Holiday- Mania

What is the best way to stay fit during the holiday season?! Make all your holiday gatherings revolve around fitness
Holidazzle run with some super fit, crazy-fun-girlfriends. 4.5 miles around Queen Anne looking at lights, singing, caroling, and picture taking. Thank you Cathleen Knutson for organizing, baking, making CD, etc, etc....you are a super-girl!

(Bridget Jones-BFF!!)
And fantastic jewelry-maker too....no pics from her jewel-polooza party, but her crafts are shiny and sparkly and any girls dream!

(This may or may not have included a bar stop.)
(Caroling)

Prior to the run was some "real" workouts including but no-way limited too my favorite workout day with Curt. Band-tastic Wednesday, and since I have been talking about it alot lately, here is a short glimpse of the fun:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtwqO_gp6fw
and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4TkjmWgNME

*Sorry for the lame post of videos, taking me forever to download onto computer, so this was easiest :)
Then some big swims were ahead!

75x100 with TNM-mates
All in prep for the 10K swim the following week:

(25+ swimmers, in an outdoor pool, in 40 degree air temps, swimming on Christmas Eve)

(The 10K group- 110x100)

About 40 of the 100's were on 1:25, 10 on 1:20. Additional 100's consisted of 10 warmup on 1:40, 5 kick on 2:00, 10 backstroke on 1:45 and a few on 1:30.

Thank you Laura O'Meara for organizing once again and Powerbar for the fuel!

In even better news. My mom has officially retired (at 55!) So proud of you Mom and excited for all your new adventures, probably consisting of traveling and organizing events with your friends/family!

(Mom and I at Cafe Campagne)

Mark is busy with his new toy....he is on his THIRD time "recovering" today and he only worked out once.

Asking for a screwdriver and some more monkey bread at the same time. Ha! And I am getting excited to figure out my new Go Pro Camera!! Yippee!
And most importantly we are just enjoying lots of time with friends and family while taking valuable time out to remembering our loved ones in heaven.

Love you Dad!
(he loves treats too)
Wishing every one of you a year of health, happiness, friends and family. Live your dreams, love much, and appreciate everything. Happiest of holidays!

Pluggin' away!

This blog has been on vacation while I have been working. NOT FAIR?! Okay, maybe it is because I am so excited to be seeing improvements every week in my training. And if I look back to 12 weeks ago the gains look pretty significant. This is excites me and leaves me with that burning desire to set some real goals and AIM high!

Back up to six months ago when I could workout but could not see any fitness gains, in fact, all I could do is soak in my own pity on how far I had fallen. I had a process in my head that thought:
#1 When you can’t workout you just can’t work out, accept it, make use of your time and heal.
#2 You now “GET” to workout, enjoy it, love it, and be thankful.
#3 You will soon be where you want to be and ready to race. Just like magic.

I believe so much that if you know you are giving all you can and doing all you can to succeed then you WILL succeed. But the success I was looking for was not coming at the rate I was expecting.

The third was the biggest wake up call. After 8 weeks of solid training (ie: no hospital visits, the humira seems to be working, etc), I was struggling. How could it be SO hard to get back in shape. How come when I was in shape all I did was want more. To be faster, to critique my performance, to not embrace the fitness I worked so hard for?

Of course that is a logical method as an athlete looking to be their best. And I understand we must evaluate where we are at and what we can do better to improve BUT why is it so often overlooked when we are at our peak? As an athlete if you have given your all, day in and day out in training and put it all out on the line on race day, then the only thing you should do is embrace your accomplishments. Be proud of your gains and appreciate all your hard work.

I needed a major overhaul in my training and approach in order to “see” improvements. My volume is still very low, my intensity is high, and I am keeping a solid balance in all three disciples. Strength training is up a ton. Not traditional strength training, a lot of pilates and sport specific plyometrics with bands, drills, and dynamic stretching (Thanks to Kinetic Force and Curt). I am doing a lot of the same workouts over and over to see gains. Typically I love a ton of variety, but it is not the best for me right now.

De-training is a must in all training programs, but I de-trained to nothing. Every muscle disappeared. In fact, I had my first shoulder injury from loss of muscle and sleeping so much on one side (when I was sick I slept a minimum of 12-14 hours a day and all on my right side).

I can honestly say that I am doing nearly everything (come on, I love chocolate cake!) in my power to do the best I can right now. Does this mean I am following my plan 100%, NOPE, not the written down workouts, BUT I am listening to my body and doing as much as it allows me to. I continue to plug away each and every day looking for little improvements, setting super small goals and looking at my new goals for 2012!

Lets just say I am loving it!