Work(s) in Progress

I love Colorado

Tonight I was supposed to meet a friend to run the stairs at my local recreation center. He unfortunately had to cancel but I went anyway. There are at least 10 clumps of 10-12 stairs to the top.

The view from the top was magnificent. I love to run or walk around the soccer fields and lake.

Quiet

Lots on my mind, not much to say in public. I've been keeping a private journal recently. I got in the habit of writing but don't have much to share at the moment.

I met with a doctor this morning to discuss tubal ligation. When they called to schedule a surgery date, I learned that it will occur the day the judge is scheduled to sign my divorce decree. I don't believe in a higher power but I sometimes feel the universe is laughing.

I try to stay above the political fray on this blog. I will say that Sarah Palin scares me. I am a registered independent. I loved the idea of McCain in 2000. I was less certain for this year. His VP choice has made it very clear that Obama is the candidate for me. If you wonder why I am frightened, I can only say, watch this:

I have no words, just abject terror at the idea that she could be our nation's leader..

So, if you are looking for wonderful things to read:

I really enjoyed Brad Feld's recent post Simplify. The idea of the "sunk cost" was one of the most important ones I learned in Business School. I tend to apply it EVERYWHERE in my life.  

Julie Berg has completed yet another 100 Mile race with a truly inspiring race write up. Be sure to buy her magic blister repelling foot potion. I have been reading Julie's blog since about 2004. If her most recent race post inspires you, I encourage you to start at post #1. She is always surprised that people find her inspiring. She is quite simply amazing.

Christine Kane recently gave a speech at a college orientation. I loved her rant on "anything worth doing is worth doing badly." I especially LOVED this part:

"Sucking is highly under-rated. Sucking should be celebrated. Sucking teaches you that sucking is not the problem. Not trying at all is the problem. Trying to be cool is the problem. Worrying about what everyone thinks of you is the problem. "

Amen.

 

Cruise wrap-up

If you want to see more pictures from the cruise, Maggie posted her description with pictures here. Kyra had 4 cruise related posts, of which this is one (you can click through her others on her site). Irene posted some here and made a really neat slide show that clicks through lots of different pictures.

Perhaps the most interesting pictures are on the John Stone Fitness Forum (warning 8 forum pages of picture and movies; at least 1 nipple shot, pixelated, not mine) - mostly of their group. I mentioned in my previous post that PhillyDude from the John Stone Fitness group often joined us for dinner. Here's a comment from him (page 2 of the above link) that shows the major differences between the two groups (Pink Dumbbells & John Stone Fitness).

I sat with the Pink Dumbbells (PD) group at dinner every night. There were two other couples besides Maggie (causticmuse) and her husband Chris (waynegretzkyjr), and a solo female (who I ended up sitting with, being the only solo male in either group around her age). They were fascinated, yet horrified, at some of the tales from the day.

Example from "formal" night dinner:

Philly: So what did you guys do today?

Random PD response (sipping wine): "Oh, we took the snorkeling excursion, and then walked around Nassau and did some shopping. How about you guys?"

Philly: "We drank 437 pina coladas, pissed on some fish in the ocean, and then held Tanisha's hair back while she puked in a bag on the taxi ride back to the ship. She's the one over there at the other table in the dress with the neckline down to her navel, next to the big guy with the sleeveless t-shirt and the racing stripe sunburn lines and the aluminum bottle of Bud in his hand."

All PD couples in unison:     

The cruise was bad for my nutrition plan. Food everywhere, all of the time, with too many treats. I left for Orlando on August 14th at 132 lbs. I returned the evening of the 18th at 142 lbs - an impressive gain of 10 lbs in 4 days. Granted it was mostly bloating from eating the wrong foods. After about 4 more days I was holding steady at about 134. As of today, with nutrition and exercise bad on plan, I'm down to 131. Whew.

And finally, as fellow bloggers, we spent some time talking about those strange people who will leave spam message or attacks in the comments on certain blogs but not others. Most of us have been very fortunate in this regard. I tempted fate by saying that I'd gotten none since I started blogging in 2004. Shortly after I posted the group cruise picture, I didn't get a comment here, but I received an email that read "For years, every picture that I have seen of you has been lovely, except the latest one on your blog. It looks as if you had plastered your hair down with bear grease. I hope that you will choose a new hairstyle as soon as possible. At least you are smiling." The email came from a relative that people are generally surprised that I don't visit often. Thanks for wiping away that last shred of guilt. And for the record, no bears were harmed in the creation of that picture.

 

Fit Women, Part 2

It was great to meet Irene, Kyra and Maggie in person! This picture was taken on the night of the formal dinner. Special thanks to Maggie and her husband Chris for being our drivers and my host for my first night in Orlando. Come visit anytime! Also thanks to PhillyDude (not pictured) from the John Stone Fitness Forums group for being my dining companion each night.

The cruise was too short. I miss the ocean already. I need to update my PADI  certification. It had been too long since I'd been in the water. It was great to snorkel, sit on the beach and simply enjoy the boat rides to and from my destinations. Bliss.

Fit Women

I virtually met a number of amazing women back in 2004 when I first started focusing on fitness, initially following the original Body for Life program created by Bill Phillips who is now doing a program called Transformation. At first (2004-2005) I faithfully tracked my progress in Excel, and took pictures every few weeks. You can view my initial transformation here, just keep scrolling down to get to the final "after" pictures.

Many of the women, through their blogs and various fitness forums, have gone on to compete in figure competitions or have become certified personal trainers. As time passed, for me, it became less about a specific program and more about just living a healthy lifestyle. It was also important to me to drop the obsessive compulsive tracking, although it is incredibly effective. Right now I really like the variety of Turbulence Training (read the blog or buy it here). At a minimum you should at least check out the YouTube workouts.

This coming week I am going to have the opportunity to meet several of these inspiring women in person. I am so incredibly excited.

Julie Berg is coming to Colorado to compete in the Leadville 100, a 100 mile trail run! Julie often wins her age-group in her local ultra-marathons. She's also just launched a store to sell her magical blister preventing foot potion. Hopefully I can meet her and her family before she heads into the mountains.

The magnificent Maggie Wang (she's a karaoke singing, video game programming, artist & fitness junkie with a frugal gourmet habit) coordinated the Pink Dumbbells (note: Pink Dumbbells is a joke about those women who are afraid to lift heavy and only use those cute pink dumbbells for their workouts) cruise. I think a bunch of folks from the John Stone Fitness Forum are also coming.

I am also looking forward to meeting Irene and Kyra, whose art I keep buying. I also can't wait to get on our cruise ship. I'm ready to bask in the sun for a few days.

A Girl Day

I cannot remember the last day I have taken completely off. I worked through December 31 at my old job before starting the dream job on January 1. I still spend my weekends (at least one day per week) being a scientist closing out and transferring my research project to my new co-investigator. This generally leaves one weekend day for errands and anything not work related (grocery, laundry, sleep, dinner with my husband - yes I know it's sad to see him in the errand column).

Today was mine.

I started my day at the Body & Sole Day Spa. It does not look like much from the outside in its suburban strip mall location but it's terrific inside. A bit of muzak & water sounds with soothing scents of the products they use. I went in to get my face microdermed. This may sound odd but it's kind of like grinding and vacuuming your skin at the same time. I like it but your mileage my vary. It makes my skin feel really soft so I do it every few months. They always try to sell you a facial to add onto it but there is actually one built into the procedure. Today my aesthetician was Elizabeth. She was great - really warm hands, not a chatterer, very good facial massage.

I came home and did a Turbulence Training workout - Intermediate A if you are interested. I've been following the program sporadically for the last few weeks - I'm down about 5 pounds (with about 10 to go) and will do a formal fitness update soon. I need to get ready for the Pink DumbBells Cruise in August.

I fit in some grocery shopping and laundry today so did not take the day completely off, but I did go buy some pretty unmentionables and also got a pedicure. There is a place near my house staffed by 15 - 20 mostly Vietnamese immigrants. They have rows upon rows of vibrating chairs in front of whirlpool foot baths. Their sanitation procedures comfort me. It's not the respite of the Body & Sole Day Spa but for $20 it's a great way to keep my feet pretty on a regular basis.

It was beautiful here today - breezy with cloudless blue skies. I spent the rest of the afternoon with a glass of wine outside laughing through Lean Mean Thirteen. I grew up in New Jersey so find these books especially humourous.

 

Starting at the Beginning

Last January I made a failed attempt to leap back into fitness with the Turbulence Training plan leading up to the Turbulence Training 500 workout. I did make it through some of the workouts but often found, like my recent experience with Evil Jen, that not being able to walk up and down stairs comfortably for several days, let alone raise my arms, is NOT conducive to sticking with a fitness program. I don't mind some delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) that lasts a few days but muscle spasms where the muscle contracts and won't relax for days on end is not my thing.

I've been more successful adding the cardio back. Three days a week, I run, then I reward myself in the jacuzzi at the gym. That's a start (good heart health anyway) but to change my body, I need to add resistance training.

Yesterday, Craig Ballantyne wrote a post called Start at the Beginner Turbulence Training Workouts! Today I heeded that advice. Workout A done. Interval A done. I feel good. My muscles worked and I will have some stiffness tomorrow but will likely still be motivated to get my run in. I may not need to do 4 weeks at the Beginner level before moving to Intermediate but I suspect that because these workouts are more achievable for me - i.e. I don't need to modify the exercises to try to approximate the move - that I will be much more likely to stick with it.

Spring is here and so is my motivation. There is something about sunny weather and the prospect of wearing sleeveless shirts and short skirts that inspires me. There is a new Turbulence Training Competition starting May 1. This one I may do. I'm ready.

Evil Jen

I joined a gym about a block from my work about 6 weeks ago. One thing they do for all new members is assign you to have two personal training sessions. The fist session is a fitness assessment - you get weighed & calipered to assess body fat, heart rate & blood pressure are tested, your VO2 max is calculated on an exercycle. Tests for overall fitness included a series of push-ups, sit-ups, squats and measures of flexibility. So the first session was OK if a bit depressing. I know what I should be able to do and but my upper body strength is currently non-existent.

For my second session, just Wednesday night, I met with Evil Jen. Actually she's not truly evil; I hurt today as I knew I would and & we had joked that I would be thinking of her as evil . I am. Granted I asked her to push me hard and warned her that I was sadly unfit outside of my cardiovascular health. I have been going to the gym 2 or 3 times a week running sprint intervals for about 3 miles a pop. I am back to running 3 miles in just under 30 minutes. This part is fine.

Jen focused on strength training. We started with bar bell squats, moved to lunges on a bosu ball. Most every exercise recruited multiple muscle groups by design. She likes sets of 15 to 20, done twice - I've generally done sets with fewer than 12 reps in the past. The core exercises, done at the end, were fun and made use of stability and medicine balls. The middle, working chest, shoulders and back, was simply brutal. She likes range of motion exercises so there was some cable work as well as some chest press exercise where the weight was lifted not only straight up but over to each side at about 30 degree angles away from center. Doing each location (left, right, center) was 1 rep - lets do 2 sets of 20 after killing me with pushups. She had to spot me on the 25 lb plate I was using for this. I am very weak in my upper body but at home I can still use my 25 lb dumbbells to press (twice the weight but only straight up, and not after push-ups). The shoulder exercises (lateral & front raises) involved standing on one leg with the other held high. 

By the time she was done with me I was grateful to go sit in the jacuzzi for a bit. Even after a long soak I could barely raise my arms enough to drive home safely. The next day I was struggling with the stairs. Oh my quads. I was also very aware of my core.

This was my first real experience with a personal trainer. I'm tempted but it's quite expensive  ($75 per 1 hour session! - only about $60 each if you commit to 24 sessions) at my health club. I see the advantage, much of which is simply paying someone to meet you there to make sure you get it done, who will laugh with/at you while you struggle to finish the set.  I need to try out some of the group fitness stuff. I never thought I was a joiner but a class might be just what I need at this point.

Do It Tomorrow

I should confess. I am pressure prompted. Give me a tight deadline I'm your gal. Otherwise, I am prone to procrastination. Somewhere in the many blogs I read I came across Do it Tomorrow and Other Secrets of Time Management and thought this is the book for me (note for quick delivery in the USA order it from one of the discount sellers).

Alas, this is not a book for procrastinators. Instead, this book is all about prioritization. How do you decide what to do today and what can safely be postponed until tomorrow? How can you optimize your time to do it all? How are you wasting time so that not everything gets finished each day?

Almost all of the secrets in this book are summarized on page 0, before the book even starts. But, for me there are several gems. Let's talk about lists. I love to-do lists. I live for crossing items off my list. Did you know that "closed" lists are about a gazillion times more effective than "open" lists? I've always kept open lists. I add items constantly to the things I need to get done but the list grows and grows. A closed list is finite. The only thing it can do is get shorter and ultimately completed. How novel, how inspiring, a list that gets finished. The author strongly supports multiple closed lists.

The premise of this book is almost ridiculous and yet it interests me. Toss all of the undone items into yesterday's closed list. Do all of the current items from today & peck away at yesterday. In theory, with good time management, you do indeed have enough time and then some to get through your daily tasks leaving time to peck away at the old stuff. It is essential to finish your lists each day. At some point, all of the old is gone, you are current on the new and life is grand. In my current reality, some of the day to day stuff has slipped past due so that I can focus on future oriented tasks and initiatives. I've been haphazardly pecking away at the old by cataloging everything in Google Notebook as time allows. But I don't have anything as organized as the proposed system.

There is also some fascinating stuff on goal setting in this book. It's all targeted at daily success and contradicts much of what I've read and done previously. The author recommends not setting big audacious goals. Instead set goals where you are sure to succeed every day. Do not plan to run 3 miles each morning. Instead plan to go outside each morning with your running clothes on. It is much more likely that the later goal will achieve success and motivate you to actually go out and run- even if not 3 miles. And truly any miles are better than zero miles. The way this is organized is all linked the reptilian vs. rational brain. I'm not sure that I agree fully with this theory but did see a lot of myself and my procrastination in his examples.

Forty

For months I have been dreading that shift from 39 to 40 which occurred yesterday. I'm not sure why this birthday worried me but it did. I woke up yesterday and did not feel any different. Of course my brother wrote to tell my I was "half way done." I suspect this was the reason I was dreading. Is my life truly half over? Many of the women in my family live to their late 80's or early 90's but not always in great health.

Yesterday was great in an honoring Bacchus kind of way. I was wined and dined for both lunch and dinner. For lunch I met up with three magnificent women I used to work with.  We ate at the Washington Park Grille. I always get one of their ahi tuna dishes, in this case the wasabi green pea crusted ahi tuna. It was terrific. For dinner it was O's Steak and Seafood at the Westin with my husband and his brother who is in town this weekend. I love O's. We go for almost all birthdays, anniversaries, graduations, and essentially anything important. The food is outstanding with a beautiful presentation of the meal. When they bring the plates out, you often just want to admire it for a minute before eating.

As a present to myself, I finally, at long last, joined a gym. Or perhaps I should say, I joined a posh athletic facility. Every day, I walked past the building for the Colorado Athletic Club between my parking lot and work. Yes, I have a well stocked home gym, but with my long days (often 8AM to 10PM at the office), I have not been using it. However, I generally have an hour or two in my day that could be used to work out. I really needed to make it easier to find a way. This place is incredible. Yes there are 3 floors of athletic equipment and workout rooms, but it was the women's locker room that had me signing within minutes. Every beauty product imaginable is provided. There is a sauna, steam room & jacuzzi tub. Heck there is even a tanning bed and massage area if you really want to live it up. The women of all shapes and sizes walk about comfortable in their own nakedness. Apparently the place is packed in the early mornings (before 8AM) and during lunch. I have not been there during those times and feel like I have this magnificent place almost exclusively to myself. As part of being a new member, you get two free sessions with personal trainer. I have not scheduled my appointments yet, but they've been leaving me voice and email messages. Happy Birthday to me.

I've been doing most of my writing about my new job over on our alumni association website. Reaching out to alumni has been fun. I emailed all of the people in our database last week. About 600 emails bounced back but I ideally 1100 or so are still active addresses. I've already heard from more than 60 alumni and have meetings planned with some of them.

And finally, I found this fun test over on Kyra's Art Blog (need Java to see it). I am Handy Smurf.

You can take the test here.