nike+ so I didn’t really try that hard and on the way back I walked a lot (you need to walk to calibrate a section anyways). Big mistake… I got so cold from walking I couldn’t even get myself running again, LOL. I’m not sure if it was just the temperature or the fact it was fairly windy on top of that. It sucked. Also, my hip was twinging again so I didn’t bother pushing it. So next time if I know it’s going to be that low and that late in the evening when the sun is starting to vanish I think I’ll make sure to wear my ColdGear. Wonder if I will stand being able to run outside once winter rolls around again… Yes, I am wuss.

Looking forward to seeing how much more accurate the Nike+ is now at least. My new goal is being able to run to the 15 and back. That will be about 11 miles. I have no set time-line for this since mostly this will be a weekend thing. I may try to get up to 8 miles on a weekday tho since 6 only currently takes roughly an hour. I was debating trying 8 today but since I just started doing 6 I figured not to push myself too fast and hurt myself or burn myself out. It’s not supposed to be overly nice this weekend anyways.

I really want to try and make some cupcakes this weekend. I need to hit the store to get some special stuffs. I saw a really neat recipe online, debating how much I want to make from scratch or Frankenstein a box. Hopefully they turn out edible but I’m most going for a certain aesthetic product this time around.

I think after last weekends attempt at making healthy “meals” for myself I learned that is just not for me. Is sucks to do that for just one person. I don’t want to eat the same shit for 4 days straight (even tho I already do that with cereal and fruit…) and I also don’t want to try and 1/2 or 1/4 recipes down because then I just end up with a bunch of half used ingredients that will just go bad before the next time I want to make it again. My current meal plan was working just fine for my anyways. I wasn’t really getting bored of what I was eating, just more wanted to see if I would want to try and add more variations. I tried, I didn’t fail, I am just too lazy to bother with it!

I think today is also a good day to invest in another sports bra, I just want enough workout clothes to last me the week so I can do laundry on a weekend and not run out before that. I only have 2 pairs of shorts I really like but I have an other 2 which are new and it would be dumb to replace them out already (we’ll see if that holds true when I go to Sports Authority today). I have 2 pairs of long sleeve tops, 2 short sleeves, and then several tanks from years past. I may get another long sleeve even tho that seems kinda stupid since technically summer is near but San Diego seems to be in limbo on settling on a consistent temperature right now. I have a decent amount of ColdGear from being on the east coast and Utah but maybe there will be some sales on stuff since their seasonal stock should be changing. Oh money, how I love to spend you. Thank god I have restraint and most everything I make goes into my savings account and I just deplete what I put into my checking!

Tonight I am going to respond to Leah’s last blog. I had been planning on making a similar post awhile back but my iTunes library is such a mess I need to sort that first. So that’s on the agenda today as well.

Guess I should stop babbling and get going!

One last thing… Congratulations Leah on a fantastic 10k run!!!

Well I gave it a shot. Three actually.

Last night I tried to kinda just do my own thing while they went off and did the stuff I was uninterested in but it’s just not motivating enough. I’d rather just run than try and push myself thru my own little workout while a completely different one is going on around me. The guy I was sitting next to kinda bailed on half her stuff too. In fact several people apparently don’t care for the tae-bo crap. Tho it does look like several do enjoy it.

I left early. Unfortunate. It was just too hard to sit thru that not having fun.

She isn’t a bad instructor by any means but I just want a more “traditional” spin class. Her class is exactly what I despise about thse kind of gyms. Super perky, bouncy, something you’d see on a DVD kinda thing. I cannot bring myself to be like that. Oh and she sings along to the music. That is very annoying to me… LOL.

There is another class Wednesday night I was thinking of trying. From the girl who was sub-ing Tuesday nights. It’s kind of a strength/bootcamp class so that might be something nice to throw in the mix. I certainly don’t wanna pay a monthly dues and only go to one class a week. I have little interest in using their weight machines too.

Blah!

I’m getting a damn donut. I have sworn off the Apple Fritter tho so a donut is at least half the badness if not more (less?). And I plan to run my 6 miles tonight. I still haven’t calubrated that damn Nike+. Wish I had done that last night rather than that spin class. Oh well. This weekend for sure, probably not tongiht because I just wanna do the run… Or maybe I should just do it because what’s the point of having another inaccurate reading..

There was a break inbetween this is and the last paragraph. This old-fahsioned chocolate covered donut is damn yummy. I think this was the better choice, at least until I go add it into my DailyPlate.

It’s MG’s birthday today!

I must admit I’ve been a bit perplexed. I’ve had a couple people mention to me that they were surprised how few calories I burned in something like a spin class… That class markets itself as able to burn 700-1100 calories in an hour. My old HRM would put me in the 700 range, but I knew that damn thing was off. It was constantly saying my max HRM was 240… I think not.

Now the people who have said this to me outweigh me buy 50+ lbs. I’m guessing they are just basing this on what they lose and not considering my weight compared to theirs. I weigh less, therefore I require less calories in my day, which in my mind means I will burn less. True?

The new Polar F6 HRM that I got the other week gives me results much closer to what I was expecting. It said I burnt around 489 calories in the hour session, keep in mind that only about 50 minutes of this are actually hard spinning. The rest is warm up and cool down. Also in my 6 mile run that I did in 64 minutes (which is by no means a slacking pace in my book) I got around 670 calories. All numbers I am happy with, all numbers that are having a positive impact on me both physically and mentally.

But I’ve been curious to see how many calories the fitness sites say I should be burning based on my weight, age, etc. They for the most part all seem consistent in saying that:

• Running, 6.7 mph (9 min mile) for 60 minutes = ~640 calories
• Bicycling, 12-13.9mph, moderate effort for 60 minutes = ~470 calories

Now to me that’s freaky in line with what I’ve actually been burning which makes me feel a little better. I could probably get an additional 50-75 calories in spin if I wanted to push it harder but I go home feeling tired and like I had a good workout so there is no reason to kill myself for that slight increase.

Anyways, the numbers thing is more of a game I am playing, I don’t stress over them. Just interesting to watch and see what directly affects what.

Oh Wednesday, half way thru! San Diego weather is being weird. Looks like shit out today, the past 2 days were hot as hell. I just want it to be like mid 70′s. I thought that’s what San Diego was supposed to be!!! The brochure lied, I want my money back…

MG rocks.

I guess I should go make some audio now!