Boxing Day Blues and My Weely Recap

We had a lovely and quiet Christmas! 

I had a bit of soreness in my lower back when we went to bed last night and it was worse when I got up this morning. I was stiff and I wasn't sure at first whether it was muscular or internal... perhaps in my kidneys for instance.

After breakfast I decided to do a bit of a workout to see if I could make it better.  Wow was that a wrong assumption!

I put the Biggest Loser 2 DVD into the player and selected the warmup, functional fitness, bootcamp, women's sculpt, men's sculpt and cool/stretch... 55 minutes in total.

I did the gentle 5 minute warmup.  Then I did the 10 minute functional fitness segment using my one-pound gloves, and then the 15 minutes of bootcamp with my 5-dumbells.  I had a lot of trouble getting up and down off my exercise mat, but felt pretty good when standing.  Then I did the 10 minute women's sculpt which is just a lot of lunges and squats. I hit the pause button to get a drink of water and realized I had to quit.  I couldn't reach down to the couch to pick up my 5-pound dumbbells again and I could barely reach the remote to turn the DVD player and tv off. There was no way I was going to be able to pick up my exercise mat by bending over, so I rolled it up with my toe and then I did a very extended backward lunge, sliding my foot out behind me to get close enough to the floor to reach it and pick it up.

I had to gingerly sit on a hard bench, as I couldn't get low enough to reach the couch, and literally lift my foot by holding on to my pant leg to cross it over my leg to get my shoe off... then repeat with the other leg.  I decided that my problem is definitely muscular and that I was only aggravating it by moving around as much as I had been.

I made my way into the bathroom and popped an Ibuprofen, and then applied a muscle warming jelly, that I won in a giveaway from Megan, to my mid and lower back where I could reach and after that dried, I got out my Tommie Copper tee and put it on... then a turtleneck sweater.

The Captain came in the house from the garage, where he had been cleaning and organizing, and found me in 'not quite' agony... after he chastised me for being so stubborn,  he helped me don the Champion suit I got for him in Marcia's giveaway earlier in the year.. it is big and warm and soft and cozy... and then he made me some lunch and a cup of tea. 

A couple of hours later, I feel somewhat better. 

But I will definitely be relaxing and lazing the rest of the day!  But hey, I earned 2 HBBC points today and will certainly be eating all my freggies too!

My recap for last week is very sad and not worthy of a separate post.  It looks like this:

Sunday:

• walk .5 miles
• run 2.84 miles
• stretch 5 minutes

Monday:

• walk 1 mile

Tuesday

• Biggest Loser DVD
• warm 5 minutes
• strength & sculpt 20 minutes
• bootcamp 20 minutes
• cool/stretch 10 minutes

Wednesday

• walk .5 miles
• run 4 miles
• stretch 5 minutes

Thursday

• walk 1 mile

Friday

• walk 1 mile

Saturday

• walk .5 miles
• run 4 miles
• stretch 5 minutes

It's Almost Christmas Eve!

I just had to share this plate of pancakes that The Captain made for me this morning!  It is a decorated Christmas tree, surrounded by presents and snow flakes... aw, use your imagination a little, and you can see it can't you?

I did lots of cooking for our Christmas Dinner this morning... made up a Creamy Lemon Pie, a la Weight Watchers...



I will garnish it with lemon slices before serving...

and then made dulce de leche with the leftover condensed milk.  Then I cooked the cranberry sauce to go with the roast turkey.

By then it was lunchtime and the rain had stopped and the sky was turning blue so we quickly ate a bowl of soup, some toast, and shared a Mandarin orange.  Then we waited about half an hour before setting outto run the same 4 mile route that we did on Wednesday.  And yes, I remembered to take water along today and the running felt so much easier on the way back.

We ran that 4 miles in 2 minutes less today.  I am attributing that to being well-hydrated! 

W3 R52 @ 10/1 W4
stretch 5 minutes

Tonight we are going to sit down together and set up our half marathon training schedule.  I had some great advice from Sara, who writes Words to Run By.  And a lot of encouragement, too, I should add!

Wherever Christmas finds you, I hope you are happy, and warm and safe, and feeling the spirit and love that this special season brings!

Note to Self: Water is Important, Even in Cold Weather

I was so anxious to get out and run this morning.  The sun was shining and even though it was a cool 4°C (that is about 39°F) the air was dry for a really nice change.  It has been so moist here lately and that translates to cold at these temperatures.

We did bundle up though and headed off on a route I had mapped ealier...2 miles out and then 2 miles back along an urban trail that we can get onto near here.  I love these trails that run across the city.  There are always lots of people using them any time of the day, and they wind through parks, through suburbs and also industrial and urban areas.  I see lots of women walking, running, and biking alone or in pairs, even with strollers, which is a good sign to me that the trail is safe, too.

We started out kinda speedy for me and used 10/1 run/walk intervals today.  We hit the halfway mark right at 24 minutes and I was pretty sure it would take longer to get back cause the last half mile is uphill all the way. And it did!  We finished in just over 54 minutes... then the steep walk up the hill to the house!  This is a killer hill and the one I used in the Fall to practice hill repeats when I was learning the hill technique in Chi Running... we were house-sitting next door for a month at that time.  I am pretty please with that overall time.

W3 R54 @ 10/1 W4
stretch 5 minutes

I didn't carry any water with me today and I really need to do that.  I am a mouth breather and I get thirsty!  The Captain chews gum when we run but I am sure I would choke on it.  He says it helps keep his thirst down. 

I will take a water bottle with me when we go out on our weekend run, for sure.  My thirst seems to be worse in the cooler weather for some odd reason.  Am I working harder cause I am wearing more clothing?  Sometimes it feels like it.

By the time we walked up the hill to the house I was about ready to sit down for the rest of the day.  But I managed to get my outerwear and shoes off and then had 2 huge glasses of water before making our smoothies and stretching.

Is there anything more wonderful than a hot shower after you have been outside working up a sweat in the cool air?

Ah, Thanks, Captain!

I love The Captain!

Today I made protein pancakes again for breakfast, and tossed about 1/2 cup of blueberries into the batter... they were a little overdone but he ate them up and smiled.  He is not really a fan of my protein pancakes OR blueberries.

Then, while I tidied up the kitchen, he washed the floor in the tv room and the dining room and front hall (all ceramic tile) so that I would have a nice clean spot in front of the tv to throw down my yoga mat to work out.

Then he went out and cleaned the barbecue so it will be ready to make the Chinese-Style Barbecue Pork I want to make for dinner... actually he will likely operate the BBQ as well.

What a guy!

My workout was so much fun today.

I got out some of my old workout DVDs and looked through them and finally selected the original Biggest Loser DVD.  I started it up and selected the Warmup (5 minutes), the Strength and Sculpt workout (20 minutes), the Bootcamp workout (20 minutes) and the Cool Down/Stretch (10 minutes). 



I used my 5-pound dumbbells for the Strength and Sculpt and then my weighted gloves (1-pound each) and 5-pound dumbbells for Bootcamp.  It has been a few months since I did much ab work or any pushups and I can sure tell now!

When I first bought this DVD a few years ago, I was really annoyed that the Cool Down/Stretch segment was 10 minutes long... instead of only 5.  But now I wish it were even longer!

I think we will get out for a run tomorrow.

Sunday Run, Short and Sweet

Hurray hurray, we ran today!

We are back in the hilliest of neighborhoods!  Running here is fun but hard.  Today we did a shortish 4.55 km around a well-loved route.  It was cool but sunny and very damp.  The damp makes me feel COLD till I have been running for a few minutes.

We did 10/1 run/walk intervals today.  The walk break normally does make me feel like I can kick up the running speed a bit... but today the lower calf muscle in my right leg was cramping almost from the beginning.  I think it did slow me down but I tried to ignore it causes I was just so happy to be RUNNING!

W3 R35 @10/1 W4
stretch 5 minutes

When we came inside I made us the most delicious smoothies... banana, unsweetened vanilla Almond Breeze, ground flax seeds and cinnamon.  Mmmmmm. 

So the week is off to a great start!