<p>Feeling very sorry for myself. I’ve got a cold – the first in over a year – and I just want to either cut my head off or stay in the shower all day. </p>
<p>But I’ll be a good girl and go to the gym tonight, because it’s Tuesday, and along with my very boring non-imaginative meals, I have a very boring non-imaginative schedule during the week. So if it’s Tuesday, it must be the gym.</p>
<p>Edit: Hmmmm. Sounds to me like someone’s a bit depressed, wouldn’t ya’ say?</p>
<p>I think I finally feel up to working out today. The last couple of nights I thought my sinuses were going to explode. I woke up around 2:30 am thinking I was going to have to go see the doctor today, but I feel better now. Hopefully the worst is past, so I am going to make an attempt at exercise, and slowly work back up to where I was.</p>
<p>If I ever get to the point where a half marathon sounds like a good idea, I think I will ask MOWC to “walk” it with me. That would pretty much guarantee actually running the whole thing :)</p>
<p>So sorry about the colds! Hope you didn’t catch mine! 
Still sniffling and sneezing and my nose is raw and I refuse to go to H’s Christmas party looking like Rudolph even if the rest of me looks so much better than last year. I just can’t go because I will be so self conscious of thinking people are staring at my gross red and scabby nose. TMI??? sigh…
Anyway I am back in the gym, workouts are tiring but at least I am making progress and I finished my big pot of chicken soup last night. Think I will have hot Italian turkey sausage for dinner with roasted veggies.</p>
<p>Glad you are feeling better pug!</p>
<p>I’m here for you VeryHappy! :)</p>
<p>Has anyone been reading about Kelly Ripa and her stress fracture hip injury from her running/workout schedule?</p>
<p>Must be going around. I had the sniffles and runny nose on Sunday, but it appears to have been much ado about nothing… or maybe a cold nose from my chilly walk on Saturday. Who knows?</p>
<p>Anyway, I was back to a short, but intense Spartacus workout yesterday – my pregame warmup before a delightful Monday Night Football game. I continue to get stronger at this workout, but it still kicks my butt every time. I start to feel a little cocky during the first set and then the second set clobbers me.</p>
<p>Probably do some Airdyne intervals today. It’s sunny out, but 35 degrees, windy, and raw. Not sure I really want to walk.</p>
<p>I agree with all of the above regarding eating in a rut, the more of a kick I go on, eating the same item day after day, the better I can control my eating by not thinking about it, not wondering what to have and considering all my options and making myself hungry! Instead I just have very routine items that I eat at the appropriate times. </p>
<p>On the hot yoga, I think we talked about this once before, but it is amazing if you can handle it. You are warm and it is helpful to your muscles getting warm and stretching, but I could not handle the heat, my blood pressure it too low normally., the heat wiped me out, nauseated & faint feeling.</p>
<p>iPod nazi has posted a free link to five leg and butt exercises that look fantastic:</p>
<p>[5</a> Leg Strengthening Exercises | Yuri Elkaim | Online Fitness Trainer](<a href=“http://www.yurielkaim.com/607/5-leg-strengthening-exercises/]5”>http://www.yurielkaim.com/607/5-leg-strengthening-exercises/)</p>
<p>I particularly like the looks of the squat with leg lift and diagonal raise. This is kind of a variation on the one-arm dumbbell swings in Spartacus, but that diagonal move with the arm is terrific for the core. I’m definitely going to be trying this one.</p>
<p>Yesterday, I started a new routine of going for a brisk, mile-long walk first thing in the morning with my dog. It really got my blood pumping and my energy up – I tend to like to sit with my coffee in the morning for some “quiet time”. Unfortunately, my dog seems to have strained a muscle in her back and is not up for it today. </p>
<p>I’m still trying to figure out a routine that works for me. My days are not dictated by a 9-5 job, so even though that should make scheduling exercise easier, I end up just putting it off til “later”, which ends up being “never”. I’m curious, when do you all exercise? Morning before work? After work? Do you find that working out in the morning energizes you for the day? Or do you like exercising later in the day, and if so, why?</p>
<p>Yesterday, I started a new routine of going for a brisk, mile-long walk first thing in the morning with my dog. It really got my blood pumping and my energy up – I tend to like to sit with my coffee in the morning for some “quiet time”. Unfortunately, my dog seems to have strained a muscle in her back and is not up for it today. </p>
<p>I’m still trying to figure out a routine that works for me. My days are not dictated by a 9-5 job, so even though that should make scheduling exercise easier, I end up just putting it off til “later”, which ends up being “never”. I’m curious, when do you all exercise? Morning before work? After work? Do you find that working out in the morning energizes you for the day? Or do you like exercising later in the day, and if so, why?</p>
<p>I leave for the gym between 8:15 and 8:30. I don’t work outside of the house. I roll out of bed, get dressed and leave shortly thereafter. I am such a sweaty mess when I am done that I have to shower immediately. I do feel better after I work out and ready for the day. Working out in the evening doesn’t work for me…I procrastinate and fall asleep on the couch!</p>
<p>After reading on here (I think it was on here) about steel cut oats and googling them a bit i decided to give them a try. Wow, soo much tastier than the instant sugar packed microwave oatmeal I have been eating. I didn’t even add sugar, just threw in some cinnamon and dried cranberries while they were cooking and topped them of with some almonds. I think I will try a slowcooker version so I will wake up to it already cooked in the mornings. My diet, which had been going really well, kinds of died the last couple of weeks between thanksgiving and some farewell meals out with my son who started a new job 
1200 miles away 
yesterday. So am trying to get back on track and continue the weight loss (I was down 29 pounds but have put back 4).</p>
<p>But I bought some stevia today to try, ick. Don’t like it any better that any other artificial sweetener I have tried.</p>
<p>The good news is our small town opened a new YMCA this last weekend - it is really really nice (the one we had was tiny and a bit of a dump, the pool was condemned and closed down when my daughter was a HS freshman and she is a college senior now) and has a bunch of classes and even an indoor walking track. I am feeling inspired to start using that membership I have been paying all these years.</p>
<p>I have found that it works best for me to exercise at night. I am not a morning person and getting up earlier than I otherwise have to makes me really resent the treadmill. I make myself get on the treadmill before I can do whatever it is that will be the last thing of the day, usually reading a novel.</p>
<p>I did a light version of my strength & core yesterday, and today I did 15 min on the elliptical and then ran 1.1 miles. It feels good to get back to some sort of routine.</p>
<p>I generally like to work out early in the morning before work because otherwise things can get in the way. Right now since I can’t run and it isn’t the end of the world if I miss a workout, I sometimes stop at the gym after work. </p>
<p>I haven’t worked out since the race on Sunday. I’m about 3 pounds over what I want to weigh right now. Oink. So- I’ll be the one that takes on the weight the rest of you are shedding. 
Nothing feels tight yet, fortunately. My legs are still sore and I’m tired. I think the half was a pretty hard effort for me.</p>
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<p>Well, I should hope so. Running 13 miles in an Elvis jumpsuit and chrome sunglasses would be a pretty hard effort for just about anybody!</p>
<p>Speaking of Elvis, did you see this wire service blurb about Elvis running the Vegas race and then giving CPR to a stricken woman? The best part was at the end of the story. He got married, in his Elivis garb, during the race, at a *run-thru chapel *on the route! I thought, man, that sounds like one of MOWC’s running buddies…</p>
<p>[Doc</a> dressed as Elvis revives Vegas marathon runner - Yahoo! News](<a href=“http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101208/ap_on_fe_st/us_odd_marathon_elvis_cpr]Doc”>http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101208/ap_on_fe_st/us_odd_marathon_elvis_cpr)</p>
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<p>He says the incident wasn’t the only heart-stopping one that day: he also got married at a run-thru chapel during the race.</p>
<p>I like to workout before dinner, if I can. </p>
<p>I tried a new “easy recovery” Airdyne interval set yesterday. I’ve been doing brutally intense interval sessions and need to start finding some new easy winter routines to replace walks on recovery days. I can’t do Spartacus or iPod nazi three days a week and then do intense crazy intervals three more days a week. So, I did a quick set on the Airdyne: six intervals of 60 seconds hard, 120 seconds easy. I did the intervals hard enough that I was feeling a little lactic acid burn in the legs at the end of each interval, but not at crazy sprint speed. Add a five minute warm up and a five minute cool down and it was a nice 25 minute ride – about 7 miles. Average heart rate 71%, max 92% on the final interval. </p>
<p>That’s about as close as I’m ever going to come to “long, slow distance” on the Airdyne.</p>
<hr>
<p>BTW, they had a shot on Monday Night Football of Jets QB Mark Sanchez pedalling an Airdyne on the sidelines to stay loose during the second half. He probably should have tried burpees…</p>
<p>Idad, let’s not talk about the Jets game. :(</p>
<p>I’m a morning person, so I prefer to use that good, “up” time to be productive at work. I go to the gym two days a week immediately after work – before dinner, before my glass of wine – and then when I get home, I’m “done” for the day. I just eat and go to bed. (Sad life in NJ during the week, away from DH and DDogs.)</p>
<p>On the weekend, when I go to my “country” gym, I prefer to go in the morning. Then, when i get back, I can shower and be ready for whatever the day throws at me.</p>
<p>I’ve tried going to the gym before work, and it just doesn’t work for me. I get too sleepy around 3:00 PM.</p>
<p>We ran right by the run-through wedding. It was in front of Venetian at about 3 miles. On the news that night it said about 25 couples got married and then continued on with the race. Not my idea of a “special day” for a wedding, but…whatever.
That doctor-Elvis probably beat me!</p>
<p>I guess I’m a little surprised that it was a hard effort for me because it was such a slow pace. I am still adjusting to the fact that I am running so slowly (or not at all) and it still feels as hard as it did when I was fast. This was a lot harder for me than the half I did with my daughter in late Sept, but I had run all of August and raced on Labor Day. This time I really haven’t been running (except for the 2 mile race in Dallas in early Nov). It is not something I would recommend.</p>
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<p>I was going to add a new exercise to my workout. I saw the Pats doing it Monday night. You stand with your feet about shoulder width apart and then raise both hands straight up towards the sky, palms facing each other, fingers outstretched. :)</p>
<p>Haven’t checked this thread lately.</p>
<p>Dancer D found out that the costume for one of their competition officer’s dances includes a partially exposed midriff. WELL, now she is working out almost every day and has sworn off of fast food. I guess being told that our bare bellies were going to be exposed to hundreds of people would motivate most of us!</p>
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<p>Oh, I forgot to mention. Six reps seems to be a good number for this exercise…</p>