Life has been busy. "Tis the season. But I’m pretty much keeping up with exercise and running. We ran the Donut 5K on Saturday, a small local race, and I won my age group. This morning was a workout with my trainer and then I ran 5 miles on the treadmill afterwards. Trying to eat clean today because the weekend was not good, way too many sweets. I had my annual physical on Friday (all my numbers are great and I can continue to stay off the cholesterol and blood pressure medicine - yay!). I was 108 lb on Friday, and 112.5 this morning. Arrgghh! I know that’s not all “real” weight gain, but it can easily turn into it and more with being home until January 4.
MOWC-congrats to your friend on his 24 hour run. This is truly amazing. I can’t imagine running for that long at any pace, let alone what he was able to do.
dmd77-your husband’s friend is incredible with the mileage he has accomplished this year! This is probably a stupid question, but if he’s 52 how has he managed to ride 200 miles a day? Is he retired already or does he have major sponsorship?
deb-so sorry to hear about your daughter’s break-up. That is so hard, especially after so many years together.
fireandrain- You did great. When you cross train (which is a good thing!) your running mileage won’t ever be as high. That’s good swimming mileage!
C3B- the sweets are out of control on my end, too. Everywhere I turn there is more… I got this big box of brownies from a well-known Texas bakery. I took them to church supper group last night to try to get rid of them and came home with most of them because most people chose my husband’s pumpkin pie (as did I) instead! When my son gets home I hope he’ll eat them.
@C3Baker – Kurt owns his business, which his ex-wife is managing while he’s gone. His current wife is taking care of him on a day-to-day basis. It’s in the article, so that’s not confidential.
I’m not an extreme athlete (not much of an athlete at all, really), so maybe I just don’t get it, but I don’t find this guy inspirational at all. It seems to me he is going through some sort of mid-life crisis, and is basically throwing away a year of his life in pursuit of some pointless record. 12-13+ hours a day on a bike? Doing anything that much seems like it crosses the line into obsession, and I don’t think that’s healthy. And he’s dragging his girlfriend along on this “journey” with him, why she is devoting a year of her life to this is another mystery.
I find myself wishing this guy would figure out what his issues are, get his act together, and get on with his life.
I wouldn’t say I find it inspirational, but I am impressed by his ability to undertake the mileage. I see people do “stunt” athletics all the time. It doesn’t make me want to emulate them, but It IS a huge accomplishment. It’s sort of like swimming from Cuba, right?
I don’t find anything particularly mysterious or wasteful about this guy’s efforts to set a record for the most miles in a year. its his life, his goal, his way of meeting head on the existential aspects of life. If he and his girl friend have the time, resources and lack of conflicting responsibilities that afford the opportunity to do this and it has meaning in their lives, great for them. We all have journeys we take in life, some small, some grander in scale. We all are engaged in a search for meaning. While I have no interest in doing what this guy is doing, I have to respect the strength of character and perseverance that have brought them this far. And is he obsessed? I would think so, you gotta be obsessed with reaching your goals let alone a goal of this magnitude. But so what, it’s his life to structure as he deems appropriate. And aren’t we all a bit obsessed on this Board ?
It is December - and right now it’s raining and almost 60 degrees! This cold is just hanging on - I am having such a hard time sleeping as is and not being able to breathe is just making it worse. Ugh. At work we’ve been overwhelmed with food gifts - last night on the way home I dropped a huge gift basket off at the battered women’s shelter where we assist with legal services. Then I came home and made more Chex mix, peppery pecans and a rum cake. Old habits die hard, I guess. I have a session with my trainer tomorrow at least. I think I need to get a little more obsessed.
Hope you feel better soon, sabaray. What a great way to share with the food basket! I fell down the slippery slope of baking yesterday with some double fudge brownies. It’s a challenge having a hungry young male in the house. Today was lunch with him at chick filet, and yes, it included waffle fries. At least my order was a small :o
I got up early this morning to run–4.3 miles outside. The weather people are predicting record highs with no end in sight until maybe the end of January. AYYYYYY. It was in the low 70’s at sunrise today with heavy humidity. I’m not sure if I was more soaked with perspiration from within or water vapor courtesy of mother nature.
I just read Sunday in WI State Journal about an online personal fitness (Madison based) that tailors weekly personal plans for brides-to-be. So I guess any woman who wants to look great for an upcoming event…www.bridefit.co Hannah Carimi is a former UW women’s rowing team member. She encourages clients to start 10 to 12 months before their wedding day. Includes one-on-one video conferences, exercise prescription, nutritional guidance. The nutrition and exercise sounds like a good formula for success.
Hi all! This morning: 5:30 - 6:30 am strength training - then drove to work, and did CorePower Yoga there from 8 - 9 am (our office didn’t open til 10 am this morning as we had our office holiday party last night).
Now that I am RETIRING (yay!!), my goal is to become a hot trophy wife, LOL. Seriously - if I could get rid of these 20 pounds once and for all, I’d be entirely awesome.
I am going public: I signed up for the Shamrock Shuffle (8K) in early April, which kicks off the running season in Chicago. It’s a big event here. So this forces me to get off my butt and do cardio
Laying out my workout schedule - and trying to figure out how to structure so that I don’t overtrain mentally and burn out. These are my options - think of each of these as a module, all are an hour long except for running:
Corepower Yoga (hot yoga - I could do this every day, I love how it feels)
Pilates (private session)
Barre Class (studio that I just joined - it kicks my butt)
Weight / Strength Training (trainer - I could do this every day too, I also love this feeling)
Running (I’m going to start back up with Couch to 5K and go from there - I’m an indoor treadmill type)
OrangeTheory (HIIT which incorporates some weights / TRX in it)
So if these are my 6 core modules, how should I structure my week? I do want to do at least 2 modules a day, and I have to be stopped from doing 3. And am I better off doing both modules in the morning, or a module in the morning and a module at night?
Some might find working 12-13 hours a day wasteful or an obsession! I know I’m obsessed with this running thing. When people ask me why I do it I tell them it is in pursuit of a 50 cent medal around my neck. There is something extremely satisfying achieving age group medals.
@notrichenough – I don’t think Kurt is going through a mid-life crisis. He’s an exceptional ultra-cyclist who loves cycling and thought he had the means and opportunity to break a record that had stood since 1939. But I’m surrounded every day by men (and a few women) who would love to be able to make the same attempt, so I’m sure my viewpoint is biased.
While I have no desire AT ALL to get up every morning for a year and ride a bike for 12 hours, what I have found inspirational about Kurt’s attempt is the day-to-day accumulation of what he’s doing. The first day it was 208 miles out of 75,000, the next day another 208, and so on. Over 346 days–as of yesterday–getting up and riding has added up to 72,092 miles. He has 19 more days to go–and “only” another 3000 miles now.
I had never really thought about getting up and doing something every single day, with the goal of making it add up over a year or longer. @MomofWildChild has her streak. For me, it was–every single day–doing a little bit of dog training toward making it a little easier to walk my dog on leash (he’s always pulled on leash)–I spend a few minutes every day on it, and over the year (so far), it’s gotten easier.
I am now thinking about what 365-day “personal record” I want to try for next year. I’m willing to put in up to about fifteen minutes a day, but more than that will probably not happen. I don’t want to run every day because that way lies injuries, for me. I already walk the dogs every day, for fifteen minutes or so (that was the 2014 “streak” and I’ve never broken it).
My 365-day goal will be doing 20 pushups in the morning and in the evening - every single day. I pretty much did it this year, but I really need to make it into a streak which will give me zero excuses.
Hmmm…now I am thinking about 2016 goals. I like these ideas!
A fast 6.1 mile run tonight but it didn’t offset the 1079 slice of heaven I had for lunch at The Cheesecake Factory. A once a year indulgence (and cheesecake was lunch…no entree!). Dinner is grilled chicken, quinoa and kale - a little more healthy!
I’m going to hope you are all really petite. 