Category — Fitness

I basically have one month until the race I am supposed to run. Good Lord that is soon. I am worried, really worried.

This is going to be an intense month. For sure. I have got to get my act together.

Yeah so. Journal. Easy enough, right?

Workout I was supposed to do: Warm up jog 3 minutes. Stretch. Walk 2 minutes. Run 5 minutes. Walk 2 minutes. Run 5 minutes. Walk 1 minute. Run 5 minutes. Cool down 3 minute powerwalk or jog. Stretch.

What I actually did + thoughts:

• Warm up jog. Feelin good. I like jogging. I can totally do this for three minutes.
• Stretch. Still good. Body feeling loose. Sweet.
• Walk 2 minutes. Walking is so easy.
• Run 5 minutes. Not too bad in the beginning. By the end much harder. Slowed down a bit. Did my body forget what forward motion meant?
• Walk 2 minutes. Thank goodness. Walking. I can do this. Kind of.
• Run 5 minutes. Ok. Run, run, run. Legs feel heavy. Hard to keep going. Need motivation. Omg!
• 3rd minute, fall when running. That was embarassing. Did anyone see? Never happened before.
• Walk remaining time. Ok, so that sucked. Body felt tired. Legs not working so well. Calves a bit sore. Is this because I took a week off? Suck!

No workout today. I was supposed to go swimming, but ended up missing out because I was confused on when the pool had open swim hours. Oopsie. It happens, right? It is all okay, I had a killer workout yesterday. It honestly was a great workout. Anyway, I did a lot of walking and I might go do some situps or something to make up for the missed swim. Next Saturday I will know when I can go!!

It is only February, but I am looking forward to May. That is when I will run my first 5k and when my friend will compete in the Memphis in May Triathlon. Very exciting! Since it is snowing (a tiny little bit) I am enjoying thinking about warmer weather. I can’t wait for this cold to disappear so I can get outside.

Are you a triathlete? You can check out the Memphis in May Triathlon. Race capacity is 1700 racers and registration is open now. It is a great race with professionals and amateurs and some beginners. Here is what the website says:

We expect pro and amateur athletes from around the nation and the world to compete in the 1.5K swim, 40K bike and the 10K run event at Edmund Orgill Park in Millington, TN. The race is in a park setting within a mostly rural area of Millington. The bike course is flat and the run is moderately hilly. Average water temperature is between 65-75 degrees and the average high temperature is 82 with a low of 65 degrees (bring your wetsuits). Stay with us after the race to enjoy our hospitality tent (barbecue included), DJ, band and awards ceremony with cash awards and prizes.

I love it! The race is actually in the north part of Millington, where I lived for a long time. The bike part of the course goes past my friend’s house and I used to get frustrated when they closed the street down, but realized it is actually really fun to watch the racers. Memphis in May itself is amazing. If you have never been to Memphis, or never attended Memphis in May you should definitely come!

Memphis in May is a month long, city wide celebration which includes such favored events as the World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest, the Beale Street Music Festival and the Sunset Symphony. The mission of the Memphis in May Festival is to unite the city and involve its citizens in a cultural exchange and celebration with an honored foreign nation. The festival provides a unique opportunity for Memphians to enhance their cultural awareness of foreign lands through exhibits, lectures, sports and the arts. Each year a different country is honored, although over the years some countries have been recognized twice. Please visit the Official Memphis In May website at http://www.memphisinmay.org.

Thanks to my running/triathlon completing friends I am now a bit obsessed with triathlons, especially Ironman. I love reading about former fatties completing the race. I want to be there, or maybe just close to there one day. For now I will just keep reading.

Slow Fat Triathlete wrote a book about her tri adventures.

Michael Pate at When Big Boys Tri is a great inspiration for bigger athletes. He wrote a book too. Go figure.

Bonnie Crawford doesn’t have a book deal or a website (that I know of), but she completed the Ironman. Read about her here.

Yesterday I met my friend Amanda so we could go work out before dinner. I hadn’t seen her since December and occasionally we work out together, so I felt like it would be fun to catch up while working out. We planned on going to the fitness center at our apartment complex, but that didn’t happen. When we got there it was boiling hot and after a few seconds a manager came in.

“The fitness center is closed. This equipment isn’t safe and we only keep this door open for access to the sauna. We will have new equipment soon, sometime in spring.”

LIAR!  When I moved into my apartment in September they told me the fitness center was closed for remodeling. I accepted this and worked out at my school even though it was more of a hassle. I thought surely the complex would fix their fitness center soon, especially after I have been away for a month and a half on break. 

I was wrong. Everything is still in the fitness center and nothing has been done to change it. After 5 months it is a bit ridiculous to keep saying it is going to be remodeled soon. I am not falling for it. I know now that the fitness center seen on the apartment complex website is just make-believe. It does not exist in the real world.

Thanks for all the resp0nses about workout time. I will most likely end up working out in the afternoon/early evening because that is when I can get other people to go. I enjoy working out with friends, even if we are doing different things. It is just nice to go with someone. And now that I know the apartment fitness center is CRAP, I will just make the journey over to the campus fitness center. A small price to pay for safe, working fitness equipment.

Right now it is 12:45 and I am considering whether or not a workout it worth it. I have a class at 2, so I am going to say no. Definitely not enough time for changing, getting sweaty, and then trying to get ready for class again.

I enjoyed my winter break because I was able to workout whenever I wanted to. Morning or afternoon, it didn’t matter. Whenever I felt like going for a workout I had the time and flexibility. Being in college I definitely have a lot of flexibility with my workout schedule - I have worked out at 10 in the morning between classes and I have worked out at midnight. In the past it all depended on what I felt like doing. Often that ended up in not going at all. Now I know I must work out, so I need to pick a time that works with my schedule and stick with it.

Britney Spears does her workout from 1 - 3. This might work for Britney, but I don’t think I would enjoy that time of day for working out. I usually reserve that period for sleep.

I have always heard that working out in the morning is best for you, but my morning starts right before class, so that won’t work either. Here is an article with opposing advice: a late afternoon workout is best for your body.

Dr. Phyllis Zee of Northwestern University has a different opinion about when is the ideal time to exercise.

“The best time to work out is in the late afternoon,” Zee said. “The reason for that is your muscle strength is at its peak, its highest. You’re going to be less likely to injure yourself. It’s also a time when people are most awake and alert.”

The science behind Zee’s assertion resides with delicate rhythms of the brain called circadian rhythms. According to Zee, circadian rhythms explain why working out later in the day might be more productive and beneficial.

“One of the things that circadian rhythms does is that it determines when your best performance time is,” Zee said. “Your ability to perform changes throughout 24 hours.”

“There is some evidence that morning exercise promotes more fat burning than other times of the day, but the difference is so small that it really wouldn’t matter,” said Richard Cotton, an exercise physiologist. “And if you’re going to exercise inconsistently in the morning, then it’s not worth it at all.”

What do you think? When is the best time to workout for you?

Today I went to buy new running shoes at the urging of my trainer. She said the minor problems I was having when running would be eliminated with the proper shoes.I trust her advice and decided I should invest in a pair of good running shoes.

I hopped on google to find stores geared toward runners in the Memphis area. There are several throughout Memphis but I decided on Fleet Feet Sports in East Memphis. I chose the store because I knew how to get to it and because they had a website. I adore any place with a website (and a blog too).

On the drive to the store I almost talked myself out of going. I worried about what to say, whether or not they would laugh me out of the store, even whether my feet smelled. By the time I got there I had conquered most of the concerns and told myself since I drove there I should go in and see what happened.

After a few awkward seconds of standing around waiting for someone to notice me a sales guy approached me and asked what I was looking for.

I had no idea.

I told him I just started running and needed new shoes. He went through the process of measuring my feet and asking questions about my training. I tried on 5 different pairs of shoes and jogged down the sidewalk in front of the store in each one. The sales guy watched me run and told me which looked like it was giving me the correct support. It was a little intimidating running in front of a “running specialist” but I am glad I did it because I ended up with the correct pair of shoes… something completely different from what I thought I needed.

My last pair of running shoes was a size 8 women’s pair of new balance running shoes. My new shoes: Size 7 Wide MENS Brooks running shoes. Does anyone notice a difference here?

Even though they are men’s running shoes, I still think they look pretty good:

Nice, right? Back to the original point… I was buying shoes two sizes too big for my feet to compensate for the extra width of my feet. Wrong, wrong, WRONG! It it important to get shoes that fit the width and length of your feet, because that will completely affect your running. The wrong size shoes were causing me a ton of problems when I was trying to run.

Without going to see a professional I never would have gotten the right shoes. I highly reccoment next time you need new shoes get the proper help. Someone trained to watch runners run will know exactly what kind of shoe will be right for you. It will save you from a ton of problems later on.

Today I began my training! I am training now to run a 5k but my ultimate goal will be to complete triathlons.

Today’s workout: Walk 5 minutes, run 1, walk 4 minutes, run 1, walk 3 minutes, run 1, walk 4 minutes, run 1, walk 5 minutes. Easy, right? It was pretty easy, except for the fact that my shins hurt and my whole body was stiff from last week’s non activity.

My marathon-running friend Meredith is in charge of my training plan. I like the motivation she sent me before I started my training: “Consider yourself staring along a course looking at the finish line that you know, without a doubt, that you will reach.”

I like the system she has set up where she sends me a week of workouts and then we communicate after a few to see if anything needs to be adjusted to my experience that week. I have looked at training plans for triathlons online, and while they are similar to what I am doing, seeing the whole thing at once is overwhelming. This weekly system works better for me.

Well, one day down, many to go. I am excited!

I definitely spent less time on the internet last week as I was in Ohio for a death in the family. The time there felt like a break from reality. I did not pay attention to my eating habits at all. Surrounded by grief, I let myself wallow in the sadness of the occasion and used eating as an escape. Unhealthy and ineffective, my eating over the past week added a few pounds and set me back further from my goals.

Now I am back to my world and ready to get started changing my life. Tomorrow I begin my training program created by a friend in Illinois. Soon I will be running my first 5k and working towards bigger goals!