Endurance Check-in Jan-March 2022~Swim Bike Row Run Hike Move!

[Pratima]

Vantreesta, I'm more a fan of Sam! I used to date really tall guys. I'm like that too with workouts usually. I'm impressed that I've stuck with Fierce 4 for three weeks! But I keep skipping the core workout since I want to run and doing her shorter core workouts. I guess even when following a plan, I'm never strict about it.

Yeah, you're probably better off not traveling right now!

[Vantreesta]

I love Sam too but I tend to be drawn more to the bad boy type. I mean, in real life I chose a much nicer guy than Dean is toward women but in theory I like bad boys. Now in Daryl Dixon on The Walking Dead you kinda get both! I think it's funny that they make such a big deal out of how tall Sam is but I checked Wikipedia and he's 6'4" and Dean is 6'1" so not much difference at all.

I think I have completed CLX once and the PowerFit two-a-day rotation once. Oh and Lee Holden's 30-Day Qi Gong DVD twice through. But rotations and challenges are always tweaked and take me longer than they're intended to.

The snow in Indiana started later than they expected but it has started. Who knows if they'll get the 18-24" that was predicted at one point. I'm just glad I'm not on the road for it.

[Vantreesta]

Yesterday I did a slide board workout from the BRRRN channel on YouTube. I don't think I've ever actually used my board before and while I could certainly use some practice it was pretty fun! Then I did Cathe's Total Muscle Sculpting (from the beginner set that was sold with the Step) and the ball #1 stretch from Total Body Stretching (same set).

[Pratima]

Vantreesta, back in the day, I don't think I dated anyone under 6'2" and you know I'm short! Daryl from Walking Dead is a little greasy for me...although my college boyfriend was a bit like that!

It suddenly cooled off here quite a bit. Mornings this week were around 32 degrees. Still made it outside yesterday at 5:30 am for four miles. It was good practice for my 10K tomorrow. It's supposed to be around 32 at the start and 37 when we finish. It'll be sunny so hopefully not too bad.

I have to get up around 3:15 AM tomorrow to drive up for the race! Not looking forward to that. But I am actually looking forward to DD's meet Sunday evening even less. It's at the convention center in downtown Phoenix. It's about a 45 minute drive, parking will probably be a pain, and supposedly it's a huge event. And I get to navigate it all with just the kids because DH has to work.

Hopefully the trip up north tomorrow will put me in a good enough mood to deal with it!

[Vantreesta]

I kept it simple yesterday and did Virtual Active Trinity Mountains Hike on the treadmill and Slim in 6 Slim & Limber. I was so tired yesterday I took a 2+ hour nap in the afternoon then went for our walk and didn't workout till about 5:30.

Pratima, your race is probably over by now but I hope it went well! Yeah, Daryl could definitely use a shower more often but what can you do in the zombie apocalypse?? I had one boyfriend who was 6'2" but he was the tallest. Hubby is about 5'10" which works well! Is the convention center in the same area that the Komen race was a few years ago? Good luck with it!

ETA: Today I had bigger plans but got too hungry during my workouts and only did day 9 of the Human 2.0 movement and Lauren's squat challenges, Caroline's high hamstring tendonitis pain part 2 and day 7 of the Yoga With Bird challenge. One thing about the challenges, I can more easily convince myself to at least do those if I can't find enough energy to think of and do smthg else/more.

[Pratima]

Sedona was fun! I woke up at 3:15, ate a bagel and coffee and headed to the one lady's house. She drove me and the two others up. Packet pickup and the start line was kind of disorganized. We couldn't park near it as we were told and the shuttle seemed to only be for the marathon (which I didn't know existed). I also forgot my phone and ran about half a mile back to the car and got to the start 30 seconds before the gun went off!

I took my time and lots of pictures. It was 30 degrees at the start and hilly the whole way so I had no big expectations. I posted some pictures on Instagram. Afterward we went to a cute, old local place for brunch and headed back. I think I got home around 2:30.

Sunday night was DDs' meet. Vantreesta, yup, the convention center is where you said. There was some construction and I was so confused about parking I circled the block 3 times and ended up parking catty-corner from it. Walked the kids in, thought I forgot my wallet so went ALL the way back and then didn't see it so called DD and she confirmed my wallet was in fact in the backpack I'd left with them.

Her meet went well but we didn't get home until 11 PM so we were all tired the next day and I'm still tired!

After doing 10K, I nixed the idea of a 15K I was considering next month. Sticking with 10K or less for now!

Vantreesta, my tallest boyfriend was 6'5"! I'm 5'1" so it was pretty funny. DH is 5'6". I think if you're doing SOMETHING to stay active, it's a wine. I'll probably shift to that mindset somewhat. I am trying to build strength so I have some focus but am not good at sticking with something specific!

On that note, I'm finishing up Phase 2 of Fierce 4. Next week is a recovery week and you're supposed to do her Pilates and whatever cardio you choose, but I'll probably try out her barre workouts. After that it looks like you do the workouts from Phase 1 and 2 again. If that's the case and she doesn't put out new ones, I'll probably move on to a different series, keep the membership for two months total and then cancel.

Anyone watching the Olympics?

[Pratima]

Just noticed I wrote "wine" instead of "win!" That probably says a lot.

[Daphne M]

Pratima - wow, what a weekend. So much activity! Your race day sounds exhausting but rewarding at the same time. I look forward to looking at your Instagram pictures. All your race training and endurance activities must help you with the physical and mental stamina to get through a travel race and then the long gymnastics competition. Oof.

Vantreesta - I cracked up at the zombie apocalypse/no shower comment. Since getting on Peloton and Hydrow, I've become more like you and most of my workouts are now a combination of a whole bunch of 5, 10, 15 and 20 minute workouts. Even 30 minutes feels like a big commitment to me nowadays. I betcha anything that shorter workouts actually get us to workout longer overall so let's stick with this approach.

Hi Alison - You're on another page, so I'll just wave and say I hope you're enjoying a day of sunshine and above-freezing weather here in our neck of the woods today.

Me - I finished my January outdoor activities challenge happy but tired. Cheering on my team of 6 was fun and it felt good to be connected with this group of old friends on a common goal again. We did more miles together as a group this year than we did last January, but the colder weather forced us into doing more miles indoors. The silver lining is that the event organizers allowed participants to count running, walking, cycling, rowing, swimming and skiing toward the challenge this year, and that made it really fun to see what all the different teams were up to. The first place man ran 77 miles, walked 38 miles and cycled 994 miles -- mostly outdoors! YOWZA! For my part, I was super happy with my overall miles and consistency. (Close to 300 miles, I finished 77/903 and 6th overall (men and women) in the rowing category.) My teammate Stephanie was first place woman for running miles with 213 miles logged, most of those in the mountains. She's a real life super hero.

So on to February. My February focus -- which I am just now deciding on and it is already the 9th -- is recovery! I pulled what feels like about 10 muscles in my right leg doing an outside icy walk the last weekend in January. I almost did the splits but I didn't fall down!

Anyway, my measurable recovery goals for February are:
Consistency - workout every single day. Walking, mobility, etc. all count. Just about any purposeful activity that gets me away from my work or the couch for 15 minutes.
Strength - hit upper and lower body x2 weekly + optional core workout
Balance training - Do my BOSU squats and balance board 3x/week. I can fit these in during the work day pretty easily.
Rowing - Hydrow started its Winter Commit to Fit challenge on Jan. 31. Earn it by doing 15 minute workouts 4 days per week for 4 weeks. We're in week 2 right now. They have some great Pilates and mobility workouts (and yoga and strength) that count so this is very achievable.
Form improvements - Keep doing the Hydrow warm-ups and cooldowns. I already do these anyway, so I'm just giving myself an easy check mark!
Cycling- Get my 150 miles in for February Peloton badge. I love my happy, low-key low impact rides and will keep doing them.

Other stuff - Work is as busy as ever. I still love my work but after all these years, the pressure and frequent crises wear me down like never before. I used to thrive on this stuff.
My NHL team seems to be collapsing as we go into the most important part of the season. JUST FIX THE FREAKING POWER PLAY!
It's Jamie's week to have COVID. Low grade fever, aches, pains, clogged sinuses. Last month it was Brad. Even though I hung out with Jamie on two consecutive days for hours in close quarters at her most infectious, I somehow did not get it. High five to my immune system.

Onward and upward, the days are getting longer! Daylight makes me happy.

[Vantreesta]

Hey, guys. Been an unusual and stressful week but it's over now! I only worked out Wednesday. Did a Caroline Jordan, TurboFire Low HIIT 20 and part of Tilak Pyle's Altar of the Heart. I have doctor's orders to relax more (actually relax, not just laze around watching Supernatural!) so I will do my best to comply!

[Pratima]

Happy Valentine's Day! Anyone celebrate? DH got me flowers and he got candy and strawberries for the kids. The very first year we were together he sent me an expensive bouquet of fancy roses. I told him to never do that again b/c it was a waste of money and made me sad when the roses die! Now he gets Gerber daisies.

Daphne, that stamina didn't hold out! I don't know if it was from the overly busy weekend or PMS or what, but I was SO tired last week! I slept 9 hours on I think 3 nights and felt better yesterday. I'm kind of going the same route as you and doing a recovery week or two (more on that below). A friend of mine's daughter had COVID. The rest of the family avoided it, but as soon as her daughter was ready to go back, my friend caught it. I hope you escape that!

Vantreesta, what DOES that doctor mean by relax? To me, watching Supernatural would be way more laid back than almost anything I could do besides read! True story--I had walking pneumonia in my 20s. The doctor gave me antibiotics and told me to rest. I "rested" by not working and doing housework. A week later he gave me a stronger antibiotic and told me to actually rest or he'd stick me in the hospital! You've had so many stressful things happen, I get that you need "rest," it's just hard for me to imagine what that looks like.

I started off my weekend by getting all upset at DD while we were all watching a movie Friday night. I can't even remember why now. DH got up and made us all dessert, which seemed odd at the time and sounds weird now but somehow worked.

Thanks to that, I took the weekend "off" from as much as possible. I slept in Saturday and he took DD to practice and DS to taekwondo (I did pick DD up at noon and get groceries). I was supposed to hike with friends yesterday but my back's been bothering me since the day before Sedona so I skipped it and instead did 30 minutes on an elliptical at the gym yesterday.

Going to see a PT tomorrow about my back, the same one DD sees. Whether there's something actively wrong or not, I could definitely use some core strengthening!

We're heading to Seattle Friday. DD has a meet Monday. The kids will miss 2 days of school and DS has been fretting about getting carsick driving around. The weather won't be great but hopefully we can do some fun things and I can see a couple of friends who live in the area.