A little bit of sore...

.. is a good thing.  Monday i took thie night off to watch football. My team, the Green Bay Packers are now in the Superbowl. I can't tell you how excited i got watching it - on my own - i bet i was the only house on my street screaming with joy on monday night.  Oh what a wonderful feeling.

Tuesday i went to the spin class. Got there in plenty of time this time, then find out they have changed the times and its at 6:30 not 6pm.  I was a bit pissed off as its an hour class and i wanted to work hard.  I didn't think if i ran i would do as well in the class.  I got on the TM but decided no as soon as it started moving.  I ended up rowing for 10 minutes = 1850m then did upper body weights and got on my bike for 5 minutes before class started.  The hour class flew by just like the 45 minute one.  I must go to it more often. Over all, a great work out.

I semi planned going to the gym on Wednesday, but something stopped me, not sure, i wasn't motivated and it didn't even bother me. But i planned an early night so i could go swimming before work this morning.  I got there 5 minutes after it opened, had my cozzy on already, got my hat on and floats in hand hoping to get a lane with no problems.  Not so, it was busy already!  I joined a guy who said he was just doing drills, perfect, as so was i.  As i was getting in, to share the lane, a girl swam in to the middle and started doing breast stroke. I think its the same damn girl as before.  She is haunting me.  Again, so many lanes where folks are doing BS and she chooses this one.  Grr

So i thought with all my swimming paraphernalia that i would feel like a bit of an idiot.  Flippers, pull bouy and float, a bottle of water, its quite the pool side gear pile.  Well, i was happy to see that there were 2 other folks with stuff too.  The guy in my lane and one who turned up just a bit too late to grab a lane, and so courteously went in the jacuzzi for a while.  Folks left at 7am and it got quiet again.  I must remember that.  But that does then leave me less time to swim if i go later, think i'll just deal.

And tonight i went to the gym too.  I wanted to run and set the TM for a hill programme of 45 minutes.  A gradual incline then 4% for 25 minutes. Now that hurt.  But i didn't slow or reduce the incline. It was an exercise of the mind too tonight.  I then did the same upper body weights routine at Tuesday. All in all, a kick ass work out day.  For only 2 days on my DM account its 3.5 hours of exercise.

And tonight, i gave myself a mini facial, don't want to face to think i only care about my body.

Friday night stupor.

I'm currently trying  to motivate myself to go out in the cold and get to the gym.  On Fridays we finish at 4pm so i popped out to the pharmacy to collect my GF food prescription.  I think what i have now will get me through to February, its quite a lot, but i do go through a loaf a week if not more. I also got some pastry mix, so i can bake some mince pies and perhaps a quiche or pie and pasta and crackers too.  I normally don't eat much pasta but with getting home from the gym at 8-8.30 and being hungry and lazy, pasta is the perfect quick food. I dropped in to grab a few bits of food and indulged in some cheese but did grab my gran some biscuits to add to her Christmas hamper.  I'm not much good at waiting to taste new food stuffs so had myself a little snack of crackers and cheese.  Pretty darn good Gorgonzola considering the cheep-ass price!

On Tuesday night i did endurance workout #2 in my book (swimming).   It took me 50 minutes to complete but i missed 225m off the cool down as my goggles leak.  They get worse through the workout and it gets too frustrating to keep adjusting them. I plan on buying some more tomorrow. I'm happy with a 2275m workout and the time flew by.  I really like having a plan. That book really made swimming even more fun.

Last night i ran 8K. I am going to run the Telford 10K on Dec 19th so need to increase my distances over the next few weeks.  Also, i need to do more running.

So, how to i get myself out the door tonight?  How do you convince yourself to go back out once in the warmth of the home?

Happy

Yep i'm pretty happy with the way things are going for me. I'm running and swimming like crazy. I do a spin class a week and i hope to use my bike and trainer when it arrives to do more cycling.  I don't like static cycling, but even more so when its on one of those horrible seat on the gym bikes.  Though in all honesty, i'm trying to get the motivation to actually go out on my bike on the weekends.

I have been researching Triathlons near me and they all appear to be an hour away. But, a girl from work said that if i do a close Sprint, then she may join me.  Her man does IM and they just got back from Florida where he did a half IM.  She says i'm crazy for considering aiming at a half IM and said she would never do a triathlon, but she is already wavering on that point so we'll see eh!

My plan is to do a sprint in the early season, April/May time, then do a olympic by the end of the season - October-ish. If i can do a couple of sprints then all the better.  Maybe the first one - pool based, and one open water.  As i assume the Olympic would be open water.

Though my pool is lovely, it annoyingly doesn't have a swim clock.  I'm going to ask for one.  but until then, its hard to do proper sets with proper timings and also to time myself to see how fast i can go.  I am getting a Poolmate - lap timing/counting watch - for christmas, but it wont arrive till after christmas sadly. They have a clock, so i timed myself, i was aiming at 1600m but got cramp in my foot (probably because of the hour hill interval run i just did) so had to stop at 1300m.  It took me 22 minutes.  I have no way to judge this but its 1:40 per 100m.  But i feel ok about it as i can feel my improvement almost weekly.

I am going to invite a couple of friends to do the Telford 10K which is on Dec 19th.  Jeff and his mum will be here, but i have had this race on my mind, in my plans for ages so they can tag along if they want to. Its not so far so...

laterz

Over the last week i have truly enjoyed my gym membership.  I joined a swanky place up the street. I had no intention of joining a gym, but i wanted a nice pool, and once in there for my free day, i just couldn't stand the thought of going back to the local pool.  As its in a hotel, the pool is more luxury than utilitarian but its 25 meters, you can have 6-7 folks swimming in their own lane, if not an actual lanes width and its the same depth throughout so tumble turns are possible.  It also has a jacuzzi, steam room and sauna.  The gym is nice a big, plenty of machines for the number of members and lots and lots of classes.  I have only done the spinning classes so far but i really enjoyed that.  I've never done one before, but it will be a regular for me.  I plan to try the strength training ones too.

On a slightly less fun note, the pain that i have in my left hip; that i've had for years that has progressively gotten worse over  the past years and now months, has a potential diagnosis.  I asked a Dr (or even a Mr) i work with and he immediately suggested it is anterior femoral impingement.  Which means i have extra bone on a possibility of a few different surfaces, either on the head/neck of the femur or the acetabular or both, or just thats the head of my femur is cam shaped not round.  Unfortunately surgery is basically the only option for treatment, and i don't like the sound of the post of recovery.  No active hip flexion for 6 weeks and NO RUNNING for 3 MONTHS!!!!!  I have a Dr appt to get the process moving, i'm excited that this could be sorted, something i thought a few years ago that i would just have to live with, as at that point it was tolerable, i didn't ever go to the Dr.  I wonder at what point i would have gone to my GP, if i didn't work with orthopaedic surgeons to pick their brains.

I'll keep you updated.