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Dammit!

February 2012 Goals

Jan 31st, 2012
by gazelle.
1 comment

Can you believe that today is the last day of January? 2012 is already 1/12 over! This month was not the way I typically like to start the year, and I think you’ll see that the number of stressors in my life negatively impacted my goal achieving for the month. I am okay with that, because if I weren’t okay with that, then I would be more stressed out, and that helps no one.

So – what was I going to do this month?

January 2012 Goals

  1. Find a daycare for Alvie Bean starting in July! – FAIL! But I really do need to get on this ASAP. July is only 5 months away, and I don’t think the cats are going to be adequate caregivers. We’re on a waiting list, but the earliest that would start would be September.
  2. Purchase and install shelves/storage for Alvie Bean’s room. – FAIL! Dammit. But – we got a carseat! And baby laundry detergent. As soon as I have a place to keep the clothes, I will be washing and folding and storing.
  3. Clean out the office and make it more office-y, and less “place where junk goes to die” – FAIL! This is going to have to wait until I’m done w/ school, but since that’s nearly here…
  4. Minimize work/school stress through the gratuitous use of meditation (oops – typed medication the first time; not the same thing), yoga, and other exercise. – FAIL!

January 2012 Training Goals

  1. Fifteen hours of exercise-related activity. – FAIL! I got about 11.5 hours, which all things considered is okay, I guess. Between the pelvic pain and the additional stress in my life, I’m just pleased that I didn’t quit EVERYTHING 3 weeks ago!
  2. A minimum of five yoga classes – SUCCESS!  Finally – something I actually did! I logged 5 yoga classes & 1 home practice. Yay!
  3. Average one swim/week – FAIL! I only swam twice in January. BUT – my last swim was so awesome, and I’m swimming again tomorrow. So, yay?
  4. Average one bike/week – FAIL! I am finding it very difficult to bike at all anymore, so didn’t log any bike time this month. My knees hit my belly. I need to go back to the fitness center and use the recumbent bike again – that seems a little better.
  5. One walk with the architect every weekend – FAIL! See aforementioned pelvic injury.

 

Well – that doesn’t look good, does it?

BUT – I did have some successes that I need to mention.

  1. I got through my big, stressful work project, sanity intact
  2. I survived the month, sanity intact
  3. Ummm…my sanity is still intact?

Honestly – January was not good to me. Between the giant, enormously stressful work project, finishing up grad school, my dad’s cancer diagnosis, the tree falling on the architect’s truck, and oh, yeah – last Saturday night our furnace stopped working (so happy we don’t live in a SUPER cold place), this was a rough month. Add to that being fairly pregnant, and you have a recipe for crazy, I think.

It’s hard for me to gauge how well I handled all this, as I’m not sure how well I should be handling it all. Sometimes I think I’m okay, and sometimes I think that I could really be doing much better. I have decided that since I still feel fairly sane, that maybe I’m either (a) handling it okay, or (b) repressing and on my way to a huge breakdown at some unknown point in the future. Could go either way, I suppose.

 

ANYWAY – onward and upward…if my February goals look familiar, that’s because they are.

February 2012 Goals

  1. Finish grad school! YAY!
  2. Find a daycare for Alvie Bean starting in July!
  3. Purchase and install shelves/storage for Alvie Bean’s room.
  4. Clean out the office and make it more office-y, and less “place where junk goes to die”
  5. Finalize baby prep lists

February 2012 Training Goals

  1. Fifteen hours of exercise-related activity (total tallied below: 15.5 hours)
  2. Six yoga classes, minimum (estimated time: 7.5 hours)
  3. Five swims, minimum (estimated time: 3.75 hours)
  4. Two 15-minute upper body weights sessions/week (estimated time: 2.25 hours)
  5. Four visits to the fitness center for 30 minutes of cardio (estimated time: 2 hours)

I know that the key for me is exercise, and I don’t think this is overly ambitious. However, I do reserve the right to listen to my body and step back if necessary. It’s going to be a busy month. I am 31 weeks pregnant & will end February at 35.5 weeks pregnant. I have no idea what I’ll be able to do by then. I’m hoping that I can continue to move – at least a little – because I know that will make everything go easier.

So (don’t feel compelled to look at this; it’s my own personal crazy) my training plan for February 2012: Feb 2012 Plan

Happy end of the month!

Three (3!) Things Thursday

Oct 20th, 2011
by gazelle.
15 comments

1. This has been such a beautiful week; cool, alternating between sun and clouds, crisp fall smells. I love autumn.

 

2. Tomorrow is my last day of my last class for grad school. Last. I mean, I still have my final project, but this is my last class. CRAZY!

 

3. I am having a lot of trouble motivating myself to exercise. Lots. Some of it is definitely pregnancy-related fatigue. Most of it is a combination of shorter days + sheer laziness + my all or nothing mentality. If I can’t exercise an hour+/day for 6 days/week, what’s the point? Also, since I’m getting fat anyways, why bother, right? (And yes, I know I’m not getting fat, I’m growing a human. And yes, I know I shouldn’t care, but you can take your shoulds and *mumble something really c/rude mumble*.) If I’m not dripping in sweat, it’s not worth it, right? WRONG! I just need to remind myself that a 30-45 minute walk, or easy bike, or easy swim, or 3 mile jog is better than nothing.  How do I convince myself of this? Any motivational tips? Anyone want to volunteer to yell at me every day I don’t exercise? (I need a drill sergeant.)

Lightning Strike!

Jul 25th, 2011
by gazelle.
3 comments

This morning, at about 5 AM, I was having a crazy dream involving submarines, fog monsters, crossbows, and Sarah refusing to help shoot the encroaching fog monsters because she was afraid of twisting her ankle and not being able to run tomorrow.

And then, there was a bright flash of light. So bright that it immediately woke me up. I think I’ve established that I am a fairly heavy sleeper. Sounds rarely wake me up, much less light. BUT oh, this was bright.

I opened my eyes and before I could even register what was happening, the loudest crack of thunder I’ve ever heard shook the house. Before it even finished, Darwin was gone. Like a furry bolt of lightning himself, he ran to the basement, and didn’t come out again until nearly 8 AM.

The architect came into the bedroom (he’d woken up a little earlier when the thunder was further away & was closing windows) to see if I was okay. I was – it was just a storm, after all, and I am of hardy midwestern stock.

I got up and we went to the hall window. Just as I’d decided the fun was over, the powerlines outside our house started…shining. And then, another blinding flash. Before the flash was over, the thunder pealed again. SO FREAKING CLOSE.

The next lighting/thunder was further away, which was nice.  A few minutes later, it started pouring down rain. I was so angry! I’d just pulled all the garlic and they were sitting drying out in the garden.

It was eerie that there was no wind, either. That freaked me out more than anything. After the first crash, we noticed a horn was on not too far away. I think I saw the cause this morning.

Two blocks south of us, this happened:

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That beautiful cedar was one of the tallest trees in the ‘hood (obviously, it was the one the lightning hit, after all). The top 20 feet are just gone. There was exploded tree debris for at least a block in all directions. One of the larger branches had landed on a car in the neighboring driveway, on the other side of the house.

It didn’t look like the residents of the house were there. I think it’s renters, since the house was for rent about a year and a half ago. The broken branches did bring down at least one wire.

I went around the side of the house to see if the chickens were okay, and they seemed to be (yes, I do obsessively stalk all the neighborhood chickens).

I met another woman who lived a couple blocks in a different direction. She said the second lightning bolt hit the transformer outside her house, and that they had just recently had power restored.

As I was walking away, I noticed a few dead crows on the ground. Creepy.

The Fox 12 news van was out, filming the whole scene. Maybe I’ll be on the news, ill-advisedly standing UNDER the large tree & looking up. FAMOUS!

Anyways, that was our morning excitement! I hope all other PNWers weathered (hee) the storm okay!

 

Shoesday – Kind of

Jun 21st, 2011
by gazelle.
5 comments

I have a confession to make, but before we get into the revealing tell-all portion of this post, I want to show you a picture. Of shoes, of course.

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Those are my sweet, kick-ass bike shoes. I love them. First of all, they are pretty cute for bike shoes. Second of all, I got them on super-duper-wicked clearance for $20 at REI. Go ahead & look at how much bike shoes cost at regular price. I’ll wait.

Expensive, right? And although I don’t mind dropping $100 for a pair of running shoes, $100+ for bike shoes seems steep (I don’t know why, but it does). So $20 bike shoes = win, right?

A few weeks ago, I had a pain in my left big toe joint region. I got X-Rays, thinking stress fracture. I blogged about it. I got referred to physical therapy. The pain went away almost immediately.

During the triathlon, it came back. During the bike portion. Which seemed weird.

I talked to my PT about it last week, and she has a theory. My toes are not flat. If I am standing, there is an arch in my toes so that the balls of my feet & tips of my toes touch the ground. This puts (apparently) a lot of pressure on the heads of my metatarsals (I am totally picturing foot bones with faces now, are you?).

So, if for instance, one had worn high heels, or pointy toed shoes, or done a lot of down-hill running, or, I don’t know, squeezed their feet into a pair of bike shoes that were approximately at least an entire size too small for them, that could exacerbate the problem.

My bike shoes are a size 5. My feet go in them. They are tight, but whatevs, I’m not running, right?

Apparently, I can squeeze my feet into too small shoes because my toes just curl up even more, causing more pressure.

The first time the badness happened, I had done a track workout 2 days before, and had gardened & biked the day before. A lot of foot time in too small shoes. During my 10 miler, there was a little pain in both feet, in that exact spot. During the triathlon – it happened during 12 miles in too-small shoes.

I may have to go buy new shoes, because apparently spending a little extra for shoes that fit is worth it. And I’ll need those shoes! I have another triathlon the end of July AND, the architect has challenged me! If I ride 1000 miles in 2011, I get a new road bike! One that might not vibrate violently at moderate speeds! (Only 866.7 miles to go! In 6.5 months. That’s 133 miles/month average. Dammit. I CAN DO IT, right?)

June 2011 Goals

Jun 1st, 2011
by gazelle.
Comments are off for this post

Hi! Remember a long time ago, when I used to set goals & them reach them? Do you, like me, feel that this monthly exercise has been kind of a FAIL thing? Yeah. See below for my fails.

May 2011 Goals

  1. Lose 3-4 lbs – FAIL! Again. BUT – again no gain….dammit
  2. Finish my 10K faster than April’s time – FAIL!  Because I didn’t do the 10K, I opted for sanity & sleep instead
  3. Finish guest room fancifying  – FAIL! Seriously. I’m not sure why the month of crazy was a good time to have goals.  BLAH!
  4. Upstairs storage solutions  – FAIL! See above.
  5. Make cheddar – FAIL! ditto.
  6. Get my awesome new prints framed & hung in the kitchen  - half SUCCESS! I took them tot he frame shop, and 3/4 of the prints are framed, but the 4th one is not, so I was unable to retrieve the prints and hang them. Not my fault, though!
  7. Find awesome birthday present for the architect – SUCCESS! I bought him a piano! (ha! just kidding. that’s really for me.) I bought him a model Ducati that he really wanted. As I am not a model builder (or a model major general), I do not necessarily understand the appeal, but he wanted it, so win!
  8. Get through the month without losing my sanity…this is key – SUCCESS! Mostly. I seem to still have a good majority of my marbles, although it was touch & go there for awhile.

May 31 day challenge

Send out 31 postcards…if you want one, sign up to the right or email me your address at gazellesoncrack at gmail. – FAIL! I sent out zero postcards. But, I have postcards. I just need some stamps. So, these will go out in June.

MayTraining Goals

  1. Weights/Yoga/Swim/Bike – 16x this month- FAIL! Again. 9 weights/yoga/swim/bike…same as April
  2. Run 50 miles – FAIL!  Lower mileage than last month, too, even with the 10 miler in there. Dammit.
  3. Three OWS – 2/3 SUCCESS! I did 3 OWS in May! Yay!
  4. Lift weights at least twice – FAIL! I only managed once
  5. 20 hours of exercise- FAIL!  Less hours than April, too. May sucked.

 

June 2011 Goals

  1. Lose 3-4 lbs – I know, right? Maybe some day I will win.
  2. Finish guest room fancifying 
  3. Upstairs storage solutions 
  4. Make cheddar
  5. Get my awesome new prints hung in the kitchen 
  6. Finish triathlon!
  7. Enjoy summer break from school.

June 30 day challenge

Send out 31 postcards…if you want one, sign up to the right or email me your address at gazellesoncrack at gmail; there are still a few slots open!

June Training Goals

  1. Weights/Yoga/Swim/Bike – 16x this month
  2. Run 50 miles 
  3. Lift weights at least twice
  4. 20 hours of exercise
  5. Hit all planned long runs
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