must conquer running and burpees

So, I'm learning that running and burpees are the bane of my existence. I just have to keep telling myself that it's not going to be given to me, to come easily, and it's not going to come quickly. as dirty as that sounds :P But! baby steps and small goals! Positive attitude! 

I'm the type that's pretty hard on herself and wants my body to be able to keep up with my brain. In my mind, I'm a much fitter gal than my body is. Sure, I can't leap tall buildings in a single bound - but I always felt I was close to it. Delusions aside, I've known I wasn't fit, but I didn't realize how un-fit I was.

Enter off season training.

There's so much I don't know about training and exercise. Oh so much. 

For running - I think I just need to figure out how to set a pace and stride. the endurance will come with practice. But I feel like I'm constantly fighting my body, wearing myself out even quicker than I would normally. 

Burpees - I just. hate. them. I tend to stall on the going from on the ground back to the squat. which is crazy, because I do that quite often in derby. I think I'm going to do weekly burpees for time, and see how it goes. I really have to thank Hotrod for the idea - she was an amazing partner for my workout!

I've also sorted out that hills aren't my friend - but the more I get comfortable leaning into them, the easier they become. I'm hoping the bulk of my difficulty there is just endurance based. 

What do I love? Turkish Get-Ups. For now, I'm doing them with 15lbs, but I hope to upgrade to 20lbs soon. Next paycheck :D For whatever reason, they remind me of dancing, I can't explain why - perhaps it's because of the way you hold your core? For whatever reason, they feel really natural to me.  

Last week I was amazingly sore. I couldn't walk or squat to save my life. Using the toilet was an ordeal. This week? So far, so good. I'm sore - don't get me wrong. But I'm much more functional this week. 

Running, Kettlebells, Fitocracy, Nerd Fitness

So, new format. I suck at food tracking, and just yea.

This weekend I started a new workout thing. one of the trainers with the league started a Saturday KB workout for the Fresh Meat.

I have never "worked out" ever. ever, ever, ever. I didn't even know what to wear, or really expect. Bought my shoes and yoga mat and kettle bell last week and still felt woefully unprepared.

We got an intro to the KB - she walked us through different squats, lunges, etc and checked our form. Then the "fun" began. We ran around the park. Should be easy and fun, yes? ugh. I feel like I should have been able to keep up the jogging pace with the group, but once I felt myself start to flag, I decided it was best to mix it up with walking and running. Jog 30, walk 10-15, etc.

Running up hills, burpees, lunges, agility ladders - only 4 reps - that won't be hard, right? HA.

Burpees are not my friend. Ever. I almost think if those weren't included, I would have been better off - but it didn't kill me - so it had better make me stronger. :|

Then there were the 200 ab work outs. I wasn't able to keep up on these. Crunches, flutters, and Mason Twists (russian twists?) - all evil things. I think I got about 150-175 in, tho. It's a goal to reach.

Recently I've started using Nerd Fitness' articles to help reach a fitness direction, and Fitocracy to help track my exercising and leveling up. With NF, it's really great to read something that is geared toward how my brain works (I wanna be a Druid Assassin!) and doesn't coddle me. with Fitocracy, I can see the level/goals - tho I'm not certain if it's too easy to level up - could be a problem with the lower levels.

Also having a friend in Georgia to talk things out with is helping. His goals are quite different - but motivation is motivation. He's also working on diet things, so I think we'll be able to find common ground on that.

I'm beginning to think the whole eat healthy thing is really hard to do alone. Most of my meals seem to be social affairs (friends/family) so I'm eating out a lot! and not always going for what looks healthy. It's not at the front of my mind yet, so it's certainly something to work on.

I also bought a pill cutter yesterday :P and promptly left it at home. BUT! i'm hoping it will help with the onerous task of taking my supplements.

Day 16

Yesterday I ate an arby's sandwich for dinner and skated for two hours. Breaking in new skates is fun! But I need to re-heat mold the right boot. I did a lot of one-legged skating, and played at doing some jam skate moves. the big thing I want to work on is opening up my hips/knees so I can put my skates in line - kind of like second position in Ballet - not sure what it's called in skating. Even with pads, I'm a little shy about trying new moves/things - so I'm trying to break that trend. Over all, it was a fun evening!

Today I've had two glasses of milk, 20oz of water, walked to lunch and had a salad and quiche. I also got a bunch of cookies and this caramel, chocolate, coconut cookie wedge thing of awesome. :P

Day 15

I fell of the wagon big time with the holiday. That was to be expected, somewhat. I missed taking my vitamins Friday-Monday, but today I did! I also took a calcium supplement.

I feel like I did really well with Thanksgiving - I managed to keep my portion sizes small. I tend to avoid low fat/fat free/whatever diet stuff, so I'm trying to be conscious of my portion sizes instead.

I did a lot of reading yesterday on the paleo diet. While I can see their logic train re:evolution - I just don't want to give up my carbs and grains. COLD DEAD HANDS. But, I may make a more conscious effort to get more veggies into my diet, and dial back the carbs and grains a little.

I had 20 oz of soda over the course of Friday and Saturday, and I had a glass of RC cola last night. I heart my RC cola - but man, I gotta lay off for a while now. Last night was also pizza - alfredo pizza with grilled chicken and spinach. It is seriously the best pizza evar. I think it will also be lunch today, since I still have a few pieces left.

I did a lot of walking over the past few days, and soon I'll be diving into a program of running, fighting with kettle bells, etc. I'm so crazy out of shape, we'll see how long it takes before I totally hate life. I went running shoe shopping for a short bit on Sunday - realized I know so very little about tennis shoes. I've been wearing flats or chucks for over 10 years now :P I can't think of the last pair of for-realz trainers I ever owned. I have high arches, and I can't sort out how shoes are even supposed to fit. It will be an adventure, I'm sure.

There's a running shop downtown I'm gonna check out, as well as one in Clear Lake - between the two of them, I should be able to sort something out.

Day 8

Didn't make it to the one-legged squats, but it's one of my next minor goals to achieve. Also going to look into getting some kettle bells this weekend, and start working with those.

Lunch: turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, collard greens, green beans with almonds and bacon, cranberry sauce from a can and cherry pie. with a second helping of turkey and mashed potatoes. Sweet tea and water to drink. Got in my 20oz of water, but also had at least that much in sweet tea. I'm a sucker for homemade sweet tea - and since I know I can make it at work now, I may be doing that more often. I figure it's bad, but not quite as bad as soda

Dinner was a small portion of meat loaf and 8oz of DP.

I did my two different types of squats and my calf raises. gonna start doing the calf raises standing, now that I see that I can log those on fitocracy. May do the sitting ones with the kettle bells once they're purchased. Also did a 20min walk with folks in the office.

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Today I've had 20oz of water and 8oz of soda and half a breakfast burrito. I also took my vitamins!
Not sure what I'll do for lunch, but, I will do the exercises!


One note about the multivitamin - I'm not sure if it's true for all of them - but this one is awful. The smell is funky, and I'm getting to wear I can't choke it down fast enough, the taste still chases back up. Once this bottle is done, in three months ;_; I'll look into something less stinky/awful tasting.

Day 7

For Monday:

Lunch was a quinoa salad. had the usual ruffage plus feta, beets, sunflower sprouts, and cranberries and little pita chips on the side. Was really delicious. I think it would have been better with a strawberry vinaigrette they have. 

I passed out after work, the past two weeks finally caught up to me. So! no dinner. 

I walked to lunch, and did 3 reps of 10:

Body Weight Half Squats

Seated Half Raises

Body Weight Squats

I need to get back into the one-legged squats, but my right leg has been complaining and I worry about pushing too hard. At the same time, I worry about babying it. There's a marked contrast in what I'm able to do on my left vs right leg, and I need to close that gap. So, today I think I'll to the above, plus one-leg squats.

The office is doing a turkey dinner today, but they're working on portion control and healthy options. I've been tracking my exercise on fitocracy, I think I need to get back to tracking my food intake on spark people. 

Day 5+6

Weekends will always be wonky, post-wise, since I'm rarely at a computer during that time.

Saturday: Chicken sandwich and powerade from McDonalds for lunch, spinach stuffed avocado for dinner. and a margarita and some shot that was peach schnapps and everclear (it was good!). Had the championship game on Saturday too - we lost, but it was a fun game.

Sunday: breakfast taco from Taco Cabana, practice which involved light-medium physical contact drills, and a bit of scrimmaging. Lunch was a coke, flan, chips, bean salsa and chile con queso. (man, so much junk for lunch!) Then I drove out (yay carpooling with friends!) to play in a game in Lake Charles. Again, we lost - but I felt like it was the best game I'd played in a while. Dinner was a spinach and orange salad, and a hotdog with bleu cheese and grilled red onions.

I was so sore after the game last night - bu pleased that my body was able to keep up with my derby desires. We'll see if I'm singing the same tune tomorrow. (Day 2 is always the worst)

Today i'm going to try to get in 3 reps of one-legged squats, and do the stairs. I need to get on the horse re: bosu at home.

I took my supplements Sunday, but forgot on Saturday. I still can't get into the shake habit - but I haven't made time to go to the store to get the ingredients to make something I might drink. At least I'm drinking milk at work instead of soda!

Day 3+4

Yesterday was...alright. Breakfast was a blueberry scone I also finished off the Herbalife shake I made...on Tuesday? Lunch was a bowl of spaghetti with some sauce I threw together (garlic + herb totmato base, ground beef, onion, mushroom (canned), olives (canned) and garlic) but didn't manage to eat any dinner. Gonna totally work on recipes and real breakfasts next week. It's just...really hard to get myself going in the morning early enough to do anything at home. I need to get over that mess, srsly. But the second part of that plan is to make the shakes at work - hopefully that will help too! I'm thinking that I can pitch the whole shake thing at work for everyone since they're all trying to do this healthy-food fitness kick too.

Today was 2 pillsbury cinnamon rolls from my mom's oven and lunch was two drumsticks from Church's Chicken. Bad, bad Rachel. I also had some soda on Wednesday night! The Shame! But, I've been back on the non-soda thing. I figure if I only slip once a week - and I'm having less than 10oz when I do slip - then it falls under 'in moderation' and I'm allowed. Now to get my processed foods/sweets into that category!

Getting in some skate time was nice, but I'm super sore! I'm hoping as I get into the swing of non-derby exercise things I'll quickly get over the hump. Gonna do the stairs today and see how that does.

I also took my vitamins yesterday and today! They're getting slightly harder to take - I think it's just my 'ugh, horse pills' reaction tho. I do this with any pill I have to take for more than a few days.

Day 2

Today saw me almost finish the shake I started yesterday. Still much better cold - tho I think because the ice watered it down, it became easier to drink once it started to get room temp. It seems a bit powdery - I've asked my coach about that (it settles/separates pretty quickly).

I went down and up 7 flights of stairs today! first time I've been able to do that without much pain since my knee injury in August! I'm pretty pleased with my progress on that. Full extension without pain still seems out of reach for now - but as I build up the muscles around the knee, and continue to stretch, I think I'll be back to normal, or even better off.

I also took my horse pills. Note to self: take them one at a time. I about killed myself because I didn't drink enough fluid to chase them down.

Lunch yesterday was 2 hotdogs. Dinner was a cheeseburger - medium rare from a swanky hotel in Houston. Lunch today was pechuga poblana (chicken, onion, potato in a cheese sauce - put on a totilla with rice and beans) from Gorditas. No soda for the past few days!

Day 1

Today I broke out my Herbalife program.

Derbalife, for those who don't play roller derby, is one of the new fads going through the derby world. Since I'm doing good to get 2 meals in a day (mostly fast food) I thought it wouldn't be an awful band wagon to jump on. I'm starting with the Formula 1 skate (vanilla), joint supplement, multi vitamin, and an energy drink supplement thing (lift off).

The supplements are your run-of-the-mill size horse pills that most multi-vitamins are. So I choked those down with about a half a bottle of water. :P The shake - that's a whole other animal.

I'm complete shit at eating breakfast. I usually snooze way too long, so I'm running out the door without it. So, I decided I'd try the shakes. I also don't do fat free or skim milk - bleck! I picked up some 2% (as low as I'm willing to go right now) on the way to work and decided to give it a go.

First notes:
-this stuff is kinda foul if it's not super cold. They aren't kidding when they suggest blending it with ice.
-kinda bland, which isn't surprising, since I got the vanilla flavor. Needs fruit!

I threw in 8oz of milk and 2oz of the powder. After an initial taste test, I added a ton of ice to make it about 14oz of drink. That was at 8:30 or so this morning? It's noon, and I've only been able to consume 3-4 ounces.

Honestly, I felt really full after just that small amount - but that could have also been my stomach rebelling against the drink and telling me it would rather starve. I'm starting to sip on it again, since it's lunch time. I need to get some real food as well. Likely something fried and totally not good for me down at the little cafe in my building. Baby steps, right?

Rambly intro post is GO!

Well, alright. I've got no experience as a public blogger, but years of experience playing on the interwebs. I don't claim to be a super geek - I don't watch every sci-fi show or know every in-joke online. But I'm comfortable in my geekery. Except that whole stereotype that most geeks/nerds/etc sit around on their computer all day, eat poorly and are generally out of shape.

But, that's me, for the most part. I'm not overweight.  I play roller derby, but on my 'days off' - I tend to just sit in front of the computer catching up on tv shows. I'm not "in shape", essentially. So if a "skinny chick" talking about how she's trying to eat better and get in shape is going to piss you off - this blog isn't for you.

I know what the day star looks like, but we have a hate-hate relationship. I don't get out for a morning run, and I don't hit the gym on my lunch break. I'm awful at exercising. But, after a knee injury, I bought a Bosu ball for rehab purposes, and I'm going to try to focus on doing some off-skate exercising. 

Oh, and if  the occasional bouts of awful grammar pisses you off, this might not be the best blog for you either. It's gonna be stream of thought. I love hyphens and commas and I over use the hell out of them. I never do manage to get who/whom correct, and in general I hate trying to remember the correct and proper way to say what I'm thinking.

Now that all of that is out of the way! Welcome to my ramblings, I hope you find them useful, or at least vaguely interesting. Honestly, it will probably be a fairly boring account of my frustrations and struggles to break out of my 10+year habit of eating crap and being lazy.